b/w mezzotint
2004
11 3/4 x 8 3/4
edition: 100
signed in pencil
Art Werger creates a memory of his boyhood home in suburban New Jersey. It's late, cold and rainy as this woman raises her umbrella to brave the walk home after giving up on the bus. She has just left the bus shelter and slips through the shadows being cast by street signs, lights and a leafless tree. In this exclusive mezzotint created for Stone and Press,
Werger calls on the film noir influence of his youth to create a scene that could suggest a scenario either menacing or simply mundane. The viewer is left to decide. Art Werger’s lyrical suburban scenes are evocative of boyhood summer evenings while his city images are fraught with tension and isolation. Many of his mezzotints show the influence of film noire genre movies as well as paying tribute to the cinematic techniques of Alfred Hitchcock. In describing his work, Werger says “the people are seen in casual activities which dominate their daily routines, often preoccupied or oblivious to their situations. They are often observed from an elevated point so that the environment lays out in front of the viewer. The viewer becomes an omniscient voyeur, privy to the world below, yet curiously removed from it. As a cinematic device, this abstract angle allows for an overview of the scene as well as an introduction to the characters within the environment. The characters’ actions are intended to suggest a narrative which requires the viewer’s participation to be resolved.”
