Jo Andersen
I am a Tucson area printmaker, painter and creator of artists' books
Category: Artist/Individual
Discipline: Visual arts
Program Affiliations: Open Studio Tours Artist | Open Studios Tour 2023
About Jo Andersen
I have been a printmaker and painting now for many years.
From eight to eighteen I lived in Panama and Columbia in South America. I spent several years in Los Angeles then moved back to Arizona. The Sonoran Desert has been home for many years.
Flat files filled with prints turned me towards small edition books. I find the edition prints to be a jumping off point for the creation of Artists’ Books.
I began creating Artists’ Books about 20 years ago. Beginning with book forms then books with content .Books are a place I can explore a concept more fully. A sequential form of image/ word presentation. I generally use my prints and cyanotypes or other alternative photography media in my Artist’s books.
Jo Andersen
Preferred Pronouns: She/Her
jo.andersen5@gmail.com
520 240-8531
http://joandersen.com
A flag book format with Cyanotype prints.
Desert Rain
For over a year I took cell phone images with a clip on macro lens of rain drops in the Sonoran Desert.
The tiny drops suspended from glochids and resting on bur-sage leaves captured the momentary beauty
of our rare and nourishing rains. This Artists’ Book is about these sacred desert rains.
A coptic bound Artists' Book
TEND: A collaborative Book Maria Lee and Jo Andersen
This collaboration began during covid when we each started spending more time gardening.
We visited many local gardens drawing painting and writing about what we experienced. Then
we developed a plan and carved recycled woodblocks of text and images. We printed the
woodblocks then intuitively began overlapping and juxtaposing screen printed words an images.
Plant based dyed papers were a final detail to complete the binding. This book TEND is a
reminder that when we care for our garden we are nourished, tending the earth as it tends us back.
Toned Cyanotype/ Silkscreen
White Drought
This is a symbol for me of the drought we have been experiencing in Arizona. I photographed a house boat on the side of the road in Northern
Arizona. The bleak landscape spoke of little rain and the sidelined houseboat headed for Lake Powell represents an experience that may be a thing of our
past as water levels continue to drop. In this image clouds build up to form the tension of potential monsoon rains, we ultimately know water in the
desert is finite and a dwindling resource.
