Patricia Aaron and Alicia McKim

A collaboration of Monoprints

From the Outside Looking In

Looking to the north, we Coloradans typically view Wyoming as a space filled predominately with sagebrush and cowboys. Outside of Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons most parts of Wyoming lay undiscovered to us. We are from the outside looking in with our own prejudices and myths.

Patricia Aaron and Alicia McKim, each through their own experiences, have come to see that this sparsely populated landscape imparts spacious skies and vast lands that extend to the horizon line, often times with brutal wind bearing extreme temperatures. As artists, they have found that this intense climate creates profound beauty in the everyday landscape, as it molds the people who inhabit this area. This collection of monoprints is their studio interpretation of the fragile and ever-changing landscape of Wyoming. 

Encaustic/Letterpress Monoprints, 2014
Beeswax, oil-based ink and mixed media on Rives lightweight
Paper size: 26 x 40 inches

Alicia McKim and Gin Pollock

An Artist's Book collaboration

Fib Lines

Unbeknownst to the two of us, artist Gin Pollock and I were each researching the Fibonacci series and the golden ratio. One day I dropped by Gin’s studio to discover her walls covered with pictograms, symbols and mathematical phrases. I was mesmerized by their graphic quality and simplistic beauty, and delighted to discover this wonderful counterpart to my own explorations. This artist’s book is an interpretation of the Fibonacci sequence, along with the golden ratio and their influence in nature and design. Gin’s more mathematical imagery combined with my studio interpretation comprise the prints in this book.

Fib Lines was printed in photolithography and letterpress on Rives BFK and shellacked kozo paper. The book is bound in Davey board using a modified version of the Secret Belgian Binding. A limited edition of 3 copies. The size is 7.25 x 7.5 inches. 

Patricia Aaron is an award winning contemporary abstract painter. Aaron’s work has evolved to draw direct inspiration from her travels through the culture, language and customs of the environment and habitat in which she resides as an artist resident.

Aaron uses the malleability of pigmented wax to create lustrous, uniquely beautiful surfaces. Each piece is textured and layered upon, building a captivating, tactile surface with expressive depth. Her use of vivid colors, bold lines and daring composition continues to evolve, resulting in ever-more dynamic, distinctive work.

Aaron has held artist residency fellowships in France, Iceland, Hawaii, Virginia, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming.  Aaron’s work has been featured in solo museum and airport exhibitions as well as invitational gallery exhibitions throughout the United States and is held in numerous US, UK, European and Japanese private and corporate collections.  

Alicia McKim

Alicia McKim is a printmaker and book artist. She incorporates traditional printmaking processes with alternative letterpress techniques to facilitate her explorations of visual language. Her work disintegrates the boundaries between art and mass culture, while challenging contemporary language conventions. 

McKim exhibits her artists’ books and prints internationally. Her work is in numerous private and public collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Getty Research Institute and the Walker Art Center. McKim is an Associate Professor at the Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design.