Amy Herzel

Amy D. Herzel is a Korean American Adoptee Artist who has been exhibiting work for the past twenty years and currently lives and works in Blue Ridge, Virginia. Herzel’s work embodies a number of themes including identity, personal experience, and meditation. Her work acts as a source for and derives from mediation. The drawings are avenues for personal, thoughtful contemplation for the artist. In her Meditation series, the title and truth were discovered as the drawing evolved. In her Sutra series, the drawings began with a specific title and intention. Herzel uses art as a lens through which she looks at the world to discover truth, beauty, and love.

Q&A with Amy Herzel

1. How long does it take you to complete a Sutra? What is the process like from start to finish?

The Sutra's take anywhere from 4-6 months. The first layer is the ink wash. Then I add the graphite drawing and then the sgraffito and back and forth until it is complete.

2. What is the significance of the title "Sutra"? How does that relate to the scriptures in Indian
religions?

The titles refer to contemplations and meditations. As I am not a Buddhist nor am I attempting to teach the belief system, I am interested in the way of thinking and seeing the world. A Sutra is a thread of Buddhist contemplation. A Sutra is also a mantra and truth. These Sutra's are my threads, they are my way. Each image is a manifestation of meditation and delineates my struggle to understand and balance my existence in the world.

Amy Herzel, Open Sutra, 2019, graphite, ink, sgraffito, 30”x30”

 

3. What specific themes or ideas were you thinking about when creating the three works? (Open Sutra, Heart Sutra, and because you never truly left the womb of the universe.)

The Open Sutra is a lesson in "openness, vulnerability and fallibility." I believe one must be open to experience, but this can lead to corruption and suffering. The golden seal is a patch where the board had fallen and was broken. In some ways the seal is also a symbol for my Art practice. Heart Sutra is about survival. It is a shield, a web, a bulwark strung across the void of trauma. Thematically it also mirrors my desire to know the truth of the Buddhist Heart Sutra. Because you never truly left the womb of the universe is a contemplation on death and connection. It is an assertion of universal connection, the idea that we are all connected in the organism of the universe. According to science nothing dies in the universe it just changes form so the human construct of death, loneliness are false traps designed to disconnect and control. This is my philosophy and my belief.


4. With its more definitive circular pattern and use of gold ink, Open Sutra seems to be stylistically different from Heart Sutra and because you never truly left the womb of the universe. Can you explain how Open Sutra is different from the other two works in terms of process and ideas?

The gold in Open Sutra represents the worldly realm of desire, corruption and imperfection. Its singular form may be interpreted as more figurative or corporeal. Though I do not have a plan or design when laying down the ink, the process is very intuitive. Any truths of the work are revealed through the creation and process.

5. In all three works, the saturation of the ink and the sgraffito in the works seems to draw the viewer to a circular center. Is there any significance to the presence of the circle and the emphasis on the center of the piece?

Circles are the molecules of my life and my work. The patterns of my life and my drawings are built on circles. These large pieces are individual permutations of a single circle. The center is the inner space, the center of the universe, nothing, everything, emptiness, fullness, birth and death. One could say the center is a visualization of the Buddhist Heart Sutra.

Banner Image: Amy Herzel, Heart Sutra (detail), 2017, graphite, ink, sgraffito, 30” x 30”