Ulrike C. Franz
Papiermühle & Presse

Artist Statement

Seit ich mich mit Malerei und Grafik beschäftige, hat mich das Papier mit seinen haptischen Qualitäten als Ausdrucksmittel fasziniert. Während eines mehrjährigen Aufenthalts in Alabama, USA, beschäftigte ich mich intensiv mit der Geschichte und der Herstellung von handgeschöpftem Papier. Seit 2019 wieder in Reutlingen, betreibe ich dort die „Echaz-Papiermühle“. Wie der Fluss-Name schon vermuten lässt, fasziniert mich das Element Wasser ganz besonders: stets in Veränderung, niemals richtig fassbar. Wasser ist auch der wichtigste Faktor beim Papierschöpfen. In meinen Arbeiten versuche ich immer etwas vom „Genius Loci“ – der Natur und Kultur und Geschichte ‚’des Ortes, an dem ich gerade lebe, einzufangen.

Drawing with liquid inks and watercolors on paper was always a convenient and direct way to express my ideas. I love to shape abstract or fancyful landscapes, signs and symbols as well as plants, animals, cars, airplanes, all the things that I encounter in my surroundings. With these images, I mostly try to capture the “genius loci”, the nature, history and culture of the place that I currently live in. The interaction and intensity of colors and the impact of the paper on the imagery is important to me. With its brightness, tactile and haptic qualities, the paper as a material and as a medium has always fascinated me. Since I learned how to form paper from my own tediously prepared paper- pulp, this became more and more the primare medium and a landmark of my artwork. With it ́s processual character, the hand-papermaking can be seen as a metaphor for the ephemeral world - as organic materials like cotton, hemp, bananas or okra as well as fruits or vegetable are transformed into another medium. Making paper is recycling, making something new out of the perishable. As I startet to run my papermill again, back here in Tuscaloosa, I began a whole body of work based on handmade papers from white cotton rags that are well sized, so I can use these sheets for printmaking, cyanotypes and watercolor-paintings as well, all of them in the same handy square size of 10 by 10 inches. The title of this is serie is „watching water“. During the last years, I constantly took photographs about the transparency, the viscosity and ever changing visual impression of this element that is present all the time – especially in Alabama with all the lakes, rivers, the sea and the huge amount of rain (that we had in the past summer). In a special project, I am exploring the properties of Alabama-Marble for processing and printing lithography. Stones are particulary interesting because they carry a long, almost eternal history of the place they are from. I am intrigued by some oddities in visual perception, like for example optical Illusions or the transformation of shapes by looking through uneven Glasses or mirrors. With the water-watching project, I try to report my views by different media like painting, photography or printmaking. I want to bring all those media together and never stop with crossover-experimenting. I love to collaborate with other artists, poets and writers. Besides working in the studio, my favorites are watching contemporary art shows, soaring, swimming, hiking and to traveling. Josef Albers´ Interaction of colors was very influential to me, as well as contemporary artists like James Turrell, Anish Kapoor or Bill Viola.