My work explores how all things inevitably change over time – our memories, bodies, the natural world and the built environment – and the joys and sorrows those changes bring.
I’m a print and book artist with a deep connection to place. I live in Seattle and much of my work speaks to the changes in the city over time – chaotic and difficult transitions, the layering of history and humanity and the fragments that remain. My pieces often include imagery created from found objects collected while walking local streets, alleys and trails, the objects carrying hints and messages from the past. I’ve been particularly drawn to the Duwamish River, Seattle’s only river, as a metaphor for much of the change that’s occurred in and to the place we now call Seattle and have created a body of work over the past few years to explore that story.
With a background in architecture and construction, my work often incorporates references to the built environment, including maps, street grids and building elements, both contemporary and historic.
My love of form and structure and the imprint of time also translates into a particular affinity for the rock formations of the scablands and shrub-steppe environment of eastern Washington. Building on a collagraph technique that I’ve developed I’m creating a print and water color series inspired by those coulees and canyons and the open skies of the high desert.
As a restless explorer I’m constantly experimenting and stretching the boundaries of previous work. I often use multiple printmaking techniques in a single piece, combining etching, collagraph, monoprint and screenprint.
My artist books and prints have been included in a variety of juried shows and exhibited nationally and internationally.
Thoughts on the Work of Abbie Birmingham
Knowing little to nothing about architecture, I venture cautiously into this artist’s territory… Ms. Birmingham’s “Street Life-Outside the Lines”, a monoprint, piques my curiosity. Her lines of structure, in relation to the more lyrical, playful marks, show us a possibly new dialogue with herself about art making. In “Dark Heart of the Duwamish” the use of watercolor pushes her further into a kind of counterpoint with her, already well known, architectural vocabulary.
With her latest work, she seems to be asking herself a question about Art, structure, fine craftsmanship and the potential for chaos, or put differently, a river overrunning its banks. I really enjoy seeing her devise a paradoxical direction for herself. Her work steps away from design in art and seems bound for a more poetic exploration—
Ellen Jordan, 3/30/22
Artwork available for purchase
Artist Website: abirminghamprints.com
Instagram: @abbie.paper