October 19 - December 9, 2009
Target Gallery, Saint John's University Art Center
Artist Reception: Saturday, October 24, 4:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Artist Talk: Saturday, October 24, 5:00 p.m.

Artist Statement
44 Traces/Saint John's is a collection of 44 images that presents a moment in the life of Saint John's University. This piece was created during the summer of 2009 with plants gathered in and around the campus landscape.

A sense of place develops when individuals connect emotionally to a landscape; we respond to an environment and find meaning in what that landscape awakens in us. Community of place is formed when many people find meaning in a specific landscape; for whatever their individual reasons, they share in this common bond. Saint John's campus, and its surrounding landscape, creates a cohesive sense of place that links the individual to the broader community.

My artwork investigates a transitory moment in the life of a landscape. I capture trace remnants of individual plant forms and then link them together to create a sense of the landscape as a whole. By the time this work is exhibited, most of the plants depicted will have succumbed to the change of seasons and will be preparing for regeneration in the spring. What remains in the images is a reflection of what is no longer, but also a reminder of what is yet to be. A sense of place with a history and a future represented by the individual but bound by the whole.

About the Artist
Lynn Speaker has developed a process of image making that utilizes gunpowder as a medium. This work is an extension of her exploration of elemental 'drawing' materials such as fire, smoke, natural earth pigments and charcoals. She is examinging, through this process, the primal qualities of mark making in a contemporary context.

The images are a record of an active event, capturing the residual effects released by the burning object. It is a transformative process that explores the alchemic element of fire. The ephemeral images remain as a memory, recording subtle shifts in movement and intensity and are a reflection on our own temporal nature. The use of fire and organic form, in the images, parallel the cycles of renewal and loss.

Lynn received her Master of Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is a recipient of a 2007 Minnesota State Arts Board Artists Initiative Grant and a mentor in the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota Mentor Program.