The Port Townsend Gallery will present the show “What Remains to Be Seen: Creation Through Destructive Process” at the gallery in June.

The exhibition features printmaker Philip Carrico and Tom Saknit, the creator of Redacted Photography.
Organizers of the show note that most artwork is created in an additive fashion; paint is brushed onto a canvas, clay is thrown on a wheel, or notes added to a score.

Conversely, Carrico and Saknit each remove bits from media to create their artwork.
“It all starts with a block of wood and an idea,” Carrico noted.

The artist then offered another take: “It starts with an idea and much sketching and color planning. Then the sketch is transferred to a block of wood or linoleum, and I start cutting.” 

Carrico cuts away the negative space of his image, inks the block, and prints on each image in the series. 

For each color, Carrico cuts away what he plans to preserve, and inks again. It’s a process of cut, ink, print, clean, repeat.
By the time he’s finished, all that remains on the face of the block are the darkest lines. While the block itself is destroyed, the resulting artwork the block has touched is rendered in crisp and vivid images. 

“In this show, I have pieces with only one color, up to a piece with 16. It’s all a process,” he explained. “And even when I’m not printing, I’m preparing, imagining, sketching, and reading. The artist’s life is a 24/7 discipline.
Saknit’s works are similarly achieved through the thoughtful removal of elements. In this case, pixels.

“I’ve always been taken by artwork seen mid-process…in the unfinished state of creation,” Saknit explained. “For me, that is where the magic lies. And that’s the direction I take my photographs.” 

His deconstructed images may remind the viewer of watercolor, or pen and ink illustration. Saknit’s work is a unique treatment of his photographs, meticulously erased to render only a suggestion of the original view.

“With this suite of pictures, Phil and I focused on capturing images of our region,”  Saknit noted. “A region of such rich, natural, and man-made beauty, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to live elsewhere.”

Carrico and Saknit will be at the Port Townsend Gallery during the next Artwalk, from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, June 4, with many of the gallery’s other resident artists. 

The Port Townsend Gallery is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and by appointment. It is located at 715 Water St.

For more information, visit www.porttownsendgallery.com.