Jocelyn Barrable Segal

Originally from Montreal, Jocelyn now lives and works in Vancouver. She received in 1983 a Bachelor in both Interior Design and Fine Art from the University of Manitoba and graduated with a MFA in printmaking in 1986 from Louisiana State University. Jocelyn continues to travel extensively to many areas of the world. The concept of movement influences her images and is now most visible in her floral arrangements. They show her genuine love for carefully drawn images on stone, herability to focus on details and her courage to let the brush wander in its own authentic language. The merging of these skills and sensibilities result in a visibly unique signature. Jocelyn’s work can be found in private and public collections in North America, Europe and Asia.

“The subject of my work often references the diverse morphology one can find in the world of botany. I am particularly interested in the universal language of flowers and portray them as icons and metaphors to express emotional states.”

The Printmaking Process of Lithography

To put it simply, a lithograph is a drawing process by which the artist draws directly onto a limestone with a greasy medium. The drawing is then fixed into the surface of the stone by applying a chemical mixture of gum arabic (gum acacia) and nitric acid. Since the key principle in the creation of a lithograph is the natural resistance of grease and water, the stone must remain thoroughly dampened during the printing process. When the ink is rolled over the stone, it attaches itself only to the drawn image. “Pulling a print” means that a piece of paper is placed onto a stone and printed on a printing press. The image on the stone is thus transferred to the paper. A color lithograph is
created by multiple drawings on a stone, in which each layer is printed separately to overlap the previous drawings. In this way the overlapping colors refine and complete the finished print. Because of these multiple layers, the end result is always a surprise. This is one of the inspiring factors that engage Jocelyn to continue in this labor intensive printmaking process in the creation of very limited editions.