artist Alan Sonfist

Frottage of the Hemlock Forest    mixed media    6' x 6'     1969      

Alan Sonfist is an artist/designer who engages with natural landscapes to evoke the hidden narrative of the Earth. His vision and green art projects cross borders to inspire ecological sensibility and conservation.

Frottage, or rubbings is a technique used for millennia. The Surrealist Max Ernst is given credit for developing the use of the technique in 1925 when he became fascinated by an old wooden floor that had developed time worn patterns that fascinated him with the strange imagery he saw in the patterns of wear with the grain of the wood.