Katie Gilmartin, Printmaker

	The Pulps are, of course, take-offs on pulp fiction covers of the 1950s and 1960s. The lurid images and sensational prose of these pieces of history appeal to me in so many ways. I could go on about how the plush, potent women they feature express profound mid-century anxieties about women's sexuality -- but they're also just campy and fun. The titles and images in my prints are a pastiche; some aspects are taken from existing vintage pulps, others from my imagination..
Abundance
	This section highlights my latest creations. To the left is "Abundance," envisioning a chestnut harvest. This print appeared in my mind when I went cherry-picking -- astounded by how many cherries appear on a single tree. Not dozens - hundreds! All that abundance, emanating from no more than sunshine, soil, water, and one single cherry pit. Scientists would tell us it's all about survival of the fittest: more cherry pits, more cherry trees. I wonder whether we're not witnessing a more profound and benevolent missive. Such abundance is a heartening corrective, for "poverty on both a personal and worldwide level is supported by our collective belief in scarcity" (Shakti Gawain).
Abundance
	The Luscious Series celebrates the female body in all its abundance. Prints in this series explore femininity with a somewhat campy aesthetic: more is always better. The series includes "Bourbon, 2 am," inspired by Elizabeth Taylor in Butterfield 8, and "Eight Ball, Side Pocket," provoked by the front cover of a 1950's lesbian pulp novel (I added the pool cue).
Bourbon, 2 a.m.
	Whenever I go to Radical Faerie gatherings, I bake scones: cherry scones, apricot scones, raisin scones, ginger scones -- I've baked them in conventional ovens, outdoor clay ovens, and on a immense pentagram grill over an open fire. My scones have come to be know as "Plushies," and are all about pleasure. These prints honor the regenerative power of pleasure in our daily lives.
How Beautiful...
	The Home Series imagines the gloriously cluttered rooms in a house of my own invention: there, rubber duckies float among the bath bubbles, I never get burned from lying in the sun, we always eat dessert first, and the kitty is usually up to something mischievous.
Sunday Morning
	"Dancer," my latest print in this series, was inspired by the poetry of Hafiz, a fourteenth century Persian mystic still deeply beloved by the people of the Middle East. This passage crystallized my image: "There are so many positions of love: each curve on a branch, ...the spring orchestra of scents, the currents of light combusting like passionate lips, the revolution of Existence's skirt whose folds contain other worlds." While I was working on the print, though, my heart was heavy with the deaths, American and Iraqi, of our current not-war. I was tempted to have all folds within the skirt reveal scenes of love, beauty, and fruition, but I could not refuse the appalling mystery that among all this splendor exist such dire anguish, greed, and enmity. (Hafiz translation by Daniel Ladinsky)
Dancer
	The Queer Words Series plays with the observation that many queer words have multiple meanings. Along the way I poke a little fun at our identity categories, which we sometimes take a little too seriously -- as if any word could ever sum up the vast variety of human desires, ilks, or beings. This series will keep growing: if you have one to suggest, email me; if it isn't already on my list and I decide to make a print of it, you get the first one!
Queer Words Series: Queen
	Every February I curate an erotic art show called The Back Room at San Francisco's City Art Cooperative Gallery. This event inspired the development of the Lingerie Series, prints created from actual lingerie brassieres, garter belts, bustiers, and teddies. The printing process produces an almost photographic clarity of detail, capturing the sheerness of silk and the intricacies of lace. Some of these are printed on red or black velvet and housed in elaborate gilt frames evoking a nineteenth century bordello.
Beautiful Ass #1
	And here is everything that didn't fit somewhere else!
Peace