My artworks are frequently maps of imaginary places, passages between one place and another, and dreams or memories of real spaces. The landscapes that we live in echo perfect metaphors for states of mind. The work is a biography of interior work, of travel in dreams and in the real world of Asia. Making the paper myself allows ideas to develop by integrating them from the very beginning. Papermaking is a rich and deep stream of inspiration. Cooking and preparing fibers and the various techniques of casting paper encourages ideas as nuances develop out of the process itself. Paper and collage are the matrix, from which the composition emerges. Frequently an engraved line image is printed on the poured paper composition. Handmade paper takes a printed line beautifully. I like the monoprint technique because it allows for spontaneity in freely developing themes in a painterly way. Many of the ideas in the monoprints are painterly versions of the handmade paper work, focusing on the main themes of interior spaces and memories or maps of places real and imaginary. ©2005 Carol Brighton