Winds of Chance (2nd State)

Dorr Bothwell

Dorr Bothwell first saw screenprints in Los Angeles in 1941 at Raymond and Raymond Gallery and became intrigued by the medium. Fellow California artist Marion Cunningham had learned the method at the Art Students League from WPA serigrapher Harry Sternberg but would not show Dorr, who then bought Sternberg's book on the process and taught herself.

Silk was scarce, it was all being used by the war effort but was able to get San Francisco art supply salesman Herman Flax to sell her a second hand screen and some paint and tusche.

Bothwell notes about her work from the 40s: "...I wound up with a good grade of paper used for printing. I did my first prints with that, which were based on European modernist influences, particularly Miro."

This image, "Winds of Chance" is a series of small, abstract black drawings, crammed into a single composition, like graffiti, and overprinted with colors.