Julia Fish

Re: the MMW scalino profile/s – Rome, 2007


In studio work that preceded an extended residency and study in Rome in 2007, I was engaged
in the development of works-on-paper in reference to two staircases, east and west, that occupy
opposing corners of the 1922 two-storey brick storefront that is my home / residence in Chicago.
The stairway spaces are eccentric, yet integral to my every-day experience — each flight requires
a specific kind of physical negotiation that is distinct from the sense of occupancy established
in the second-floor rooms that have been the subject of drawings and paintings since 2001.

As a Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome, I welcomed the opportunity for fresh insight,
in contrast to the Chicago-based work. The direct experience of specific stairways and step profiles
of the Academy’s McKim, Mead and White building became a primary reference and focus, and
initiated questions about the next approach that might be taken in translating, and thus representing,
transitional architectural space. These distinct profiles, realized in gouache and flasche on paper,
influenced later works on paper and paintings completed in Chicago from 2007 – 2009.


April 2013.