Michèle Ratté

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Lithoptera

LITHOPTERA (full view), 2010, H 3" x W 16" x D 16",
23 K gold and paladium monoprint on shaped and pieced silks, stones, metal beads, stainless fishing line.

Lithoptera

LITHOPTERA (detail), 2010, H 3" x W 16" x D 16",
23 K gold and paladium monoprint on shaped and pieced silks, stones, metal beads, stainless fishing line.

Lithoptera

LITHOPTERA (detail), 2010, H 3" x W 16" x D 16",
23 K gold and paladium monoprint on shaped and pieced silks, stones, metal beads, stainless fishing line.

Lithoptera

LITHOPTERA (detail), 2010, H 3" x W 16" x D 16",
23 K gold and paladium monoprint on shaped and pieced silks, stones, metal beads, stainless fishing line.

Lithoptera

LITHOPTERA (detail), 2010, H 3" x W 16" x D 16",
23 K gold and paladium monoprint on shaped and pieced silks, stones, metal beads, stainless fishing line.

Michèle Ratté
Splendent Earth

Vermont Public Radio's
Commentary Series

By Commentator, Annie Guyon

July 18, 2011.

Listen to VPR Commentary

Play the slideshow to the left while listening.
Full text may be read on Ratté's Press page

The element of gold is an essential ingredient of Michèle Ratté’s new work, representing universal symbols such as: the sun, life force, nobility, power, incorruptibility, and eternity. Stones, fossils and shells are also key elements.

Growing up with a geologist father, and living in the Arizona desert, mountains of Vermont, and beach communities of the West Indies and Martha’s Vineyard, has influenced her aesthetic sensibility.

The natural world is compelling and fundamental to Michèle Ratté’s process. “For me inanimate objects, such as stone, emanate a life force and can be experienced as remarkable,” says the artist. This idea is exemplified in “Nerida” and “Apotrope”.