The Temple of Flora Possibly 1984

This is Jim Dine’s “The Temple of Flora," a book with screenprinted images. Dine approaches printmaking with a painterly sensibility, and that’s where the fun begins for me. There's something about the evenness of the printing, a kind of delicate uniformity, that invites you to look closer at the texture of the paper. This texture makes me think about the layered touch of the artist, their hand moving and building up an image over time. With the right paper, you can almost feel the fibres pulling and resisting, the way the ink settles into the little valleys and peaks. Imagine holding a piece of charcoal and letting it dance across the surface. Dine's work often explores themes of memory, identity, and the everyday object. I'm reminded of Rauschenberg and his use of found objects and silkscreening to create a dialogue between painting and photography. Art is always in conversation, picking up threads from the past and weaving them into something new. It's like a game of telephone, where the message keeps changing but the connection remains.