Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice 2018 is an abstract work on handmade [kozo](/glossary/kozo) paper that addresses the year's darkest turning point — the moment of maximum axial tilt when daylight reaches its annual minimum before beginning its slow return. McLaughlin's mixed-media process on kozo, whose pale translucent surface carries light differently than commercially produced paper, likely employs tonal gradations, layered washes, or embedded dark passages that evoke the compression of light in the winter sky. The calendar specificity of the 2018 date situates this work within a series of annual solstice pieces, suggesting an ongoing practice of marking seasonal threshold. Kozo fiber's organic, non-uniform texture introduces an irregularity that resists the geometric order of a calendar date.