Empty Road, Great Tornado | Emmett Merrill
December 9, 2022 - January 7, 2023
Artist Statement
Merrill’s work uses the lithographic process to create narrative prints which combine Americana imagery
with that of myth and legend. The prints deal with the emptiness of the American landscape, the
derivation of ghost stories and local legends, objects of Art History, and the culture surrounding the
highway system. The work also explores how time can move within a single visual space, similar to the
way hieroglyphs exist as a contained image, but can be read in the same fashion as words on a page.
Objects and foliage appear scattered along the ground in the works, as if a tornado whipped through a
gas station and a history museum and all artifacts landed together in the same field.
Exhibition Statement
The works are a series of visual ghost stories, each, in part, exploring the theme of the nature colliding
with human made spaces, like a deer bursting through the windshield of a car. Nature in this case, isn’t
just the idea of foliage, animals, or wide open landscapes, but also the presence of death. Deer along the
side of the highway manifest this ghostly symbol. Their eyes illuminate headlights at night, driving in the
dark, you can just barely make out their form in your peripheral as you speed by. Plus, it seems more
common that we see deer dead than alive, lying on the side of the road from where they came, victims of
our cars and freeways. Through out the series, ghosts are also personified as geese crashing into a
bathroom window, a figure with mismatched socks under a sheet, as well as mysterious footsteps in the
snow, walking away from someone who’s slipped beneath the ice. I think ghost stories are an exploration
of the uneasy feeling of the unknown, not just the cliche of not feeling alone in a dark room, but also the
excitement and anxiety of entering an unfamiliar building, landscape, town etc.
In his study of Kentucky folklore, “Ghosts Along the Cumberland” William Montell describes a farm worker
who claims to have come across the ghost of a cow he had put down the previous week. He sees it in the
field, goes to get his family, and when they return, the cow is gone. That’s the end of the story. I think the
works have a similar sense of "ghost story”. It isn’t really any kind of cautionary tale, but more a study of
the moment between someone in their day to day life experiencing the absurd, in whatever form. Then,
when they try and share it with someone else, that thing is gone.
Artist Bio
Emmett Merrill is an independent artist-printmaker hailing from Kansas City, MO. His
work uses lithography to explore topics including ghost stories, the American Highway
system, and art history. He is a collaborator with artist collective and fine art print shop,
Grafik House, where he self publishes his work. Merrill received his BFA in printmaking
from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville. His work is included in numerous public and private collections in the U.S.
and internationally, most notably the Library of Congress and the China Printmaking
Museum.
Merrill’s work uses the lithographic process to create narrative prints which combine Americana imagery
with that of myth and legend. The prints deal with the emptiness of the American landscape, the
derivation of ghost stories and local legends, objects of Art History, and the culture surrounding the
highway system. The work also explores how time can move within a single visual space, similar to the
way hieroglyphs exist as a contained image, but can be read in the same fashion as words on a page.
Objects and foliage appear scattered along the ground in the works, as if a tornado whipped through a
gas station and a history museum and all artifacts landed together in the same field.
Exhibition Statement
The works are a series of visual ghost stories, each, in part, exploring the theme of the nature colliding
with human made spaces, like a deer bursting through the windshield of a car. Nature in this case, isn’t
just the idea of foliage, animals, or wide open landscapes, but also the presence of death. Deer along the
side of the highway manifest this ghostly symbol. Their eyes illuminate headlights at night, driving in the
dark, you can just barely make out their form in your peripheral as you speed by. Plus, it seems more
common that we see deer dead than alive, lying on the side of the road from where they came, victims of
our cars and freeways. Through out the series, ghosts are also personified as geese crashing into a
bathroom window, a figure with mismatched socks under a sheet, as well as mysterious footsteps in the
snow, walking away from someone who’s slipped beneath the ice. I think ghost stories are an exploration
of the uneasy feeling of the unknown, not just the cliche of not feeling alone in a dark room, but also the
excitement and anxiety of entering an unfamiliar building, landscape, town etc.
In his study of Kentucky folklore, “Ghosts Along the Cumberland” William Montell describes a farm worker
who claims to have come across the ghost of a cow he had put down the previous week. He sees it in the
field, goes to get his family, and when they return, the cow is gone. That’s the end of the story. I think the
works have a similar sense of "ghost story”. It isn’t really any kind of cautionary tale, but more a study of
the moment between someone in their day to day life experiencing the absurd, in whatever form. Then,
when they try and share it with someone else, that thing is gone.
Artist Bio
Emmett Merrill is an independent artist-printmaker hailing from Kansas City, MO. His
work uses lithography to explore topics including ghost stories, the American Highway
system, and art history. He is a collaborator with artist collective and fine art print shop,
Grafik House, where he self publishes his work. Merrill received his BFA in printmaking
from the Kansas City Art Institute and his MFA from the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville. His work is included in numerous public and private collections in the U.S.
and internationally, most notably the Library of Congress and the China Printmaking
Museum.
