Visual Art Research in Vienna and Zürich

DOEprojekts (Deborah Adams Doering and Glenn N. Doering) was fascinated by the Faszination Papier: Rembrandt bis Kiefer exhibition at the Albertina Museum in December 2025, part of our art research trip in Austria and Switzerland.

Many of the artworks resonated with us as they were in direct dialog with our own works. For example, DOEprojekts has produced many cut stencils that are in conversation with these geometric stencils displayed in the exhibit:

Top image: Interference on Television by Hanns Wallner.
Bottom image: Masons' Guild Book by a Swabian Master

We have also created an art portfolio of pochoirs (stencils that can be used as "rubbings"). In the paper exhibition, there were several fine examples of this type of pochoir print. 

Left image: Jump by Alena Kucerová. Right image: Untitled by Günther Uecker

Here are the 4 steps in the creation of a DOEprojekts stencil and print:

1. The stencil is drawn out, life-size (upper left)

2. It is then transferred to Yupo paper and then cut out with an Xacto knife (upper right)

3. The stencil is laid on a piece of art paper, and ink is rolled over it (lower left)

4. The completed print (lower right)

Our rubbings are often creative interpretations of our stencils, or are popular community participation projects at our workshops or socially engaged art exhibitions, as seen below.

Before we left Zurich, preliminary planning was already being discussed for a possible 2027 DOEprojekts Exhibition/Installation/Workshop at one of the city's historic art venues.

The photos below show Deborah measuring for a possible window stencil at the Kulturhaus Hilferei, a building constructed during the 1100s. 

We look forward to a 21st century opportunity to bring our timeless Coreforms to a 1000-year-old building.

Photographing Natural "Coreforms" through the Microscope

DOEprojekts (Deborah Adams Doering and Glenn N. Doering) participated in a seminar titled "Biological Imaging: Microscopes in Art," taught by marine biologist Dr. Joseph DeGiorgis, an instructor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. The class merged two of Deborah and Glenn's long-time interests: Nature and Art. During the six-week seminar, we were able to develop a portfolio of images, many of which are displayed in this blog post. We continue to explore our system of Coreforms (circles, lines, swashes, dots) through the microscopic-photo lens. (Images above by DOEprojekts clockwise from upper left: melon tea rose top, melon tea rose bottom,  parrot tulip, and fading purple iris.)

DOEprojekts' images, clockwise from upper left: two petite coleus leaves, large purple coleus leaf detail, ponderosa pinecone, cholla cactus.

Since the light microscope was first developed in the late 1600s by the Dutch naturalist Antoine van Leeuwenhoek, observations with these instruments have made the invisible world visible through magnification. In the early 1800s, photographic processes became more readily available to scientists, visual researchers, designers, and artists. American artists who worked diligently to have photographs seen as "fine art" include Alfred Stieglitz and Imogen Cunningham, and many others world-wide.

DOEprojekts' images, clockwise from upper left: brittle star, sea urchin mouth, sea urchin tentacles, open-mouth scallop.

One of the best parts of the seminar with Dr. DeGiorgis was that he would bring marine specimens from near his home in Woods Hole, MA. Participants could choose from a variety of specimens to position under the microscope. When we chose to photograph the scallop, we had no idea that it would "spit" at us. Fortunately, after spitting a few times, the scallop seemed to smile at us, and opened up, so we could photograph his/her beautiful blue eyes.

We also were able to choose from a variety of dessicated marine life including tiny seahorses. Several species of seahorses are known to bond for life, so we positioned two seahorses as embracing. The sea urchin shell (top and bottom) reminds us of our central circular form, both in its interior and exterior roundness.

DOEprojekts plans to use these images as resource images for creating objects and experiences.