uncomfortable saints

It’s been a busy summer exhibition season. I’m really looking forward to a more hermit-like studio schedule. To just create without a deadline hanging over my head…at least until classes start up again. I have plenty of work to keep myself squirreled away for awhile.

With a full exhibition season comes lots of openings. Openings generally require more social meandering than my reclusive self is comfortable with. I try. I really do. As I understand it, the objective of an opening is to connect with the gallery goers more than the fellow exhibiting artists or hiding out under the safety of your posse.

Connecting with the opening attendees means a lot of talking; lots of telling about the work, the process, the images, the stories. During a recent exhibition one of the docents pulled me aside to ask about my work. She is a student of classical works and was drawn to my pieces. We talked less about process and more about the compositional elements and their connection to the images and stories.

As I shared the story of Why Do You Make So Much of Me?, she began to cry a little. We connected.

I always…always, field questions about how the tiled images are ‘framed’. I don’t really think of them as framed – more like boxed or confined. Frames are often afterthoughts – add on’s – dismissed as not part of an artwork. I treat the confines of the work as part of the composition.

Let’s back up a bit. I’m always asked about the confines of the images. Because I consider the frames/boxes/confines as an extension of the story, I play with balance and composition in relation to the image.

The visual inspiration for the structures comes from fresco paintings within architectural elements. All those saints squeezed between the ribs of a barrel vault (perhaps a requirement for martyrdom…could they look anymore uncomfortable?)

So yeah…looking forward to spending some time with the clay, where the only questions are the ones I’m asking myself.

To fill out your cultural schedule this summer, my work can be seen here:

ARIZONA ARTIST’S JURIED EXHIBITION

Udinotti Museum of Figurative Art
March 15-August 15, 2015

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All Art Arizona 2015

Art Intersection
June 2 – July 18, 2015

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Tempe Center for the Arts
June 19 – September 19, 2015

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