Petal Crêche, created for The Forward Art Prize, 2021 finalist award
During this new year I will have the opportunity to exhibit Winter’s Spring: An Ältere Garten twice!
January 10- February 1, 2022 at Wheaton College in Illinois and March 1 - April 9, 2022 at University of Wisconsin at La Crosse Click on the event links to see glimpses of the new work that will be there!
When working towards the concepts for both of these exhibits, the most natural thing was to add to the body of work that is so meaningful to me and brings me such joy. The past three years my four sisters and I cared for our mother who succumbed to dementia this September. Looking for the life hidden in her winter was such a treasure for me and brings me hope.
Recently, I have been thinking about my body of work over twenty years as a practicing artist and rewriting my artist statement for upcoming shows and applications. A few familiar phrases about my art still fit such as, ”The interplay of my architectural, mathematic, and science education is essential in the outworking of complex design processes and concepts coalescing in the joy of finding an elegant expression.” But I finally feel like the old structures of how I write about are becoming a bit tight and in my newest installation, Winter’s Spring: An Ältere Garten, I finally see the strong thread of the garden connecting my work from graduate school, Omaha studio days, and my Wisconsin studio, a thread that I hadn’t truly seen until now, but nonetheless percolated through my work. I wrote this below in one of my most recent artist statements.
“Growing up in the Midwest, my family’s garden was the setting for some of my earliest and most meaningful memories. A frigid winter melting into spring is an experience embedded in my work as I explore themes of growth, decay, death, and new life. Using processes such as sewing, layering, folding, and welding, coupled with an inward and personal form of artistic caretaking, I tend my own interior garden while creating each new work.”
Leaf Blanket for my father, created during graduate school, 1998. maple leaves, red thread and basket
Crash, created as a Nebraska Individual Artist Fellowship Award winner 2007, steel, Financial Times newspaper, vinyl and ostrich feathers (20’ x 3’ x 3’)