Prepping for a solo show at WSG Gallery

Moments of Clarity, repurposed wood and wire and acrylic paint

There’s nothing like a deadline to help with focus! Also, going cold-turkey from social media platforms ‘who must not be named’ has been helpful. Here’s an image of a new piece for my upcoming solo show at WSG Gallery in Ann Arbor. It’s made mostly from repurposed materials. The only things that aren’t repurposed are nails and screws.

My goal with these small, wall-hung sculptures is to create pieces that ‘float’ on the walls (via cleats) and create intricate shadow drawings on the wall when lit. I’m thinking about color, shape, shadow and scale, when in the studio. I’m also thinking about grief and joy. Here’s my artist statement for the upcoming show, entitled ‘Preview’

Preview

This project is a continuation of the body of work I’ve been making since early 2020 - a meditation on grief that transcends the breathless moments of despair.  It’s more an exploration of the ways to experience grief….the ways to move through it.  At the heart of my inquiry lies a deep curiosity about human resilience.

5 years into this body of work, I recognize that grief can be both isolating and communal, encompassing a spectrum of experiences.  Certainly, everyone has some form of grief they ‘re dealing with.  And while there may be a hierarchy of grief experiences, there is a shared understanding of loss.    

I continue to challenge myself by using primarily repurposed materials to make my sculptural work.  This commitment fosters a thoughtful use of resources in my studio practice.  Working abstractly allows me to enjoy the visual and logistical problem-solving while losing myself in the process.  

Occasionally I find myself at the same time.  

Career Suicide, in which I disable my Insta and FB accounts

sewn elements for piece in progress “Lost Things, Found Things”

Maybe….we’ll see, eh? I was wasting time on Instagram…..again…..the other day when I came across a Black farmer, Chris from Sylvanaqua Farms, who shared his story about being harassed by racist trolls on Insta. Meta wouldn’t do anything about the gloves-off terrorizing of these trolls, but when Chris defended himself (verbally), telling them to get their asses off of his account if they couldn’t take the truth, essentially, his account was flagged and shut down. This, coupled with Meta’s CEO capitulating to the powers that be to just let fact-checking slide to the wayside made my blood pressure rise.

I remember years ago that my dad told me when his mom bought a used TV in town and brought it home to the farm, she brought it into the house (well, actually those things were heavy as a full-grown hog, so she probably didn’t do it alone) and said, “Well, there it is….it’s like I’ve opened a sewer pipe into the house.” She wasn’t wrong. But she’s more right now than she could have possibly imagined back then.

What I learned at summer camp…er, the Glen Arbor Arts Center residency

Just finished my nearly 2 week residency at Glen Arbor Arts Center. It was sad to see it come to an end, but it was so productive and I felt completely satiated. And how could I not? A lovely little apartment to myself, an empty studio to myself (shared only with the open studio potters now and then and a couple of curious mice), Lake Michigan a half mile away and the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail to bike to work.

My day job is, ahem, property maintenance, supporting elderly parents at end of life and helping adult children/recent college grads launch during Covid and teaching part time during the academic year at the local community college, and helping run an art gallery. Which is to say my ACTUAL day job of being an artist is really interrupted on a daily basis by a lot of important things.

Bottom line is, I am too accessible in my real life.

I hit the ground running at this residency. I brought all of my supplies with me, flat things like paper in the bottom of the station wagon, tools tucked under seats, bike packed with cardboard over the chain so it didn’t ruin my grandma’s quilt and the linens I brought to sleep on.

The body of work I focused on is called Good Grief. It explores the collective grief of us all during this time and individual grief we are experiencing, as well. I am thinking about how we can get through this not too beat up and maybe a little better than before, as in more compassion for our fellow human . Grief is always there, we are always experiencing it on some level, but with COVID, we can’t get away from it. The good thing about that is we may be more willing to talk about it.

Abstract art gives me the chance to be contemplative while making it and it gives the viewer the freedom to be contemplative while interacting with the art.

Things I’m contemplating while making this work:

1. Relationships of colors, values, densities of objects and shadows

2. Relationships and placement of objects to one another

3. Closing off, opening up, solitude, vulnerability and joy

First Full Studio Day, Glen Arbor Arts Center Residency

I have been looking forward to this artist residency since learning I was chosen from the application pool back in February . Drove the 5 hours northwest yesterday and unloaded all of my supplies in the studio, which is an historic barn with concrete floors. Here’s the view from my 2D work table:

The studio is located at Thoreson Farm, an historic farm that is within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore boundaries.

I grew up on a large working farm. I know this kind of solitude. It’s perfect for allowing creativity to bubble up into consciousness. My wise mom, who also grew up on a farm, used to say ‘kids need to get bored to get creative’. Adults do, too, though I would like to substitute ‘solitude’ for ‘bored’.

As I was looking at my supplies and looking around the barn, my eye was drawn to this, just above my workspace:

This is a typical repair in old wood barns. In any old barn, you’ll see places where the owner has cut a piece of metal, many times from a discarded tin, and patched a damaged spot.

Funny, then , that some of the supplies I am working with during the residency are….discarded metal tins.

Working in the studio/barn today felt like home, not like going back to where I grew up, but like coming home to myself, somehow. Reaffirming.

Beginnings

Lamentations, detail

Starting a new body of work is a shot in the dark, sometimes. I start with an idea and I need to make part of the piece to see if the materials, technique and design are going to express that idea the way I imagine. The idea for this piece, Lamentations, started in spring of 2021 as news reports poured in of the high COVID transmission and subsequent death rates in India. The rest of the world was suffering high transmission and death rates, but it was happening so fast in India that one reporter’s phrase ‘crematoriums are working overtime’ kept sticking in my head. The overwhelming grief circling the world seemed like it had the potential to plant the seeds for a great growth of compassion among people.

Each little pouch in Lamentations has ashes in it - sticks, mostly, from my fire pit. Each is meant to acknowledge and honor the grief and suffering being shared by all of us. Each is connected in some way to the next.

Lamentations, 49 x 67 x 5”, fabric, thread, ashes, steel

I used repurposed fabrics from lots of different sources, wedding clothing that my grandmother wore, a silk skirt from a friend, fabric from a friend’s elderly mother who can no longer sew. I dyed some of the fabric with Sumi ink and left other the way I found it. This piece casts several sets of delicate shadows against the wall and moves slightly with ambient airflow. Shadows are always important in my work - they represent something that’s there, but can change or go away with the amount or direction of the light. Shadows can be magical - creating something new behind or near the actual object casting the shadows. And the fact that they are ephemeral seems to make some sort of statement about our connection to this life.

Safety Net, the first piece of 2021

‘Safety Net’, detail

This piece came about like a lot of my sculptures - in a roundabout way. I have been practicing floating and swimming for about a year and a half. I was never very comfortable around water because I was not a strong swimmer. Turns out, I couldn't float and never realized it. At the pool there's a net that hangs against the wall and as I practiced treading water, I admired its shape and how it just stuck out from the wall. I started thinking about how I could create a shape similar to it and what materials I could repurpose in the piece that would make interesting shadows. The problem-solving and construction of the piece were satisfying practices.

It usually takes me a little while to process current events and ideas before they make it into my art practice. As I worked to stay healthy, keep my family healthy, and participate as a global citizen this past year, I thought about the many different ideas and things that function as safety nets for all of us. Something as simple as a morning walk to take care of our bodies/minds, a weekly Zoom session with friends, a supplemental government check or aid from social services all function as a part of the safety net network. Our safety nets can be on an individual level, or function on a collective level. They can be physical or metaphorical. However they exist, they have been put to the test this past year.

Crafts During Covid, Environmental Art/Andy Goldsworthy sculpture

A brief video giving a couple of examples of outdoor environmental art you can do with kids, adults, students.

https://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/image/?id=ag_03120

https://www.afar.com/magazine/think-outside-the-gallery-where-to-explore-andy-goldsworthys-immersive-art

Crafts During Covid, beginning watercolor mixing

Here’s a brief video to get beginners stuck at home right now on the right track for experimenting and learning about the possibilities in your palette! DO NOT BUY Crayola watercolors…they are really pale and don’t have much pigment in them. They’ll be really frustrating for you. Here are a couple of links for supplies:

https://www.dickblick.com/products/richeson-bulk-watercolor-paper/

https://www.dickblick.com/products/prang-semi-moist-watercolor-pans/

https://www.dickblick.com/products/yarka-semi-moist-watercolor-pan-sets/

https://www.dickblick.com/products/blick-brown-hair-sumi-brush/

Crafts During Covid: how-to art and craft videos - pop-up cards

We’re stuck sheltering in place and can’t visit grandma, grandpa, friends, family and neighbors right now. But we CAN make cool cards to mail or leave on their doorstep or slip under their doors!

Here are the supplies you’ll need:

paper (cardstock or old file folders work best)

cool scrap papers or construction paper

glue or tape

scissors ( and a paper-cutter if you have one)

stickers, glitter, or anything to embellish it with

envelope, if you’re going to mail it

Inside the card

Outside of card

Crafts During Covid - how-to art and craft videos

Since we’re sheltering in place and need something to do either for yourself or the folks you’re sheltering with, I’m posting a series of how-to videos of tried and true projects I’ve done with makers of all levels of abilities and all ages. Here’s the first and a couple of still images of the finished pieces after I put a bit of finishing time into them.

Tissue paper votive, after adding a little more tissue, glitter

paper votive, after using a hole punch to make more space for the candle to project its light

Installing a Public Sculpture in my Community

At the dedication August 23, 2019

I recently installed and participated in the dedication of a public sculpture I’d been working on for about 3 years. The piece, ‘Leslee’s Smile’ , is dedicated to a dear friend and my community’s fearless, kind, incredible library director Leslee Neithammer, who died of cancer a little over 3 years ago.

When I learned she was not going to get better, an idea came to me. ‘Why not propose an abstract sculpture in her honor and show her the maquette and tell her about the piece.’ She loved the idea, as she had wanted to get something more abstract at the library - something to “push folks’ imaginations”, she said. But, since I was on the library’s art committee, that was a conflict of interest. So with little struggle, she brainstormed a solution within minutes, as was her way. The piece was to be installed at Henne Field, here in Saline, along a walking path.

I came up with another idea….why not have Leslee name the piece? But it was not to be. About when she and I were going to meet and have a naming session, she went into hospice. The name ‘Leslee’s Smile’ seemed appropriate, because that was what you noticed first when you met Leslee.

At the Dedication

My intention was that the piece would be joyful - like her. I designed it so that when the sun comes through the glass, the colors cast onto the ground and change as the sun moves through the sky.

When I demonstrated the idea to Leslee, I had a maquette made from laser-cut mat board and colored tissue paper covering the holes. I took a flashlight to her office to show her how it would work. The piece came out exactly how I’d hoped!

Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy - new work

The work in this blog post is in my newest show at WSG gallery in Ann Arbor. The work was all created within the last year, but I made the vast majority of it since early December. So it’s pretty hot off the press! To learn more, scroll down to my artist’s statement.

Circle Practice and Chevrons, detail, steel, found objects

Circle Practice and Chevrons, 41 x 43 x 5”, steel, found objects

All of the pieces in this body of work has some form of repurposed material in it. I have used repurposed materials for all of my creative life, with the intent to use the materials as simply materials…..using them in such a way that they transcend their previous purpose.

Domestic Bliss Sketches 1, 17 x 12 x 3”, steel

Domestic Bliss Sketches 2, 10 x 9 x 3”, steel, found objects

Artist’s Statement

All art is made within some kind of context.  That’s one of the things we love about art - the stories behind the pieces or the makers.  The past 4 months have been a traumatic time for our family. A time which our family will refer to as ‘before and after’ for quite some time.  One of the many saving graces has been keeping a healthy sense of humor.  When I got back to the studio ‘after’, I faced an unfinished piece that, luckily, had some interesting things going on in it that I might have missed, had I not been in the ‘after’.  The entire experience - ‘the during’- was a forced paring down to essentials, a forced economy of function.  It was a great starting point for something new. 

With this body of work, I continue my pursuit of interesting shadows.  I get back to some basics like line, shape, color, value (shadow density), movement, texture.  The pieces are joyful and playful.  Because making art is joyful and playful!  In the making of this work, I allowed myself to make mistakes and experiment, which is harder than you might think.  

Pay particular attention to the shadows in the sculptural pieces. For instance, in ‘The New Normal’, I consider the lines I created by crocheting wire, leather, etc. to be three-dimensional drawn lines. They cast different densities of silhouettes against the wall.  The shadows become a drawing of their own. 

I come from a background of both painting and sculpture. I am constantly thinking of how those two worlds connect, cross over and diverge. This new body of work comes closest to melding 2-D and 3-D ideas for me, while still allowing those ideas to maintain individual integrity.

Domestic Bliss Sketches 3, 14 x 12 x 3”, steel, acrylic, found objects

The New Normal, 43 x 45 x 5”, wire, rubber, leather, found objects

The New Normal, detail

The New Normal, detail 2

Variations on Domestic Bliss Sketches 6, 27 x 21”, watercolor, collage

Variations on Domestic Bliss Sketches 6, detail

Variations on Domestic Bliss Sketches 1, 11 x 9”, watercolor, collage

First Week of the ArtPrize Experience, an Artist's Perspective

Live Models, Sept. 21 at The Gun Show reception, ArtPrize venue: City Water Building, by the Richard App Gallery

The first week of ArtPrize is nearly over.  I sit here, writing a much-needed update to my blog, readying for the first Sunday of ArtPrize.  So far, it's been a great experience - my first at ArtPrize.  Yes, it's been going on for 9 years now....better late than never, I guess.

I'm pleased to bring The Gun Show to another venue.  Last fall was its debut at WSG gallery in Ann Arbor.  The reception featured live models....my daughter and 4 of her friends wore the gowns and stood on pedestals for the duration of the reception.  500 people streamed through the gallery, engaged in intense, yet respectful conversation about all kinds of things, including mass shootings and all things gun-related.....yes, you read that right.  My intent with this piece is to get viewers to engage in difficult, yet important conversation regarding the issues surrounding mass shootings in the U.S.  (Some experts define a mass shooting as 3 or more victims, others define it as 4 or more.)  

So one of the great things about ArtPrize is that many of the artists stay with their pieces and get to tell the public about their work, ideas, process and answer questions.  The thing is....most of us artists work long, solitary hours in our studios and don't have to talk to the public about our work on a daily basis.  As a matter of fact, we sweat it when it comes down to writing an artist's statement, saying that if we wanted to be writers, we would have studied something else, like English or composition.  And I get that.  But that IS a cop-out.  

Yes, it is difficult to put visual ideas into verbal form, but other people don't live in our heads....so it is necessary to put those ideas into words.  I decided to spend as much time as possible with my piece at ArtPrize so I could get over myself a bit and put myself in that quite uncomfortable position of interacting with the public FOR HOURS A DAY.  I have to say it's getting easier and I'm getting better at honing down my spiel.  Not quite at the 35 seconds my friend Janet Kelman is doing, but probably a minute!

Painting Glass in Watercolor

Green Bottle I, above, is a little study I made preparing for a 'Painting Glass in Watercolor' class I taught this spring.  I find that multiple studies, as I get ready to teach a specific class, help me clarify the problems and pitfalls in teaching the subject.  This green bottle is a little antique I picked up specifically for still life studies.  The color!  Couldn't resist!  

As I tell my students, painting glass is more about what you don't paint, than what you do....especially with watercolor.  

I particularly love the place where the waterline is - the place where all the distortion and refraction happens.  Look at the stem - wow!  Painting glass is quite meditative.  Like one of my professors said years ago, "you should be looking more than making marks on your paper".....or something like that.

New Series Begun - Window Strike Series

Window Strike Series: Rose Breasted Grosbeak, 9 3/4 x 14", watercolor

So, I began a new series this week, inspired by a bird that a friend found.  Window strikes are just what they sound like.....a dear, sweet bird has mistaken the reflection of the sky and trees for,  well, sky and trees, and flown into the window.   Some birds survive this, some don't.  Of course it depends on speed and the angle of their necks at the time of impact.....and if a predator is nearby while the poor bird is regaining consciousness.  

I hate for birds to die in vain - I'm a birder and love to bird watch and study behaviors, bird calls and identification techniques.  So I've decided to immortalize these little beauties in paintings.  

Window Strike Series: Rose Breasted Grosbeak III, 11 1/4  x 11", watercolor

I feel like it is an honor to study them up close......to notice the details of a stilled bird - it's a bit like figure drawing/painting - just a different shaped body than we're used to for such a thing.  

A New Year, A Clean Studio

Forgotten Cardinal, 8 x 10", watercolor

It happened quite by mistake....the cleaning of the studio at the new year....I was deeply obsessed with painting little feathers in watercolor, and had been for several months, when I looked up from my painting table at the wreck of a studio that surrounded me.  I had a slight panic as I remembered a friend was coming over around the first of the year to shoot a photo of me 'in situ' for her upcoming show of photographs of artists and our muses.  My 'in situ' was a dump!  

So I took a break from doing what I loved and started doing what had needed to be done for a long while.  After several days of purging, donating, recycling, moving and insulating, I can say that for the first time since I've been both an artist AND a mother, and that's been 21 years now, I have organized my studio, at least partially, in a way that makes sense.  Book making tools and adhesives on 1 shelf, watercolors and brushes on 1 - okay, 2 shelves, etc.  

I do a fair amount of teaching of watercolors and different techniques, so it's hard to part with things I think have potential (not quite as bad as Howard Finster...), but I think I'm on a good trajectory for continued progress.  For instance, I teach in programs for at-risk youth and I teach classes for adults that might just be 1-time classes.  I don't want purchasing art supplies to be a barrier, so I have amassed utility knives and needle-nosed pliers, to name a few.  I helped a friend's son clean out her studio when she passed, and redistributed 12 SUV loads of art supplies.  As I was cleaning (I kid you not) 200 paint brushes of years of acrylic and oil paint, I thought, 'yes, the high school can use these, but those kids are not going to clean these properly to get years of use out of them' and kept 20-30 decent brushes to use with my students.  Most students don't get to use good quality brushes when they are starting out and I'm telling you, good tools make a difference with the student's experience.  

So the supplies are a bit more organized, the place is a little cleaner and the year is off to a productive start.  Here are a few of the little watercolors I made at the end of 2016 and so far this year.  The cardinal skeleton was found by a friend and it had been sitting in the studio for about a year and a half, so painting that was the carrot at the end of the stick for cleaning the studio.  

The watercolors have been a big healing /mind clearing exercise after August 2016's 'The Gun Show', but I will get back to working on that project again soon, because......

Fallen Cardinal, watercolor, 6 x 8"

3 Wild Feathers, watercolor on Yupo, 6 x 9"

Two Tiny Turkeys, watercolor on paper, 6 x 10"

The Gun Show, artist's statement

I spent a lot of time thinking about this project before I committed to making the work for it.  It seemed much easier before I started the making process.  I don’t mean the actual, physical making of the work was so taxing to figure out, I mean it has been psychologically difficult.  It was easier when I was approaching the issue of mass shootings from a place of strong opinion and less knowledge. The project got much more difficult when I delved into researching mental illness, gun ownership, enforcement of current laws surrounding firearm purchasing and the details of each specific mass shooting. 

I thought about the project in earnest for about a year and a half, but, if I wanted to be honest with myself, I’d have to go back to Columbine to find the source.  Not that I had any intention of making art about such a thing back then, but that was one of the first shootings where children were the shooters AND the victims and when I first felt that the adults of society had really let down the next generations.  We’ve let them down because of our unwillingness to talk about difficult things in a rational way or to compromise.

Each gown represents a specific mass shooting in the U.S.  I don’t have enough exhibition space at WSG to have a gown for every shooting.  I used my sewing machine as a drawing tool, creating a layering of line that describes the weapon (s) used during that shooting.  I shocked myself when, after many drawings of guns, I admitted how sexy they were.  The lines, the weight, the way they are designed to fit into one’s hand….

I can’t explain exactly where my ideas come from.  I collect vintage handbags and appreciate them for their lines, use of material, the way they fit into my hand or over my arm.  As I started designing and building the handbags with gun imagery, I realized how much I would want to own them if they weren’t already mine.  The gold-leafed bullets as sequins, and gold- and silver-leafed guns on the handbags all seemed to make sense in a glorifying, distorted way. 

I’ve continued my interest in using repurposed materials in this show.  The acrylic is all repurposed, fabrics and materials in the purses are nearly all repurposed….even the evening gowns are repurposed.  Initially I was going to sew the evening gowns from scratch, too, but it became important that the gowns had all ‘lived a little’, especially with the heavy messages they were being repurposed for. 

It became clear that the evening of the reception needed to include live models for the gowns….young ladies at the beginning of their lives, full of potential. 

Valerie Mann

Making Work About Shadows

As I prepare to write statements for artist residency applications, I am diligently looking for the thread that connects my sculptural work, whether it is sculpture from my bird body of work, collaborative or other sculpture.  And looking for a connective thread from my sculptural work to my landscape watercolors is even more vexing!  Certainly light and its play on surfaces is a common interest for me, whether it's 2-D or 3-D work I'm making.  Materials and their possibilities are fascinating to me, as well.  And I guess the common thing about materials and my approach to them is that balance between me forcing them to do what I want them to do and me recognizing what they need to do - what they're best at.  For instance, watercolors....they're beautiful when they bleed and flow, beautiful when the pigment pools at the edge of a wet area and beautiful when the layers are allowed to dry between applications....but using those techniques to best describe a landscape/ object is the part where my decision making comes in.

Red Zinnia in Bottle, 

detail, November Sky Over Fields

So light and how it plays on 3-dimensional objects - the shadows and reflections is very interesting to me, as well.  I find myself being almost more interested in the shadows than the objects I make.  But there again, using materials to create a shape and then displaying/composing those shapes in a larger piece becomes a collaboration with the piece.

 detail, Bird Collection, 2016, collection Lynda Cole & Paul Malboeuf

detail, Bird Collection, 2016, wood, plexi, silver leaf, fabric, thread, steel

Designing, Fabricating and Installing a Public Sculpture with Kids

Mat board maquette and welded parts from the sculpture

The kids learned how to use a variety of hand tools over the course of the year and how to work with a variety of materials.  They got to go to Makerworks, a maker space in Ann Arbor, to watch the plasma cutter and laser cutter work.

Plasma cutter cutting steel, computer driven

Me, welding parts together.

First part of the sculpture set in place.

I made the piece in modular parts so that the kids could have as much involvement in the final process as possible.  This piece is a major structural component, providing stability and a cool arch to be crawled underneath.

In the design process, we talked about the importance of creating a piece that would be interesting from all angles.....in the round.

Also, we talked about the prominent feature at the kids' homes - a huge tree in the common area.  It was part of our inspiration!

The kids got to use wrenches and ratchets to tighten down the nuts.  They loved using the tools, just like I did when I was a kid and learned!  So fun to see the light in their eyes!

The mentors guided the kids through a naming process for the sculpture and the kids came up with "Roots Taking Flight".  I laser-etched a name plate that got installed with all the kids' names on it as well.