Round Pegs in a Square Box - Artist as Collector

Hawaii based artist Deb Nehmad is this week's guest blogger for our Artist as Collector Series.

Jo Rowley
Round Pegs in a Square Box
Ceramic
©JohanetteRowley

Jo and I were at the University of Hawaii art program at the same time and we've always maintained a mutual admiration and respect  of one another's work.  Jo's work often has an edge, but softened by humor and and often a pun in the title.  

I purchased a small totally whimsical piece of Jo's several years ago, but I think I got the much better end of the bargain when we finally traded works.  

Round Pegs in a Square Box, detail
©JohanetteRowley

I was attracted to the Four Pegs by the amazingly beautiful and obsessive tattoos painted onto the figures, but further moved and intrigued  when Jo told me that these were part of a new series where she is forming the faces of her figures with her eyes closed and sculpting the clay completely by touch. 

"Round Pegs in a Square Box" and a companion piece, "Winkin' Blinkin" and Odd" now sit prominently in my living room where we interact on a daily basis.  

Deborah G. Nehmad is a Honolulu based artist working with paper with which she repetitively burns, etches, draws and scrapes her own visual vocabulary that references the body marked by pain. Her current work addresses anguish on a broader scale incorporating her obsessive mark making to translate visually her concern with global issues of war and violence.