The Why of it All

When you get clear on the why of what you do, it serves as a compass offering clarity and direction.

Catch and Release (detail)
wire, pulp, encaustic, collage
©2013NanciHersh
Photo by Amy Tucker Photography

Unpacking my work last week to get ready to install my window at Gallery 37 in Milford, DE, a woman stopped in and looked at my nets with curiosity, and then promptly stated, "they look rotten." A few minutes later, when I didn't respond, she repeated her comment. (Did she think I didn't hear her?)

I could've taken it a number of ways and granted, they do look aged or like artifacts. That is intentional.

And then, I thought about my why, which is to connect, inspire, and transform.

Netting 2 (detail)
wire, pulp, encaustic, collage
©2013NanciHersh
Photo by Amy Tucker Photography

Connect experiences to materials, the intangible thoughts and feelings to process and materials, connect to nature, to a higher power, and to each other. So, I smiled at this woman and shared with her the intention behind the creation of this series called Catch and Release.

Orchid (detail)
wire, pulp, encaustic, collage
©2013NanciHersh
Photo by Amy Tucker Photography

This body of work is about time passing, aging, trying to hold on, learning to let go, and finding the beauty and transcendence in the fragility of life. Somewhere (ok a lot of places- is my experience with cancer- and my sons' injuries)

Conduit (detail)
wire, pulp, encaustic, collage
©2013NanciHersh
photo by Jessica Czerwin

When I got to the Opening Reception on Saturday there was another artist standing by my window installation. Betsey told me that she loved my window installation. Marcia Reed, the owner of Gallery 37 and an artist herself had explained my work to her. With an open mind, an open heart and learning more about the work,  Betsey told me that she felt incredibly moved by what she saw, she experienced. She used the word Powerful.

wire, pulp, encaustic, collage
©2013NanciHersh
photo by Jessica Czerwin

I could've hugged her. In fact, I did.

There's my connection, my inspiration, and the power to transform from rotten to powerful.

This is Art- Five in Fiber

The Five in Fiber exhibition is up and ready for the the opening reception tomorrow Saturday, October 26, 2013 from 3-5 pm at Gallery 37 in Milford, Delaware.

Five artists working with plant, paper and/or synthetic fibers, each of us with different sensibilities and yet noticing the threads (can't avoid that pun) that connect us to each other aesthetically and conceptually.

Here's a shot of me putting the finishing
touches on my window installation

My work address what we catch, what we release and how this shapes our identity. Wire and netting are shaped and formed, then dipped into vats of over- beaten pulp that dries over the form like a taut skin. These “nets” are used, along with pages from old books, fabric, dried plants, and other found objects- including pantyhose, (growing up with a father in the millinery business,) to catch the “stuff” of our lives. Once castaways, these vessels serve as filters and homage to time and memory. 

I love walking along the beach and find beauty and mystery in the odds and ends of humanity and nature intertwined and washed ashore, as much as I appreciate coming across a bird's nets using strands of plants and found scraps of paper. 

Deborah Johnson hung her dream like fiber and cast glass spirit boats in the window on the other side of the front door.

Delainey Barclay drove up in her mini cooper (you can even see it in the photo, between Deborah's boat and the wisps of turquoise and violet fiber sails) filled with her string balls. Here she is below installing her airy and celestial sculptures suspended on thin wire on the back wall...

opposite of apparel artist Marilyn Mitchell piece.  And then suspended more in the back gallery juxtaposed to Linda Celestian's cascading green work that feels like waves of an elegant algea. 

And whether you can make it tomorrow or not- just remember...