Exploring the Mundane or the Forgotten- Artist as Collector

Delaware based artist, Jane Chesson is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Untitled, 2011
C-Print
24" x 24"
©2012JeffreyStockbridge

I was introduced to the work of Philadelphia based artist Jeffrey Stockbridge through my position at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts where he had an exhibition in 2011. The show featured interiors and portraits. I became enamored with the interiors of abandoned homes in and around Philadelphia, but purchasing one at the time was not feasible for me. When I heard Jeff was donating a work of art to our annual art auction I knew I had to have it. This photograph is significantly different than the work that was in his exhibition. It depicts a pile of discarded Christmas trees in what appears to be a park or abandoned city block. I fell in love with this image. I find it to be so quiet and peaceful. I was actually fairly surprised after I purchased it when friends started saying that it was "sad" or "depressing." 

I get that response a lot from my own work as well - even though I don't see it as such. I really enjoy exploring the idea of the mundane or the forgotten. Perhaps this is what draws me to Jeff's work. In my own paintings I make - what I like to think of as - insect death portraits. I find dead bugs and make somewhat tedious, slow paintings of them using traditional mediums and techniques. This intimate process is very important to me, even though it is not always apparent in the finished work.

Most people would not see a direct link between Jeff's work and mine and I think that is important. It has always been more interesting to look at and be inspired by artists working in a completely different process than my own. I think being surrounded by works or art that you love and that challenge makes life exciting!

Moth
Oil on panel
33" x 14"
©2012JaneChesson

Jane Chesson is a painter, teaching artist and the Director of Education at the Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts.

Pressure Prints - Just for You

Minnesota based artist Diana Eicher is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series.

Just for You, 2009
Pressure Print
©2012RachelNusbaum

I coordinate the Printmaking and Papermaking areas at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and was working at the school art sale last November, 2012. It was there that I saw Rachel Nusbaum’s work. Rachel had been a student at MCAD and I had seen her prints before.

There are hundreds of prints at the Art Sale, but for some reason, these caught my eye. These were pressure prints that Rachel had done in a class on the Vandercook press, and I knew that I had to buy them. I decided to buy several of the prints so that I could have option of framing them all together or frame them each independently. 

I love the colors she chose, and the themes that she used in this series. With their small size and the pressure printing technique, she created very unusual prints that I found very unique from the rest of the work. I put them to the side, and at the right time, I purchased them when the Art Sale crowd was at a minimum. 

Diana Eicher is a printmaker and paper cut artist. She recently had a solo exhibition of her work in Shanghai, China at Donghua University.

Born Again Lamps

New York based artist Rebecca Kelly is this week's guest blogger for the Artist as Collector Series

Menorah
Recycled spoons and found objects
17"(h)  x 16" (w)
©2012EllenSall
Collection of Rebecca Kelly

I was curating "transFORMations: Making art from recycled and reclaimed materials" for the Bucks County Community College Artmobile and I knew I wanted Dumpster Diver Ellen Sall's lamps in the exhibition. I travelled to the Dumpster Diver temporary gallery in South Philly and fell in love with a menorah Ellen had made out of silverware. 

It reminded me of a childrens' book that told a story about Jewish prisoners in a concentration camp who put together stolen spoons to create a menorah to celebrate Hannukah in the darkest of times. 

I had to have the piece- but, you guessed it- it was sold. 

Ellen kindly offerred to make a new menorah which was in the exhibit. I had to wait a long time to actually get the menorah (the Artmobile exhibit traveled for two years around Bucks County) but it was worth the wait. The piece now graces our Manhattan studio apartment. 


Rebecca Kelly is a mixed media sculptor and book artist who draws upon her experience as an actor and teacher, as well as a storyteller, to create her work as a visual artist. Rebecca is also currently expanding her oeuvre into textile explorations when she is not curating, teaching or doing her own dumpster diving.

Empty and Full with a Fresh Eye

Virginia based artist, blogger and teaching artist Donna Iona Drozda is this week's guest blogger for the

Artist as Collector series.

Untitled, 2010
Mixed media collage
8" x 8"
©2012SharmonDavidson
Collection of Donna Iona Drozda

My artist pick is Sharmon Davidson…the piece in my collection is 'untitled' but I find myself calling it  'Empty and Full' since those words are prominent in this mixed media collage.

I find myself drawn to all of Sharmon's work.  I see this piece in my collection with a fresh eye each time I take in the layers of color, the calm, the juxtaposition of geometric/meditative imagery. 

The words that Sharmon has included are smart and provocative. I'm a fan and so happy to be able to share her worldview with your readers.

In addition to her studio work Donna Iona Drozda, Donna is busy with a public art project she designed, Life in Transit for "women who have liberated themselves from domestic violence, abuse and poverty," her rich and inspirational blog: Following the Moon, and all her workshops. 

Donna says this about her life/work:

My vision is to live a natural life, in harmony with the rhythms of nature, creating and sharing a balanced physical, emotional and spiritual environment where true creative wonder resides.

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My vision is to turn scared into sacred inspiring the expression of joyful creative gifts and talents thereby 'Making Life the Master Peace'.

Thanks Donna for this... and so much more.

Whose work fills you up with a fresh eye?