I haven’t posted anything in my art blog for over a year! That doesn’t mean I haven’t been making art, though most of what I’ve done has been photography for my job at Patchwork Central and for my garden blog. I’ve also been expanding my art garden environment, and I’ll share more on that in the future.
Recently, I’ve had a couple deadlines to inspire me to create some sculptures for exhibit. I’ve got inspiration tucked throughout my studio space. My inspiration makes an interesting photo, too.
Jane and my art opening went very well and now our show is up at the Jasper Arts Center in Jasper, Indiana through the end of April.
While we were in Jasper, we took the opportunity to check out the Geode Grotto–a fantastic folk art environment constructed by a priest using Indiana geodes and cement. I’d read about it before seeing it, but it’s really something to experience in person. It’s quite large.
Jane suggested we should use it for inspiration for taking our garden art to the next level.
Check it out if you’re ever in Jasper! I was in awe.
Several pieces of my art are on exhibit at the Pomerene Center for the Arts in conjunction with my residency. In the gallery next to the one showing my art is an exhibit by an artist named Melissa Vogley Woods. This is a piece of her art. In a third gallery there is an exhibit of quilts by local quilters. I enjoyed the combination of all three galleries and their variations on art involving fabric and memories.
I liked Melissa Vogley Woods’ art reflecting on empty houses, including photos like the one above where she has mended the empty house with old quilts. I like her process as a way of interacting with a neighborhood like the one where I live in with its empty houses that disappear to the demolition crew in a day. How do you heal the houses? How do you heal the neighborhood? What memory does the neighborhood have after a house is gone after having stood for more than a century?
I really like this piece by my friend Jane Case Vickers. She and I have made a lot of art together over the years. We both like to work with found objects, sometimes coveting each other’s great finds. This piece wonderfully incorporates one of her fun finds: a gangsta grill she spotted on the ground while pumping gas.
this brooch was inspired by an odd find. While pumping gas, I noticed something on the ground. It was some gansta’s grill he had lost. In my metals studio this became a picket fence of sorts in a landscape. Bezel wrapped mother of pearl, brass splash from a lost wax casting, aluminum spill spike and a bezel set stone remind me of a nighttime walk in a strange forest.
This afternoon I’ve been working on a new piece and have been working through several problems. I’ve been coming and going from my work table all afternoon and have enjoyed the changing light patterns in the next room. The patterns are created by the sun shining though a stained glass window.
Amy Rich 