Kyle Riseley - 2018 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I’ve been painting landscapes during the pandemic and have been playing with my iPhone camera. I document everyday objects like fruit bowls, mugs of tea, and disinfectant wipes. A sugar snap bean tucked inside nasturtium, or a collection of blue willow bowls on a shelf--it’s all part of my incredibly shrinking world. Sheltering in place hasn’t been a sentence, rather it’s provided a pause to closely examine nature, light, and objects. The pandemic has affected the way I see things and the amount of time I have to observe and interpret what I see. Photography has always been part of my process, but now, manipulating color, light, and photographic imagery for reproduction on paper has opened up new techniques.
Submitted here are images captured between April and July 2020, then filtered and manipulated. Along with prints, I’ve created a 2021 calendar of images posted monthly at kyleriseleylandscapes on Instagram.
Submitted here are images captured between April and July 2020, then filtered and manipulated. Along with prints, I’ve created a 2021 calendar of images posted monthly at kyleriseleylandscapes on Instagram.
Lorna Ritz - 1999 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
In March my gallery, and everything, closed. This became a time to be still, to wonder, to create new experiences. I became immersed in paintings to reflect this time. As a painter, I am used to a life of solitude. No one came to visit, I did not go out, I could focus on moving paintings further without interruption. Each night I would tell myself, “I think I am getting better.” That is why I still paint. By late March more people were dying. I brought both sadness and beauty of the season into a new body of paintings. The nonpolitical virus taught us to become more compassionate, kinder, loving, uplifting, and seeing the best in others. Leading an inspired, driven life kept me emotionally strong, (in pursuit of deeper visual expression), having compassion for others who find themselves suddenly isolated, especially when listening to a neighbor express her fear.
Pam Rogers - 2012 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
My work is informed by place. I pull inspiration from the earth using soil, minerals, and plants to develop pigments. This has continued in the midst of the pandemic, restricted now, my materials coming from my backyard and neighborhood. Confinement now defines my work. It is comforting to have this new and often-bountiful source of pigment so intimately sharing my space. My work is smaller now due to relocating my studio, and seems to be focused on close-up and microscopic views. Undoubtedly, I am influenced by the constant news about the virus and that never-to-be-forgotten images of COVID. My work has begun examining growth and mutation as much as decay, speaking to the natural cycle that has become so much a part of our lives. The future of my work will continue as a narrative map that captures the elements of place and what environment we find ourselves thrust into.
Lisa Sanders - 2012 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I use natural colored wool and silk fibers which are beautiful, versatile in the ways they can be manipulated, and sustainable, combining them with freehand weaving, crochet and wet and dry felting techniques. These processes go back to the beginning of history and have become intrinsically welded to our consciousness and sense of wellbeing. This subconscious association is part of the content of my work.
My process involves playing with materials, combining, bending, and stretching the individual elements to test their limits and expressive potential. As each subsequent element is added it affects those already in place and therefore the piece itself is always influencing the next move. This can be a metaphor for our passage through our lives in this pandemic and how what we have experienced affects what we do next. The piece is finished when it holds together as a fully realized individual.
My process involves playing with materials, combining, bending, and stretching the individual elements to test their limits and expressive potential. As each subsequent element is added it affects those already in place and therefore the piece itself is always influencing the next move. This can be a metaphor for our passage through our lives in this pandemic and how what we have experienced affects what we do next. The piece is finished when it holds together as a fully realized individual.
Ida Schmulowitz - 2004 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
This series of work is a result of changes made to my painting practice because of the pandemic. Pre pandemic my main body of work consisted of an ongoing series of large scale (6’x8 ‘) oil landscapes painted en plein air from a particular spot I would walk to, about ½ mile from my studio. Forced to do more sheltering in place , I expanded a series exploring the relationship of interior and exterior space and light from my studio, using a still life on a desk and the window behind. I focus on creating space through color and layering of paint. In keeping with my tradition of plein air work, I am constantly changing the paintings to reflect the light and weather changes outside, and what shows through from the previous layers informs the process.
I will continue this series, along with my plein air landscapes post pandemic.
I will continue this series, along with my plein air landscapes post pandemic.
Peter Schroth - 2003 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
I spend half the year in Savannah GA. It was moving here five years ago that ignited my reconsideration of the outdoors as subject matter, struck by the area’s wild vegetation, character and history. But vacations, which equal studio time, always took me elsewhere. The pandemic has had the affect of allowing me to stay put and immerse myself in this fantastical place, as I did last summer.
Grateful to be in a location where one could safely be outdoors, I worked with abandon and in temperatures with a heat index of 107 and ended each session with thank you. The outcome was a fountain of productivity and growth that generated over 100 paintings.
The work’s progress and future have been driven by the unusual circumstances. Professionally, the restrictions did not have a silver lining. It was more like gold and was the most productive ‘residency’ I have ever had.
Grateful to be in a location where one could safely be outdoors, I worked with abandon and in temperatures with a heat index of 107 and ended each session with thank you. The outcome was a fountain of productivity and growth that generated over 100 paintings.
The work’s progress and future have been driven by the unusual circumstances. Professionally, the restrictions did not have a silver lining. It was more like gold and was the most productive ‘residency’ I have ever had.
Alissa Siegal - 2019 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
Creating and sharing art has given me focus and purpose throughout the pandemic. I spent hours drawing my children to feel connected to them across our physical separation. I drew to process the social chaos and upheaval that laid bare our society’s fundamental injustices. I completed a mural at a cancer center, and saw people feel better for having art emerge from grey walls. In my studio work I have been stripping away most everything but line in an attempt to get at the essence of what I am seeing – and what I am saying. And I have turned to public art as a way to bring hope and joyful beauty to my community. Living through this year has taught me again, and more powerfully than ever, that my art is my voice.
Leslie Shiels - 2004 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
When Covid-19 mitigation began in the early spring of 2020 so also did this series of paintings. Featured in all is a favorite glass with a blue rim. It was blown by an artisan of some note and historically might contain a fine beverage, (occasionally adult in nature). The flowers represented within were gifted, grown or ‘found’. None were bought. The birds volunteered. These paintings are an homage to optimism. Each painting (some on cradled panel others on canvas) is 12”x12” .At present there are over 35 paintings & the mitigation continues. When mitigation ends this series will end. “This too shall pass”, she said. “My glass is half full.”
Hannah Sklar - 2020 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
Throughout the past year I have grounded myself in a daily drawing practice. I've found comfort and humor in conjuring surrealist speculations and imaginatory images.
I dwell on a range of visual motifs that converge throughout my work: corporal brick structures, sinewy femmes, fantastical botanicals, and masonry. By illustrating cartoonish worlds, I attempt to build new realities and queer the boundaries of my body, built environment and dying earth.
I dwell on a range of visual motifs that converge throughout my work: corporal brick structures, sinewy femmes, fantastical botanicals, and masonry. By illustrating cartoonish worlds, I attempt to build new realities and queer the boundaries of my body, built environment and dying earth.
Linda Smith - 2020 Artist-In-Residence
Statement:
This series is called "Bloody Soil" where I have photographed both Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields. The series started before Covid but the work below was processed on the floor in my apartment during the crisis. It's an ongoing project that reflects on a convoluted history.
In such intense political and social times that we as a nation are going through, this work "Bloody soil" offers the viewer an opportunity to reflect on work that deals with memory, loss and regeneration. Upon photographing landscapes that have endured battles, I then take the images and transfer them onto a variety of materials such as fabrics, paper, plastic, animal fibers and more. The blood that once covered these landscapes has been renewed and recycled back into the ground. Repetition, remembrance and regeneration are strong areas of interest in my work. I currently incorporate printmaking, sculpture and photography into my practice.
In such intense political and social times that we as a nation are going through, this work "Bloody soil" offers the viewer an opportunity to reflect on work that deals with memory, loss and regeneration. Upon photographing landscapes that have endured battles, I then take the images and transfer them onto a variety of materials such as fabrics, paper, plastic, animal fibers and more. The blood that once covered these landscapes has been renewed and recycled back into the ground. Repetition, remembrance and regeneration are strong areas of interest in my work. I currently incorporate printmaking, sculpture and photography into my practice.
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