Description of Work

Reach - 2021 - Mixed media - Not for Sale

Apart - 2021 - Mixed media - Not for Sale

Artist's Statement

In an increasingly industrial and digital world, I have always been interested the developing systems of instant connection that fill our lives. As our society and interactions become increasingly intertwined with instant connectivity to others and others to ourselves, I often feel a greater disconnection to the world outside my immediate circle, despite the illusion of a greater reach. I feel it is important to consider possible consequences of reliance on that digital and industrial connectivity within those societal and environment links, and that they may be more fragile than we feel.

My work explores this connectivity organic forms and structures, creating related systems reminiscent of nervous or circulatory systems within an organism. Experiencing the structures of the natural world is the originator in my process. Being among the trees, fungi, root structures, animal nests and homes, the animals and organisms allow me to feel my connection to the other pieces of my ecosystem. The plant structures, and other internal structures of the organisms I see influence the visual components and structure of my work. Moss, blood, bones, roots, nerves, cells all influence me in my process of making objects.

I use a mixed media approach to create these synapse-like clusters; each object begins in a skeletal form, then is covered in layers of pigments to describe its surface. These objects are then combined with others to create a ‘system’ of them. Systems are combined with other systems and arranged in relation to one another. The structure of the individual objects creates the notion of links within systems in an organism's interior, but the arrangement of several of these objects denotes the connection of other organisms to one another. The exposed and fragile appearance of the structures reflects what I feel to be the precarious relationship between ourselves and the larger ecosystems of people and organisms around us, as our world becomes more protective of the industrial and digital.

Link to Artist's Website

If you wish to purchase any of these pieces, please contact the gallery director, Jacqueline Nathan (jnathan@bgsu.edu.)