Working Tiny in Tiny Spaces.

Coming up soon, October 5th to be exact, the Garden Valley Center for the Arts will be exhibiting my work, along side of George Gledhill, a potter from Payette, Idaho. His works are so earthy and balanced, well defined and exquisite! I am excited to pair my paintings and assemblage pieces with his work. I haven't had much opportunity to show the assemblage due to their fragile nature. It should make for a truly earthy exhibition! 

I was born and raised in Idaho, in a small town on a quaint farm. I am always looking at the ground and picking things up. As a child, gifted with terrible eyesight, to see much of anything I had to hold it really close to my eyes. I enjoyed the details up close and personal, each line, every texture, and of course, color. When it came to my attention that I wasn't seeing the way others were (aka - the chalkboard in first grade) a cute pair of tiny little pink glasses with thick lenses were introduced, and everything took on a whole new life, with sharp lines, ridges, and definition. Literally, albeit not peripherally.

My workspace is (gorgeously) cluttered with remains of plant and animal, rocks of textural interest, seeds, feathers and pods - tiny works of art in their own right - that find new homes in sheltered boxes.  My own little curios, wonders. They are personal, and each has it's own story of where or when it was discovered, or who left what on my porch. 

The first assemblage I made was in 2010, (after 3 days roaming around in the Seven Devils wilderness), to celebrate 3 years of adventures with the mister. Representative of our time together - foraging, homesteading, run-ins with critters (Danger!), exploring, rockhounding, freedom, love and fleeting time, with respect to the past.

"Oh, the Places We Will Go!"
Collection of the Mister

From there it was an easy transition into creating new worlds for lost and forgotten items.

"Light at the End of the Tunnel"
gopher trap, gopher skull, poppy tops, poppy seeds, dill, chicken feathers, old animal medicine bottles
Artist's Collection

This trap belonged to my grandfather.  He has poked gophers for many, many, years. I remember collecting gopher tails with him and turning them in for 50 cents each, and then grandpa would take us girls out to the Arctic Circle for ice cream on the proceeds. I think I still have a tail in an envelope in my childhood dresser. Probably quite gross by now, if there is anything left. Anyway, he has plenty of these traps around the farm, and it wasn't until I promised him that I would make art out of it that he sent it home with me.

This particular kind of gopher trap has a hole (hidden under the skull in the image) and is inserted into the gopher tunnel hole side up. When the gopher sees light coming into his home, he comes up to fill it in, hits the rod in the middle (the "vase" is in) and it snaps the trap. Hence, he goes for the light at the end of the tunnel, and then he...... finds the light at the end of the tunnel... 

On that note - I will now present a picture of our Frye kitten with his stolen dinner plate prize, circa 2008.

Aww, isn't he adorable?