Reorientation

Three artists.

Three different mediums.

One theme.

For several months I’ve created journals and boxes for the art show that opens tomorrow (October 10^th) at Chimera Gallery. Botanical artist Linda Vorobik and basket weaver Sally Anaya have been hard at work, too, with their interpretations of the theme that we hoped would be general enough for our three different art forms.

I left the hardest part of my preparations to the last—pricing my work and writing my Artist’s Statement. Every artist I know stews about assigning a dollar amount to her work, and I’m no exception. And even though I’m a writer, I struggle just like my fellow artists to describe my work creatively and succinctly. Here are the words I’ll post, as well as photographs of the pieces I’ll display.

Artist’s Statement

 Add the prefix re- to many words, and you suggest change. It’s a handy device, since much of life—and the creative process­—involves transformation, adaptation, and evolution. Preparing for this show, I reflected on recent reorientations in my life:

   refocus    …from nursing to writing and book arts

   return     …to graduate school for a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing

   revise     …essays, a memoir manuscript, query letters.

When I considered ways to “change the focus or direction of” my paper arts, I took the definition literally and figuratively. In this show, my hand-built boxes are more vertical than horizontal; some of my journals are square, instead of rectangular; and I’ve perched books in boxes that can be hung on the wall. Instead of painting on white paper to cover some of the books and boxes, I used black paper as the base and delighted in the ways the dark background changed the focus of the patterns. I also used hand-painted papers by Mabrie Ormes, an artist I met this summer at the Lithia Artisans Market in Ashland, OR.

The narrow accordion books I created unfold, just like life, in a variety of ways.

Another definition for reorient is: “to find one’s position again in relation to one’s surroundings.” Working with words and containers helps ground me to the people and places that surround me. Here are examples of the work by Sally and Linda that will surround mine. I look forward to reading their reflections on reorientation.