October- a month of change, decay, and murder ballads for children.
Born Ruffians
—Barnacle Goose
We’re going to make plans
We have plans to make plans
We’re going to do it right
We’ve locked it in our sights
Making some small changes this fall. Born Ruffians may help.
Here is the rough cut of my artist’s profile, filmed and edited by the very talented and generous Tom Mull. There will, hopefully, be more soon. But, I thought I’d offer a sample of what’s to come and a bit of my thesis process. Thank you, Tom.
More photos to come.
Photo Credit: Rebecca Wolseley
Photos from the Barrington Gallery exhibition.
Photo Credit: Rebecca Wolseley
These collages and mixed media images by Beth Hoekel, and others, capture the bizarre, the beautiful, and grotesque.
Pieces of What
Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images
The Waste Land, T.S. Eliot
Always looking to become his own god, man denies his inherent weakness. Never allowing for relief or reality, this denial and desire for control creates violence and frustration for one’s self, which then translates to the violence and oppression of others. Myopic creatures, we overlook the beauty that lives within dysfunction and disorder.
We are uncomfortable with ambiguity or paradox. We are uncomfortable with ourselves. Instead, we prefer to dichotomize in order to make things more manageable. What a painful irony then that in seeking to ignore our brokenness, we cause further damage and alienation toward the self and others.
But, what if humans were to acknowledge their frailty and lack of control? How would perceptions change if we were to hold in tension disparate ideas, rather than discarding one or the other? This is where, I believe, real healing and truth lie. In my work, I create abstract paradigms in which this wrestling between extremes, self-denial, frustration, and reckoning interact.
This work has been much more about an intuitive process and discovery then the means to a resolution or a finished piece. Using simple, almost trash like materials I hope to accentuate the commonplace vulnerability and imperfection of body and self. I have sought to balance the possibly disturbing tones in my work with an aesthetic sense of composition, color, and movement that allows for both attraction and repulsion.
-Maia Mattson
Kiki Smith
“Our bodies have been broken apart bit by bit and need a lot of healing. Our whole society is very fragmented…everything is split, and presented as dichotomies- male/female, body/mind, and those splits need mending.”
Annette Messanger
I stick eyes back on
I unstick ears
I cut off fingers
I tear off a breast
this is my law of exchanges
I carve up
I pull to pieces…
I give birth only to chimera
This is the latest piece I am working on. The idea is body as a cage (enter Arcade Fire here). It is obviously unfinished. I am looking to add more color variety, close the bottom rectangle with wire, add a bit more wire bars, and possibly a shoulder somewhere. again I’ll move from new to old.
