Palmer Museum of Art Home/Studio Exhibition

From 9/30/2022

In Summer 2022, the Palmer Museum of art hosted an exhibition of 25 current PSU faculty members in the School of Visual Arts as part of the 50th anniversary of the museum. This exhibition is a response to the pandemic and social/political issues in 2020 and 2021.

On their site they state:

The works on view were shaped by the disruption to daily life and work routines, the overriding sense of uncertainty that permeated lived experience, and the physical and psychological barriers created by the confinement of sheltering in place. Lines between home and studio blurred, and home became the metaphorical studio for artists and the place where they turned challenges into opportunities and adapted, responded, and reimagined their work, producing new approaches and opening fresh lines of inquiry.

Three of my paintings were in the exhibition. These paintings were born from the response to the burning of my previous series and used the ashes from those works within this new series.

My statement:

Home and studio blended even more for my artistic practice in the past two years. Art/Work combined, and new paths were forged. My art often explores the death of an object—when is something no longer needed that can be released? 

Part of my studio practiced shifted to reassessing previous works of art and deciding if their time to pass had come. The Ignis Creatmation series explores the death of an artwork and the cycle of rebirth from its ashes. Old work was released and burned, and from its ashes new pieces were formed. Because I am a ceramic artist and painter, fire has always played a key role in my works. This ability to give rise to new ideas from the charred remains of the old helped push my work in this new direction over the pandemic, offering metaphors for the exploration of life and death.  

Read the full story: HOME/STUDIO: 2022 Penn State School of Visual Arts Faculty Show - Palmer Museum of Art (psu.edu)