Earthy Abstraction

I was very pleased to have "Reading the Runes:Stones of Power" accepted into the Earthy Abstraction show in North Carolina.

A Juried Competition, March 27 – May 16, 2015

Arts Council Galleries at

301 Hay Street, Fayetteville, NC

 

Ellington-White Contemporary Gallery (EWCG) in partnership with the Arts Council Fayetteville/Cumberland County invited artists to submit entries to a juried competition entitled Earthy Abstraction.  This exhibition features artists that work with or incorporate elements of natural materials such as soil, clay, wood, stone and other materials into their visual practice.  The works have a direct connection in theme, texture, and materials with the natural world.

 

Arts Council Gallery Hours
Monday - Thursday: 9 am to 5pm
Friday: 9 am to noon  •  Saturday: noon to 4 pm

The natural materials in this piece include stones, driftwood, an acorn cap, natural indigo dye and rusty metal.

The stones rest on a complex cloth, which I first indigo dyed and rusted. I then did some image transfers and some painting. There are five stones which represent the following powers: Growth, Decay, Drift, Persistence and Ice.

Decay - May 2012 Bead Journal Project

 My rune stone for May is "Decay" - very much complementary to my April piece "Growth".

Decay is yet another force that on the surface seems negative; yet imagine a world where nothing decayed - "stuff" of every kind, piling up around us, nothing breaking down and being reused - life would simply be unlivable,  as life on earth is based on smaller organisms breaking down the larger and creating nutrients as a byproduct. Many of the agents of decay are not terribly attractive, but some are quite beautiful, like the fungus that dot the forest floor each autumn,

Decay is just another form of transformation, neither positive or negative, just necessary!

  

I have again used a Mackinac beach stone as a base, with another beach find as my focal piece - some kind of rusty widget. I especially like the little pebble wedged in the bend. I made sure the base stone was visible through the hole in the widget.

I created a bezel using yet more decayed items - Victorian era cut steel beads from an old evening bag; I love the mix of rust and shine. They are also a good example of my own personal transformation - I began beading by reproducing Edwardian beaded evening bags and have now moved in a completely different direction.

On the back is another rusty bit, with lovely patina, roughly wired into place.

I showed this to an artist friend of mine and was surprised when she described it as "dainty" - what do you think?