My show is coming, I am stressed and so busy and need to be drawing right now instead of typing but...here is the
press release!
March 4 - March 29, 2015
First Friday Opening Reception: Friday, March 6, 2015, 5:00–7:30 pm
IN THE MEMBERS' GALLERY
As an artist I have always utilized my daily life as
muse; my work inevitably reflects this. After spending years on a body
of work, I felt as if I had nowhere left to go. I found myself alone
in my studio, in a new city, with a young child, a changing relationship
with my parents as they age and I mature, and a vastly different
partner as he met a new stage in his life. I turned my eyes away from
those relationships that had so long inspired me, toward the objects
that surrounded me. The objects were real, solid, reliable, less
malleable, less fleeting, tangible markers of this moment in life. The
pile of trucks my son left on the floor was less ephemeral then the fact
that my son was changing at an unfathomable speed. The dirty blanket
on the couch was reliably there while my partner was often on his own
journey without me. The beauty of the sunlight on the plants, that I
never seemed to have time to water, made me remember why I had plants in
the first place. The objects became what located me in my state of
transition.
Not only was I transitioning in my subject but my
medium as well. I began to be satisfied with just the photograph or the
tonal variations in my thread drawings instead of needing overly
developed mixed media works. I gave myself permission to strip down,
simplify, explore and accept all of this, looking at the objects for
grounding and allowing the experimentation of medium to play out. I
have arrived at a place that is unfamiliar, totally terrifying and
absolutely wonderful.
The photographs are a return to my first way of
"seeing." In these diptychs I create a visual relationship between one
space that represents someone coming to the end of life while the other
is at the beginning. My graphite drawings allow me to zoom in on the
importance of these small, possibly insignificant objects, focusing on
their texture, tones and detail, abstracting their meaning and role
while simultaneously elevating them. Through this work I replicate the
process of the darkroom via my technique of drawing with projection
& enlargement, mirroring the process of silver halide printing and
the use of a grain focuser, the tool which brings a negative to clarity,
and using process to develop the tonal variations important to the
image. Lastly, the embroidered work is from a series of houseplants,
using the houseplant, the object, as a metaphor for a psychological
state. At what moments do our plants need to be watered and when do
they flourish? What does an overly dirty floor or overflowing sink
signify in our life? How do we listen to what these objects are trying
to tell us?
All of these works, though finished individually,
are the infancy stage of an idea, an artist and a process that is
unfinished and in transition…
Joetta Maue
The table, his house
Archival print
11 x 11 inches
2014
Joetta Maue
Details of found
Graphite drawing
22 x 30 inches
2015
Joetta Maue
The basket, her house
Archival print
11 x 11 inches
2014
I hope to see some of you!!!
Posts
