Jackson Hole Art Blog

It’s a sometimes dark, sometimes cosmic, and sometimes beautiful view photographer Thomas Macker shares with us in his new collection of images Western Heritage – Expansion/Consumption/New Age, opening at Teton Art Lab Friday, August 27. An opening reception takes place on the late side, (yes, I can hear the young folks laughin’) 7-9:00 p.m.

A visiting artist resident, Macker is in from Los Angeles.  He is a candidate for an MFA in Photography and Media at CalArts.

Macker describes this show as being concerned with “Wyoming and the western landscape….spiritual, cultural, and environmental tourism.”  In much of his other work, he takes special interest in the ironies and complexities of California.  Western Heritage delves into activities and issues as mountaineering, car camping, gmo seeds, migrant workers, alternative energy, “intergalactic colonialism,” Black Elk and the psychedelic.

I’ve spent an hour checking out Macker’s website.  I find his photography deeply affecting.  Intimate.  Political.  These are the kinds of photographs that, in this election season, those running for office should see. The photographs–portraits of place–illustrate ubiquitous ironies and plights. They more than hint at American tragedies. Private lives are exposed, fates admitted. Throughout his work Macker treats all his subjects, no matter how jarring, with unblinking honesty .

Without being noticed we watch from behind as a lone, aging man fills water bottles from a forest stream.  The night sky’s astrological patterns surrounding Perseus (The Hero) are reinterpreted by what I first thought were scattered bullets holes in glass.  A friend thought he saw the eyes of the universe. The connected spheres are in fact spores.  Domestic workers pose for Macker’s camera inside the properties they tend;  their employers are nowhere in sight.  These spotless, manicured California homes are proof of attentive care and work provided by these workers, not of the property owners. Nannies, likely immigrants, assume motherhood to babies they push in strollers.

One Macker series, With God, All Things Are Possible, depicts a region of the Ohio River Valley and is a not-so-subtle rip on the concept of a generous Deity.  A thick and heavy summer yard is vacant, save the black hole of an ignored trampoline.  A dead coyote lies at the side of a road, a woman nuzzles her shepherd; but the most heart-stopping image concerns a young cougar tethered to a pole in a back yard.  The cat stalks our photographer and its jailer—some guy I presume is trafficking in wildlife, or he works for a circus—plays ringmaster.

It took me a moment to notice the pistol lying on the bed next to a man in a motel room.  The man talks animatedly; he’s wearing a Carnegie Mellon t-shirt.

These are only descriptions of Macker’s photographs, and I fear I may put you off checking out the contents of Western Heritage. This show’s cover image  — girls in blue plastic innertubes lolling about in tall Wyoming grasses while a buff dude repairs a chain link fence protecting solar panels — reveals sharp, wry humor.  Go see it.  Put your thinking cap on.  In America, concerned as we are with issues of constitutionality and culturalism, this a potentially thought provoking show.

To view Macker’s work check out http://www.fotocoyote.com/

www.tetonartlab.com

Item #2

Jackson Hole’s 2010 Fall Arts Festival is fast approaching. Portions of the  National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Western Visions/Sixth Annual Photography Show & Sale/ Fourth Annual Sketch Show & Sale are now available to view.   Events continue through Sunday, September 26, 2010.

Highlights include:

• The Sketch Show & Sale (King Gallery) displays work by participating Western Visions artists and includes simple pencil sketches to studies in oil or acrylic.
• Tuesday, September 7, 2010 —  5:30 to 8:30 pm enjoy Tapas and a presentation by 2010  Featured Scupltor Simon Gudgeon for a special Art After Hours. Program is free. Reservations for tapas required and can be made by calling 307-732-5434.
• Thursday, September 9,  12:05 pm. —  Art Alive @ 12:05 features a talk by Simon Gudgeon.  Museum galleries;  free.
• Wednesday, September 15  —  12th Annual Jewelry & Artisan Luncheon, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.  Register by Wednesday, September 8.    307.732.5412.
• Thursday, September 16, 2010 —-  Plein Air Sketching Workshop led by Featured Painter Mary Roberson.   8-11:30 a.m.   Hands-on outdoor instruction overlooking National Elk Refuge.  Cost:  $45.    Reservations required via Jane Lavino.    307.732.5417.   ALSO: Museum Gallery Walk,  1-2:00 pm.  Led by Simon Gudgeon, he will talk about some of his favorite NMWA works.   Free for members or with Museum admission.  AND, Jewelry & Artisan Show & Sale begins today, continuing through Friday, September 17.  View and select offerings of exquisite handmade jewelry, silver items and accessories.

• Thursday, September 16  —- 23rd Annual Wild West Artist Party,  6:30 – 10:30 p.m.  Location is National Museum of Wildlife Art.   Live music, dancing, plenty of good fare.   Register by Wednesday, September 8.   307.732.5412.

• Friday, September 17  —- Featured Painter Presentation and Poster Signing, 1:00 pm.    Mary Roberson will speak about her art and influences.  Free for members or with Museum admission.
• Friday, September 17  —-  23rd Annual Miniatures and More Show & Sale. Doors open 3:30 pm;  Bidding closes 5:30 pm; Presentation begins 6:30 pm.   Event features over 150 top American artists. Reservations required by September 8.   307.732.5434.

And, a new addition for 2010:

Wednesday, September 29 — Art A’Brewin’ 10:00 am – 4:00 pm.   Enjoy coffee and fruit at the Museum, and pick up your purchased artwork.  Browse works still available.  Fun, free, open to the public.

An online Western Visions Catalog can be found here; you can read succinct artist biographies and, for some artists, interview content.

www.wildlifeart.org

“In the years since meeting David, I’ve come to respect his ability to combine his artistic eye with a strong understanding of the craft of photography, the technique of putting light on paper. A stunning example of this is David’s unique interpretation of platinum/palladium printing, which incorporates many layers of visual information, giving it a painterly quality. The effect is to draw the observer back to the image repeatedly, unlike a typical photograph that can be absorbed in a single viewing. This is why David’s work is fine art that transcends specific time and place.” – Angela Pearson Bramson

Photographer – entrepreneur David Brookover, now the owner of two galleries showcasing his large format photography, has published his new book, The Road. Brookover is publishing two versions, each with its own price point.  The book becomes available in June 2010.

The Road – The Photographs of David Brookover will be published in a “trade edition” and a “collector’s edition.”   The former is available for $125, and the book’s first run is 1350 editions;  the latter sells for $975 and will have only 150 editions printed. Portfolio cases will be Kanji stamped with the Japanese symbol “Michi,” Japanese for “Road.” Brookover is using heavy Italian cotton rag paper, with “absolutely no optical brighteners so the images will be around for a very long time.”

That’s a heck of a price differential but Brookover is a savvy,  hands-on marketer.  The Road collector’s edition will be bound in rich red cloth and housed in a clothed portfolio encasing a Brookover platinum palladium print.  Two years ago, feeling the need to move away from the large, sexy color photographs (noted for seemingly endless depth of field and detail) that built his reputation, Brookover began creating platinum prints from existing plates, as well as taking new photographs.

The Road catalogs Brookover’s platinum prints, the focus of the photographer’s endeavors in recent years.  A few images depict physical roads, but the book’s title signifies Brookover’s continual travels around the United States and Japan in pursuit of his muse.   His camera captures deserts, coastlines, forests, the Southwest, pueblos, canyons, solitary trees of garden, woods and valleys, and Japanese gardens.   The book includes one nude portrait.

The Road, self-published, is only available for purchase at Brookover’s two galleries, located in Jackson Hole and Santa Fe.   www.davidbrookover.com.

Item #2

Collage artist Ricki Arno divides her time between Jackson Hole and New York.   A native New Yorker, Arno has been steeped in that city’s arts culture all of her life.  Her one-woman show, “Ricki Arno,” goes on display at Teton Art Lab on June 4, and a reception will be held that evening.

Her art is heavily influenced by New York’s fast moving, self-updating art movements.  Arno, a grandmother, is a graffiti artist at heart. Do not look for an artist dudette, even though Arno is, by her own account, an “urbanista.”  When you find yourself attending this show’s opening reception, look for the lady resembling Edith Head.

“Street Art that has become a part of my vision living in NYC, and the constant barrage of natural crisis and world events heavily pepper my work by influencing my eye, my heart and my hand. I love passionately seductive colors and have used them full force in my new works,” says Arno.

A woman, presumably the artist, is at the core of most of Arno’s compositions, which she calls “sketches.”  These are personal works reflecting the effects of global change and life experiences on Arno;  dream content floods each space.   Arno’s attention to, and ability to manipulate, detail is almost excruciating in its exactness.  Years ago, NYC life had her working in fashion and textile design, advertising and….cake decorating.  Arno’s decorated sweets and confections were legend for New Yorkers demanding her work, and brought Arno to the attention of many industry publications.

In my mind Arno’s dramatic, multi-dimensional and hotly colored compositions are operatic.  In her next life, she’ll make a grand set designer.

Though I know quite a bit about Arno’s creative process, I am going to keep that knowledge to myself;  mystery is part of this magic. See her results first, get everything you thought you knew about collage blown away.  Then, ask Arno about her process.

If the deadline has not passed, you might sign up for her summer 2010 Art Association Class.   Arno will lead her workshop “Mixed Media Collage: Combining Bare Bones Photoshop with Traditional Palettes” June 21-25.    Check their website for more info or call Mallory at 307.733.6379.

Nicolai Ouroussoff’s March 31, 2010 article in the New York Times Arts Section brings to light a plan to reconstruct Haiti’s urban infrastructure by breaking up the population of over-crowded Port-au-Prince into smaller cities.   These compact towns, if realized, are termed “smaller urban growth poles,” and could dramatically change Haiti’s economic, social and political future.

If you haven’t already, you can click on the above link and read the entire article.  If you are short on time, here’s a bare-bones synopsis:

• The new urban distribution plan centers on the idea that many smaller cities would be established in areas of Haiti least likely to be struck by natural disaster.  Port-au-Prince would no longer be the dominant city.  Currently, Port-au-Prince has almost no sewage treatment and its building code is “barely two pages long.”
• Ouroussoff says these plans, still being developed, already best early rebuilding plans post-Katrina and post-Tsunami.
• Haiti’s woes go back a century, when America began concentrating trade ops in Port-au-Prince, shutting down other existing Haiti ports.   By 1960, François Duvalier shut down any remaining ports in a bid for total political control via a single power base.
• Over 20 years, the city’s population almost doubled, to 3 million people.  The “effect of the shift was an urban disaster – one that has put more and more pressure on the capital while draining the provinces of economic opportunity.”
• The quake has made redistribution away from Port-au-Prince’s major fault line and its exposure to landslides and floods a logical step.   Thousands of the city’s buildings were destroyed, practically leveling it, as the world has seen.   Refugees have fled, moving to other regions of Haiti.
• Planners hope relocation services like hospitals and schools will encourage re-establishment of new urban centers.  They propose organizing new buildings around public parks and the like, which would provide sorely needed civic center points.   Similar plans would be applied to rural areas, with farms surrounding central core services areas.   Public structures would be paid for by the government.
• Light rail is proposed.  Earthquake debris (millions of cubic tons) would serve as shoreline landfill, that could be turned into parks.
• One planner noted that “We should think in terms of the city’s urban evolution rather than large-scale development.”
• Haiti planners need access to money and ideas; the University of Miami’s “new urbanism” proponents can advise.
• Ouroussoff ends his article by observing that “….a connection between good urban planning ideas and political realities on the ground was never made (in New Orleans).  The best plans went nowhere.  Let’s pray that doesn’t happen in Haiti.”

Item #2:

University of Wyoming (UW) Adjunct Professor Nathan Abel’s print exhibition Origins, on display at Teton Art Lab May 7-31, also includes prints produced by members of the UW Print Exchange.

Besides being an accomplished artist, Abel is able to write with languid beauty about his work.   Working to connect with a father he has no conscious memory of,  Abel incubates his native landscapes, giving them new life that exists in binary-colored melancholy.

“In a time when oral history is diminishing I cling to the histories passed on to me by family members. My interpretation of those memories exist between the unconscious and the conscious mind. Through my work I explore the common ground that I feel I share with my father whom I never consciously knew. I utilize the rural landscape (where I grew up and still feel the most at home) in juxtaposition with integrated personal archetypes. The images exist as a dialogue between memories of the old family farm, photographs my father took, and my own personal narratives.”

Through his printing process, Abel is building what he calls a “dialog of history.”

“Wyoming” connotes thoughts of vast, wind blown space.   Memories, in pictorial and written forms, sift their way through the ages.   Abel is a highly conscious artist, taking history seriously.   This is the true road.

Chuck Close Self-Portrait Woodcut, 2009 Woodcut in 47 colors Image Size: 28 x 23 inches Paper Size: 35 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches Edition of 70 Printed by Karl Hecksher Published by Pace Editions, Inc.

Now that Teton Art Lab (TAL) has taken up official residency as a Center for the Arts tenant, with representation on the Center’s website, newsletters, et cetera, TAL’s executive director Travis Walker is announcing some exciting shows.

Though Jackson’s 2010 September Fall Arts Festival is a ways off, TAL has sent word that its FAF highlight will be a show of woodblock prints of the works of famed artists Chuck Close, Richard Estes and Alex Katz.    The show represents the first time these works will be seen in Wyoming.   Each exhibition print is the work of New York City master print maker Karl Hecksher, who will also be teaching a class on traditional Japanese hand printing, Moku Hanga.

The exhibition runs September 10 – October 5, 2010.   Mark your calendars.

Close’s work knocks Walker out.

“In 1998, I saw an exhibition of Close’s work at the MoMA in NY,” says Walker.  “It floored me. I had seen photorealistic work before, such as Richard Estes (also in the exhibit), but what he was doing with these images seemed pretty genius, an Escher like blend of math, art, and science. Close makes big pieces with fingerprints, paper pulp, and overlapping circles of color, that become little abstractions up close, but are photorealistic from a distance. Those fingerprint pieces are especially awesome.”

Walker feels the accessibility of Close’s work appeals to the TAL mission, because its so readily educational.  Walker himself says he’s not previously been exposed to Estes’ photorealism.  “When I was a kid, a Jackson Pollock said nothing to me, but the photorealistic stuff was really amazing, technically. How did they do that?”

Walker says this is an unprecedented opportunity for Jackson residents to work with one of the world’s most noted print makers.   And, he giddily notes, the exhibit is free.

Hecksher is a friend of TAL board member David Gottfried. Schwing!   Hecksher, the founder, owner and director of K5 Editions LLC, has been printing in a variety of media since 1983. He spent the first three years after college as head printer at Prasada Press, collaborating with artists on stone and plate lithography.  In 1986 he became a New York artist, printing editions at several major print studios.

Hecksher’s goal is to establish a more painterly approach to printmaking, one reflective of the individual artist’s touch; to make the print speak clearly and express the artist’s intentions.  He’s been at it for two decades, honing his skills, and working with a full roster of noted artists.

A few years back, Walker took in a Portland, Oregon show of these prints and their matrixes.

” At the show there were these intricately carved wood blocks, stencils, paper screens, and etching plates that were just as beautiful as the prints themselves, side by side with the work to help viewers mentally grasp his process. It was truly mind blowing, from a printmakers perspective, to see the work involved in carving the blocks or etching the copper plates….At that time the Artlab was only a couple of months old, and we had only started to plan our printmaking studio. I knew if we ever did get a print program off of the ground, this work was something we should try and exhibit. So Dave made it happen with a few phone calls and a visit to Karl’s studio,” says Walker.

For his part, Hecksher is thrilled to be introducing his experience and method to Jackson artists.  His hope is that students will develop their own personal approach to wood block printing.

(Photo, top Left: Chuck Close Self-Portrait Woodcut, 2009 Woodcut in 47 colors Image Size: 28 x 23 inches Paper Size: 35 1/2 x 28 1/2 inches Edition of 70 Printed by Karl Hecksher Published by Pace Editions, Inc.)

Man, I am so old.  I go lookin’ for images to post up for Teton Art Lab’s call to artists, for its upcoming “Wallpaper” exhibition, and I think I will find oodles of gorgeous decorator wall papers.  Grass paper, Ralph Lauren patterns, accents, borders, stenciling, flocks; and themes like “The Hunt,” “Jungle,”  “Rose Garden,” “Zen,” “Star Wars,”….

But no.  It’s all about “Anime” and desktop and video games and such.

Teton Artlab is seeking entries for its second annual “Wallpaper” exhibition, to be held from December 4th – 23rd, 2009.

All works on paper are eligible, provided they are UNFRAMED and under 48″ on the longest side. Submissions must be dropped off at Teton Art Lab (up on the third floor of the Center for the Arts) by November 27th. This is a juried show, and works that are not destined to be part of the show will be returned by December 3rd.

Entries should have the artist’s name, phone number, and email, either on the back of the work or included with a portfolio.

For information, send a note…not written, but emailed…to :info@tetonartlab.com.

Item #2

Lyndsay McCandless has announced she is “pushing the pause button”  on SLAM, Jackson’s grass roots artist market modeled on the town’s Saturday Farmer’s Market.  She will also cease producing First Fridays, music events and all parties for now.

McCandless says the Town of Jackson has deemed her gallery space “not up to code,” and has notified her that the gallery may not hold gatherings with more than 45 people.

Well, that’s huge, because McCandless has transitioned the gallery space into the local contemporary art community’s primary gathering place.  She has been the heart, the Energizer Bunny, for young visual artists here.   The ceasing of McCandless events leaves a big black hole in our arts scene.  I don’t know the extent of SLAM’s effect on our local arts economy, but any slice taken out of our artistic family’s financial pie is a painful loss.

I call again on commercial property owners to offer up empty store front space to local artists!   This is ridiculous!

McCandless says the shut down forces her to reevaluate LMC’s future.  Stay tuned.

I’ve asked McCandless why, after occupying the space on Jackson Street for as long as she has, the space is suddenly deemed not up to code; if it’s printable, I’ll give you the answer when I receive it.

The information below was written last Wednesday—but I was subsequently asked to push back the release of the post;  hence all the references to events last week. Bottom line:  Teton Art Lab is back in Jackson Town.

*

Briefly:  You might have seen Travis Walker walking around, and he’s walking around because Teton Art Lab will end up moving into a studio space at Jackson Hole Center for the Arts.  This happens soon.   No details yet.

Walker plans to attend Rocky Vertone’s Friday night opening of his new gallery space, located at Full Circle Frameworks, North Glenwood.  5:30 start time.    Come and get your scoop!   Rocky has not responded to my fears that the Associated Press may come raid the party; the news service ‘retained’ a certain HOPE artist behind bars, just yesterday.

More publicity!  All publicity is good.  It all makes for  good chat material tomorrow evening, and beyond.  Welcome back, Travis!   Kudos to the Center for incorporating new tenants, and strengthening  our arts community resources.  One for all!

End.

Jackson Hole artist and Teton Art Lab gallery owner Travis Walker will host what will be the shop’s last opening, this Friday evening, December 5, 6-8:00 p.m. The gallery, converted to non-profit status with a mission to exhibit and nurture emerging contemporary artists, recently completed all the paperwork necessary to convert to non-profit, only to learn that crucial funding will likely no longer be available after year’s end.

“Wallpaper,” a show featuring the works of over 30 artists–many recruited by sculptor Abby Miller–will showcase unframed, affordable art imported from New York City and other east coast locations, as well as work by local artists. The works will literally paper the walls, and the evening presents a rare opportunity to see and purchase works by artists exposed to the most innovative trends and techniques.

Walker’s exhibitions are beautiful and edgy…he explores every opportunity to support and grow new Jackson Hole art traditions; he’s an arts pioneer for today.

“We need to regroup and downsize,” says Walker, who has financed the gallery with his own savings, and that of his wife. When she lost her job and benefits, the couple worried. Now, their web design jobs are evaporating; with additional funding losses looming, the couple may be looking to move to a larger urban venue where graphics work is still relatively plentiful.

“Everything we’ve worked for over the past five years disappeared,” says Walker. “But I couldn’t ask more of Jackson Hole than I’ve been given. It’s been amazing on so many levels.”

A fractured economy and a dearth of alternate venues threaten Teton Art Lab’s future. But, as Walker says, “Take time to look around and you will see some very special work.”

The following is a forward I wrote for Walker’s summer exhibition “Views of Jackson.” This essay is not just about Walker’s work; it’s also about the Western spirit we value, the spirit that brings us here. I hope you read this, and I hope you pay a visit to the gallery. Located at 135 N. Cache, it’s next to Teton Thai. 307-699-0836. – Tammy Christel

Travis Walker’s Long Look

“Everywhere I’ve ever been, my art has been about that place. I remember most powerfully the places I’ve painted and drawn. The act of recording them makes me remember.” – Travis Walker

Stories of the frontier spirit’s death are premature. Alive in our contemporary art movement, it brings Jackson’s transient arts subculture to new creative levels. If and when artists leave, they take away inspiration drawn from western space and consciousness.

“Views of Jackson” is painter Travis Walker’s plain and simple title for a collection mining deep emotional turf. A child of the military, Walker is well acquainted with transience. As a result, he recognizes that just as the first settlers ventured into unfamiliar territory, Jackson’s new artists drop all trepidation. The east coast’s cultural cacophony is silenced, and a singular natural process takes over.

Walker is a satellite, zooming in and out of our landscapes, freezing vast spaces and solitary formations. We’re light years away from a moment just captured. Flaxen parachutes float forever. Still, purple evening shadows never give way to night. These landscapes are our ideal; they’re uninhabited, but histories are embedded. Deserted cabins hold the energy and sadness of generations. Blank windows and headlights, eyes of the universe. Beneath Walker’s surfaces is an extraterrestrial glow he never quite paints down, a light peeking out from behind closed doors.

“I want my paintings to be like windows, points of light that brighten a room,” he says.

Trailers are Walker’s most current symbol of the transient west. Manifestations of contradictory words, “mobile” and “home,” trailers epitomized the American dream. Paraphrasing writer Bruce Caron, Walker notes it is difficult to travel more than five miles in the west without seeing trailers. They’re everywhere. Where did they come from, seemingly plopped down from nowhere? Built for transit but stuck to the earth, these bodies are hunkered down like hermit crabs.

“Now trailers are extra sleeping space and repositories for junk,” says Walker. “They represent paradise lost, the decayed American ideal value. We’ve come back to earth as a society; we put our faults on display on reality television.”

Walker believes small town dialog is stronger than that of a large city.

“The benefits outweigh childish tendencies to avoid someone because you’ve had an argument. I’ll take the exchange of ideas—we’re all tapping from the same well, this western idea of space and color. Our art is unique; you won’t find work like it anywhere else unless it’s in a European context or another mountain town. Take time to look around, and you will see some very special work.”

In the end, inspiration is everywhere, even in trailers. “I paint them for the same reason I paint other things,” says Walker. “I think they are beautiful.”

Tammy Christel
July, 2008

Jenny Dowd’s chalky sculptures look like teeth. Or books made of teeth.  For Dowd, teeth and hair are linked to information.

One can’t find everything on the Internet.

An obsessive need to examine, retain, manipulate and isolate information informs Dowd’s current exhibition, “A Silent Dialogue,” on display at Jackson’s Teton Art Lab through January.  For this show, Dowd treats her space like a botanist’s spread board.  Porcelain book forms set on pressed pulp shelves are arranged like data card perforations.  But Dowd’s sculptures also have the look of excavated finds about to turn to dust; cataloged lost anthologies, with titles like “Books about Pods and Teeth,”  “Small Moth Journal,” and  “Three Part Pod Anthology.”

The work suggests the De Stijl movement’s purity and pared down universality – as well as its spirituality – imposed upon the Renaissance’s curiosity cabinets, likely the original ‘found object’ art form.  Those cabinets were small, framed stages filled with collected objects, their maker’s assembly of natural and unnatural articles. Often displaying botanical specimens, curiosity cabinets were attempts to understand and control the world while providing a way to marvel at its mysteries.

“If someone dies tragically and they can’t tell who the person is, they go to dental records,” explains Dowd.  “It’s amazing. You can’t destroy yourself.  They can extract DNA from hair without follicles.   There’s infinite information in that tiny package.  We gain and lose so much information, and that goes back to books; and that goes back to my fear of losing information, not just my own, but everything everywhere.”

Turning fear of loss into energy for collecting, and recycling that into creating delicate, want-to-touch-it sculpture is Dowd’s lifelong m.o.  As a child on family vacations, she collected paper napkins, scribbling places and dates on the backs.  She packed the napkins away in boxes.  She has difficulty throwing things out.   And she has frequent dreams about losing teeth; dreams that began during a period when she lived and worked in rural Georgia, making daily contact with a population living on the poverty line.

She began counting the people with less than four teeth.

“After Hurricane Katrina, a lot of people from New Orleans came to our town.  And it was around then I started noticing people’s teeth,” says Dowd.  “And me, I can’t afford to go get my haircut, go to the eye doctor, but every six months I go to the dentist.  I don’t care if I pay in change.”

What is so interesting about Dowd’s work is her channeling of potentially gruesome themes into gentle, poetic sculpture. Placed on Dowd’s books are fat cicada specimens, expertly mounted. They’re sleeping beauties beneath gossamer mesh.  Other books display yellow-winged butterflies, ginkgo leaves, and ladybugs.  Some contain spores, nuts and pods. String and hair wrap them, and Dowd’s tea stains suggest geological striations. Faint writings trace book surfaces and are difficult, if not impossible, to read.

Dowd thinks in temperatures rather than colors.  Remove color and you are left with structure and texture.  Dowd searches for warmth or, alternately, a sense of loss or wear.   Early book sculptures were crafted to look as if they’d been sitting in an attic exposed to floods or fire, suggesting various stages of decay.

Now, they’re rescued.

Is Dowd baking the bricks of a new arts religion, mixing biology, aesthetics and creation?  Is she the Creator?  She’s trying to make sense of something.  By remaking books, pods, and teeth forms she hopes to know everything about them. A previous project, “Mistaking Artifice for Reality,” was arranged as museums display ancient artifacts. Countless Golden Rain Tree seedpod models were positioned on stands outfitted with magnifying glasses, with a stool that placed Dowd a perfect six inches above her pods.  Dowd’s projects are specifically scaled to accommodate her own physicality.

The making of one form leads to the making of ten, then hundreds, one thousand.   Like dividing cells.

In the current thicket of ‘found object’ art, Dowd’s sculptures are a new and alluring species.

Tammy Christel