1708 Gallery

Breathing Machine by Pam Anderson

Conundrum by Mary (Ginna) Cullen

detail of Beam by Tim DeVoe

ERIK GONZALEZ
Paint, in its most basic material existence, is a means of covering. Understandings of reality, again in their most basic material existences, are also methods of covering. As the persistent and ubiquitous existences of religion, science, art and philosophy can attest, the exact and full nature of reality is far from perceptible. Like a small child attempting to throw a blanket over the ghost in his room, humans have been covering existence with all manner of blankets since the beginning of communication. History, science, music, art, math... languages of all kinds act in a similar fashion as do layers of paint: always occupying a simultaneous relationship between both revelation and deception. It is within this conceptual framework that my most recent work has developed.

Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Gonzalez received a BFA in Painting and Printmaking from VCU in 2008 and will earn his MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University in 2010. His works have been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows in Richmond, Virginia since 2003.

The Solipsist Practices A Square Dance by Erik Gonzalez, courtesy of Page Bond Gallery

Over Under Spark and Ember by Christine Gray

Construct 508 by Chris Gregson, courtesy of Reynolds Gallery

Blossom by Barbara Tisserat

Bazooka by Harry Winfiele

Ruth Bolduan (painting)
http://washingtonart.com/Bold.HTML

"A Bay Horse Got By the Leeds Arabian," 1715
John Wootton
The Paul Mellon Collection

I am drawn to history, horses, and people. Eighteenth century paintings portray a time when beauty of form and phrase was linked to intellect, desire, fashion, and taste. A period of glitter and doom, the 18th century resonates in our lives today. John Wootton’s magnificent painting of a horse and groom in the landscape reminds me of why I make paintings.

Ruth Bolduan, Wootton’s Horse, 2010, 16” x 20”, Oil on canvas, $2,000

Sally Bowring (painting)
http://sallybowring.com

"Egyptian Garden"
Ancient Art Collection

“Green Garden” references the plan of Sennufer’s Garden, the most famous illustration of an Egyptian garden and the world’s oldest accurate plan of a garden. I became interested in this particular image after working with the “garden” as subject matter for several years. The previous garden paintings were about domestic behavior of planning, arranging and enforcing order or constant chaos- both the garden and home-life. Prior to these paintings the physical format of my work was putting small paintings together to make one large one. This semi-grid structure has always intrigued me and once again I found an ordered format to hold my chaos.

Sally Bowring, Green Garden, 2009,
60” x 60”, Acrylic on birch panel, $8,000
courtesy of Reynolds Gallery

David Choi (sculpture)

"Portrait of Mrs. French's White Lap Dog"
George Stubbs
The Paul Mellon Collection

“The useless is beautiful because it is less real than the useful that extends and prolongs itself, while the marvelously futile, the gloriously infinitesimal, remains where it is- doesn’t stop being what it is, lives free and independent.” Fernando Pessoa

In my work, I try to emphasize the importance of play and the freeness of frivolity.
Without direct or strictly guided ambitions, creation is to exploit the baseness of materials in a process that liberates and allows them to nobly mutate and transform into something more fantastical than the imagination holds.
The transformation of useless materials is an alchemical process of creation. When something is declared useless, it has more strive to be, making it non-complacent in the endless search for definition and meaning.
One should not have expectations or a purpose in the act of true creation. I am most interested in a story-less narrative that in turn, is endless in conclusion. My art is a mythology that has no era and has yet to be unturned.

Dave Choi, Miss French's lapdog, 2010,
15 x 7 x 7, Glass, taxidermy, fake fur and hot glue, $2,800
courtesy of The Hogar Collection

Sonya Clark (mixed media)
http://www.sonyaclark.com/

"A Ride for Liberty- The Fugitive Slaves," 1862
Eastman Johnson (American, 1824-1906)
Paul Mellon Collection

Cloth speaks and so does hair. Like textiles, hairstyles express politics, heritage, and culture. This piece juxtaposes the two. The traditional African American Hairstyling techniques of cornrows and Bantu knots become the stars and stripes of the American flag against a backdrop of the Confederate flag. And so these complicated histories coincide. This work was inspired by Eastman Johnson's 1862 painting, “A Ride for Liberty-The Fugitive Slaves”. Johnson was one of very few American painters in the time period to depict this complicated history.

Sonya Clark, Confederate Hair Flag, 2010, 52” x 26”, Paint and thread on canvas, $7,500

Don Crow (mixed media)

"Wall Drawing #541"
Sol LeWitt
Sydney and Francis Lewis Collection

Sol Le Witt’s geometric paintings are an inspiration for the directness of the imagery, the lack of artifice and the sentiment that the - merely visual- is enough to create a significant aesthetic experience.

Don Crow, Untitled 1, 2010, Collage and mixed media on panel, $350

Diana Detamore (drawing)

"Cycladic Female Figure"
ca 2400 BC
Ancient Art Collection

It is not unusual to find me wandering the galleries of the Virginia Museum in the middle of the day. I was introduced to the wonders and mysteries of spending time in art museums at an early age. My high school art teacher frequently took us to visit his "girlfriend" Rogier van der Weyden's “Portrait of a Lady”, c. 1460, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. I found the museum to be a place for introspection, intellectual curiosity, creative inspiration, as well as a respite from my everyday travails.
The Cycladic figure depicted in my painting is believed to be a fertility symbol. and evocative of the power of the feminine, the wisdom and mystery of the universe's cyclical regeneration. She has a timeless quality. It is not coincidence that I stumbled upon her in my museum wanderings for these evocative themes continue to intrigue me.

Diana Detamore, Muse 2010, 15” x 19”, Encaustic and oil on panel, $625

Aimee Joyaux (sculpture)
http://web.mac.com/reddogpress

"Beaded Crown" 19-20C,
Yoruba culture, African art collection

I am drawn to and inspired by African art in general and this Yoruba headpiece specifically because of the patterns and rich surfaces. Whether embellished as a form of decoration or as the result of function, much of this work seems like a direct conduit of power and spirituality. These totems are my attempt to embody these influences by creating objects of enough grandeur to wear one of those Yoruba beaded crowns. I was challenged here to adorn the figure, not something I deal with often as an artist. I’m also playing with a postmodern pastiche of cultural, aesthetic, and religious references. I see my background of Catholicism, Hawaiian deities, and the totems of the Pacific Northwest, places I have lived, and more recent references from Petersburg and Richmond, a history I am learning, meld into this visual exploration.
I have named my figures St. Benedict the Black and St. Lucy. Through them I have come closer to my past and my present.

Aimee Joyaux, St. Lucy (left), 2010, 80” x 12” x 8”, Papier maché, wire, paint, wax, $2,400

Aimee Joyaux, St. Benedict the Black (right), 2010, 98” x 13” x 6”, Papier maché, wire, paint, wax, $2,400

Andrew Kozlowski (printmaking)
http://www.andrewkozlowski.com

"Soup Tureen, Cover and Liner," 1736
PAUL DE LAMERIE (English , 1688 - 1751)
From the English Silver collection

Perhaps it was the time I spent working in a museum that helped cultivate my interest in those objects that share space with masterpieces, but are often relegated to the status of supporting cast. Objects of the decorative art departments feature the unique characteristics of at times being, functional, ornamental, grand, or ceremonial, often sharing one or more of these characteristics. I see these objects not in terms of the allegories depicted on them or periods that they were crafted in, but as a whole, a representation of class distinctions, privilege, and extravagance. While those works of English Silver that reside in the safe confines of the museum are representative of the pinnacle of craftsmanship and certainly have their provenance, I imagine many others fated to be the spoils of wars, the casualties of revolutions, sold as antiques for medical care, or becoming the victims of breaking and entering. Here the objects of lesser fortunes glimmer while they cascade down against a brilliant sky, a collapse forcing their owners and commissioners to part ways prematurely due to an unexpected exchange of currency or power. Throughout their history objects such as these are stolen, surrendered, plundered, left behind, buried, and occasionally melted down, but never are they discarded.

Andrew Kozlowski, Untitled, 2010, 22” x 15”, Screenprint on paper, $400

Karen Kincaid

"The Abundance of Nature"
Severin Roesen
(American, born Germany , ca. 1815 - ca. 1872)
ca. 1855
Oil on canvas
56.125 x 40.125 in.

I love looking at pictures of flowers especially the Dutch tulip paintings of the 15th century. This piece is similar but different in a quirky way.
The lushness of the subject material as well as the application of the paint look surreal.

Karen Kincaid, Untitled Plants from the Garden of Earthly Delights, 2010, Dimensions variable, Packing popcorn, caulk, nails, glue, 3 large pots of nail flowers: $150 ea., 1 pot thistles: $100, clay flowers not for sale

Michael Lease (photography)
http://www.michaellease.com/

"Funerary Image of Woman," AD late 200s early 300s
beeswax and pigment on wood panel, 13x8.25". VMFA #55.4
Roman, Egypt

"Mazeppa Held by a Jockey," painted late spring, 1835,
Edward Troye (American, 1808-1874),
Oil on canvas, 21-1/2”H x 27”W
Mellon Collection 86.77

“Reading Blues” is a collection of obituary photographs of individuals from Richmond, VA and Washington, DC newspapers. The color, and black and white photographs are clipped from the papers' obituary sections, scanned, and outputted larger than their original size. Enlarging the images emphasizes the now antiquated beauty of the newspapers' half-tone printing process.
In the pictures, these people smile and gaze at the camera --often framed by idyllic backgrounds-- locked forever in the moment the image was made. A daily perusal of the obits affords me the uncommon and unlikely opportunity to look into the eyes of these strangers and wonder in which ways we are the same.
I read, snip, and collect not only to know, but to love.

Michael Lease, Reading Blues, #1, 2010, 24” x 24”, C-print, wood, glass, $300

Michael Lease, Reading Blues, #2, 2010, 24” x 24”, C-print, wood, glass, $300

Lauri Luck (drawing)
http://www.lauriluck.com/

"The Golden Chair"
Edouard Vuillard (French, 1868-1940)
Paul Mellon Collection

"Venus and Cupid"
Artemisia Gentileschi (Italian, 1593-1652/3)
European Art Collection

"All knowledge, the totality of all questions and answers, is contained in the dog” Franz Kafka

When I first looked through the Virginia Museum’s collection to select my reference images for the “Reflecting and Collecting” exhibition I was expecting to choose images containing animals. Animal imagery, especially that of dogs - which I prefer to paint and draw - brings a unique spirit to the work I do and I am continually inspired by the immediacy of their animal presence, their enviable lack of self-consciousness and their boundless joy of spirit. So I was surprised by my strong response to Artemisia Gentileschi’s “Venus and Cupid” and Edouard Vuillard’s “The Golden Chair” which contain no animals at all. What intrigued me though was the overwhelming sense of waiting in these paintings, that dreariness of being “on hold” is something I personally abhor. The women depicted appear so serious, almost suffocated, in their heavily draped and darkened rooms, their languorous and depressed repose turned inward with endless review.
My first thought was “Yikes!” - these gals need to lighten up – they need a dog. So I lent my dog Dot who gazes out calm and steady, taking on the role of “straight man” to the all the melodrama of these women’s lives – lending a little humor to the atmosphere of ennui, her peanut shaped mug daring you not to smile.

Lauri Luck, And She Waits, 2010, 14.5” x 10”, grease pencil on paper, $475

Lauri Luck, Venus Waits, 2010, 14.5” x 10”, grease pencil on paper, $425

Jeff Majer (painting)
http://www.jeffreymajer.com/

"Lemons May 16 1984"
DONALD SULTAN (American , born 1951)
1984

When choosing a piece I tried to think of one that made a large impact on me from memory. It ended up biting me in the back side because I remembered it too well and felt like I was repeating what I liked about it. I had to try to take some things from it and toss away those things that were not me.

Jeff Majer, Fruit or VMFA Memories, 2010, 20” x 20”, Water-based paintings on birch panel, $1,200

Amie Oliver (painting)
http://amieoliver.net

"Sacred Diagram of the Universe" (Mandala of Hevajra)
Tibetan, 1400-1600
Opaque watercolor on cloth
32 by 28 1/2 inches

"Wheel of Life"
Tibetan, late 18th-early 19th century
Opaque watercolor on cloth
54 by 42 inches

An artist statement I drafted years ago has proven to be relevant to my work in general, but in particular to my current work, The Dharma Diaries. My experiences observing Tibetan Monks work at the VMFA and enjoying the Himalayan Collection preceded my recent project in Tibet.
Primary to my aesthetic is an experimentation with media. The power of symbols, objects and a vocabulary of human form are the language of this dialogue. Timeless imagery and modern iconography motivate me to create art that embraces conflict, revision, passion, reason, beauty and discovery.
As a hill walker and traveler, journals and agendas are a big part of my creative process. Hence, my work catalogues the passing of time and experience, and possesses an inherent motion. I like to think of it as a mobile museum/library, which I could take on my bicycle, or float down the James River if I wanted to... a message with and sometimes without - a bottle. The Sacred Diagram and Wheel of Life seemed for me exactly that - a timeless message conveyed using universal form.

Amie Oliver, Dharma Diary Series: Sacred Diagram, 2010, 12” x 12”, Collage, flashe and acrylic on birch panel, $900

Amie Oliver, Dharma Diary Series: Wheel of Life, 2010, 12” x 12”, Collage, flashe and acrylic on birch panel, $900

Craig Pleasants (site specific installation)
http://www.craigpleasants.com

"Family Portrait," 1945
Robert Gwathmey (American, 1903-1988)

"Meritatio," 1978
Brice Marden (American, 1938- )

My sculpture practice has been architecturally scaled for more than a decade, it is often meant to be experienced from inside as well as outside employing or refering to materials that have been utilized for millennia to shelter people. I am not an architect, but I am interested in structure and building and what human beings do to house themselves, especially when they have no resources. Consequently, I feel the need to explore and posit alternative methods, alternative materials and alternative solutions by employing them in objects that have a life in the public realm. You could say that I believe in an aesthetics of necessity. I am less interested in tasteful, or “sculptural” buildings. Instead, I draw inspiration from the vernacular builders that I have studied for thirty years. They are all about truth to materials, a deeply felt and deeply learned relationship with the earth, imaginative uses of cheap or free materials, beautiful proportion learned through years of trial, and remarkable energy efficiency and sustainability.
I have drawn on my own sculpture and my experience creating a hand-built house, and working with a company in Virginia that has developed a highly energy-efficient building component and an architect familiar with the physical properties of the material, I have designed and engineered an octagonal, 500 square foot living unit that can be produced as a sculptural multiple. These sculptural living units will integrate well into the existing built environment and will offer an aesthetically coherent alternative to the ubiquitous mobile home that is the default first home or poverty home in the American rural landscape. At the same time, its proportions, both outside and inside, are remarkably harmonious and capacious, given its small size. The result of this aspect of my plans will be a do-it-yourself kit house at a price well below current costs for either new construction or existing house.
Having begun my art career as a conceptual artist, I now find myself drawn to the physical world, and want my work to be experienced not only with the eyes, or with the mind, but also with the body, and at the same time I want to make an art that does more than bear witness to tragedy and deprivation. I am seeking real-world rather than art-world engagement with these ideas. I would like to create sculptures that can realistically be lived in, and that don’t rely on ornament for their power. While the Octagonal Living Unit is where I started, this is a miniature version of that piece inspired by the multiple crises in housing that have recently occurred in Haiti, Chile, and China. This unit, which can be assembled in a few hours, benefits from being still quite useful years on, unlike much emergency or transitional housing. For about $50,000, it is possible to manufacture, crate, and ship ten of these units, (complete with roof) to Port au Prince.
I have drawn upon two paintings in the collection of the VMFA as well as my own past work to create a visual and conceptual mash-up. The unifying construct in all three is an idea expressed by the German word heimat, for which there is no English equivalent. The writer Joel Agee speaks of it as “the welcoming warmth and sheltering intimacy of an origin to which one can return...the place where one feels at home, and that home need not have political or even physical boundaries.” In the case of Gwathmey’s Family Portrait, it is both a literal home as well as a family, in the case of Marden’s Meritatio, it is more of a spiritual place: meritatio, the feeling of “merit” that Mary finally comes to in her sequence of emotions felt in response to the Annunciation. As in much of my earlier work, I want to put the viewer in either the real or the metaphorical place of heimat.

Craig Pleasants, Octagonal Living Unit 2.0, 2010, 112” x 115” x 115”, Styrofoam, steel, latex paint, $50,000

Charles Ponticello (sculpture)

"Moves from the New River"
John Cage
VMFA Collection

John Cage once said "When I hear what we call music, it seems to me that someone is talking. And talking about his feelings, or about his ideas of relationships. But when I hear traffic, the sound of traffic—here on Sixth Avenue, for instance—I don't have the feeling that anyone is talking. I have the feeling that sound is acting. And I love the activity of sound.... I don't need sound to talk to me"
I am personally touched by Mr Cages approach to creating his watercolors. His use of unorthodox tools such as feathers, rocks, sticks etc simply add dimension to this enigmatic artist. Although he is most famously known for his prepared Piano works, These watercolors in his New River series strike a cord in me. His Ebb and Flow, his existential meander throughout life is perfectly summed up in these paintings. In this piece "Whirling Krestle" I honor Mr.Cage, In "appropriating" piano key imagery with the souls of unknown individuals.
And As Mr. Cage made his watercolors? I as well have approached to creation of this meditative piece....tools and materials readily at hand, acting on inspiration.

Charles Ponticello, Whirling Krestle, 2010, 50” x 70” x 40”, Steel, leaded Glass and plastic, library cards, paint, $5,500

Jon-Phillip Sheridan (photography)
http://www.jonphillipsheridan.com/

"Four Panels: Green Black Red Blue," 1966
Ellsworth Kelly
acrylic on canvas
Sydney and Francis Lewis Collection

In my photography, I am curious about the awakening of a sense of place, and how this relates to an opening up of perception, like one’s eye adjusting to the dark. Shifting around the edges, I collect an accumulation of visual impressions to articulate traces of human interactions with their surroundings: borders define interiors, debris outlines the invisible.
Ultimately, my work recreates a sensation of the physical and sometimes metaphysical presence that one encounters when occupying a lived in place. To me, the present is created by immutable events, and yet our understanding of these moments changes over time as memories and histories are continually re-arranged and re-narrated. I am interested in exploring this shifting awareness of space and the human patterns that mark it.

Jon-Phillip Sheridan, Residual #10, Winter, 2010, edition 24” x 20”, Archival Pigment Print on Plexiglas, 1/5, $750

Javier Tapia (painting)

"Still Life"
Giorgio Morandi
European Art Collection

Morandi has been an ongoing inspiration for my work. His bottles evoke a sense of 'is'...they seem to be bottles you can't take apart...maybe expressing the things we can't change of ourselves..?? I guess I have always been interested with this concept. In my watercolor the protagonist is a 'black lemon'..very central and at the very bottom of the paper's lower edge...still on, and unmovable.

Javier Tapia, Reaction to Morandi, 22” x 30”, Watercolor, $2,000
courtesy of Reynolds Gallery

Kendra Wadsworth (painting)

"Stadia III"
Julie Mehretu
2004

I'm inspired by Mehretu's creations because they remind me of the confluent and dissipating nature of relationships.
She has described her works as, 'story maps of no location, seeing them as pictures into an imagined, rather than actual reality.' By exploring globalism and using architecture, grafiti, corporate and national logos, as well as histories, wars, and geography as inspiration , Mehretu creates wonderfully charged gestural fields of expression.

Kendra Wadsworth, Bunnies reflect on Stadia III, 17” x 18”, Mixed on paper, $900

Aggie Zed (mixed media porcelain)
www.aggiezed.com

"Noble, a Hunter Well Known in Kent," 1810
Benjamin Marshall (English, 1768-1835)Oil on canvas
48-1/2”H x 58-1/2”W

From earliest times man has wanted to fly.
Having a horse was a start.
A good hunter could fairly fly over fences.
Of course man made the fences.

Further note: ‘ Ullnnnk, an owner etc. ‘ is an anagram of the title of a painting the artist, Benjamin Marshall, made to celebrate a regionally famous horse, Noble. Sometimes one wonders with these landscape painters if they actually ‘see’ the faces in the clouds.

Aggie Zed, Ullnnnk, an owner he knew to be lit, 2010, 14.5” x 18” x 9.5”, Ceramic, mixed metals, paint, $2,200

FEATURING:

Mixed media by Hetty Baiz
Our body is a physical manifestation of impermanence and the transient quality of all of life. It is in a constant state of flux and transformation. Whether the coming and going of the breath, the ebb and flow of ideas, the birth and death of living beings, this moment by moment unfolding is a mysterious and integral part of our existence.
Inspired by these ideas, I have created a body of work in which I use the figure as a vehicle for expression. I work intuitively and directly without plans or preconceived notions of what the final outcome will be. Experimenting with a wide range of materials -- from paint, tissue paper and canvas, to plaster, floor tiles, wood and fire -- I put down materials and peel layers away until the piece is resolved.  I equate the way I work to jazz, improvising and responding as the work unfolds. For me, creating is a process of discovery.

Photography by Regi Franz
The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the world, its creation and great stories – it is the beginning of knowledge, from which came the laws of existence.
I am interested in the impact specific places and surroundings have on our psyche, and how memory, dream and illusion are guiding where I choose to photograph. In some sense, the quest for self discovery becomes a journey in every sense of the word.
Having left my native land as a young adult a long time ago, the search for home is a central topic in my work at this moment. I feel that I can physically hold on to the places I photograph, literally gather them as keepsakes, even declare them as ‘home’.
I find solace to leave the fast-paced, anonymous life of the urban environment behind – it neither offers the time nor space for a comforting place where I can belong.
Dreamtime also refers to Buddhist philosophy which does not distinguish between reality and dream states – all is one, in the here and now. I am manifesting this concept in my photographs, and welcome the specific freedom it holds.

Fiber work by Colleen Judge

Paintings on paper and canvas by Megan Marlatt
For the last seven years, my work has drawn inspiration from the multitude of quirky characters and funky forms produced in plastic toys. Most of the toys I have chosen to paint are products of children’s packaged fast food meals thrown away and found in thrift stores and yard sales. The paintings I have created from these discarded playthings often fall into two opposite categories: one being critical of our consumer society, the other being complicit to it. Colorful and glossy, I sometimes painted these small toys in densely packed piles that spoke to me of mass consumerism, chaos and cultural vertigo. Like Maya Lin’s recent sculptures of “asteroids” and installations created from the same kinds of plastic toys, we both see these as “everyday objects whose use-value is ritualistic, emotional, consumerist.” Yet at other times, I have handled them as if they were forgotten treasure. I have set apart special toys and with the eye of a child, focused on them as endearingly as he or she would a favorite plaything, animating them through paint.

Metals by Cindy Myron
Ordinary, mundane, and common spaces act as expressive vehicles for the human body and mind.  Because of this, I create a dialogue between humans and their intimate architectural spaces, usually the home.  “Home” often times acts a symbol of safety and shelter.  I use this idea of home and translate it into packaged form, stripped down bare and forced into a portable and playful form, much like a collage, curiosity cabinet or relic.
Within these pieces whether sculptural, functional or wearable, seemingly ordinary spatial elements such as moldings, cedar shakes or windows become materialistically empty yet narrative when view together as specimens.  As homes and people grow and change in form, the idea of “home” easily becomes a part of everyday consumerism much like society’s convenience or material compulsions.
Homes are recycled and devoured as spaces for safety, comfort and even self worth. 

Paintings by Jody L. Symula
Gnarled broken umbrellas, discarded on the side of the street.  A shiny barn rooftop in the middle of a freshly plowed brown field, long cast shadows on the side of a tall window-filled building, colorful jaunty window displays in stores.  I’m surrounded by visual cues that unexpectedly spark, stay with me, and somehow translate into painting.  Along with these visual cues I embrace experimentation as each painting is a ride of its own full of stops, starts, layers, and directions before finally arriving at a finished destination.

Bookworks and collage by Grace K. A. Teeples
After working in a diptych form for years, it seemed a natural lateral move to the book. Considered formally (sans words), a book with its central spine also elicits comparisons between two sides. Book or bone construction and repair are explored more obviously in some and less so in other works. The issues of compression, joinery, contrast between hard and soft, and shifting layers of meaning are fundamental to each piece.
Relationships between process and media engender content. Some of the media used include: handmade paper, cast paper, book spines, plexiglass, wood, and cataloging cards. Book pages and unwanted student work comprise much of the handmade paper.
The visual effect of repair is a fundamental concern. The physical results of restoration relate to my encounters with orthopedic repairs. “Preservation” exposes the crash used to support the spines. Other works explore the effect of metal or wood piercing paper (like metal would flesh). The confined vocabulary of imagery evokes a reflective response from the viewer, like a whisper in a crowded room.

Photography by Jennifer Watson
These works are from a series titled “The Vernacular Backyard: Sheds of an American Community” and were funded by a grant from the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies of the Fine Arts. Each shed was photographed with a 5x7 view camera and printed using an antiquated contact process called Printing-Out Paper. Instead of printing in the darkroom, the photographer uses the sun as the enlarger. This process was popular during the 1920s, when many of the sheds were being built. Each print is fixed in a bath of gold chloride and has a 350 year archival life.
Excerpt from “The Vernacular Backyard: Sheds of an American Community”
A real estate agent I know advises that any house going on the market have a brass kick plate put on the front door. You will see no brass kick plates in the following photographs. Sheds are spared the humiliations of pretension. They escape the tyranny of fashion. They make do. They are proportionate to need. Although not void of ornament or design, they report to no aesthetic committee. They have slipped through the cracks.
They are allowed to tell the truth about time and gravity, wind and sun. The outside comes in, and sometimes the inside falls out. They are left alone, away from the nervous attention of human desire.
I want to be a shed

Not Knowing, Hetty Baiz

Steintreppe [Stone Steps], Regi Franz

Investigations in Revealing (Onset), Colleen Judge

Investigations in Revealing (Passage), Colleen Judge

Portrait of a Dumb Bunny, Megan Marlatt

Portrait of an Angry Beaver in a Cracked Capsule, Megan Marlatt

Carry Me, Cindy Myron

Imbalance, Cindy Myron

String on Your Balloon, Jody Symula

Landing Pad, Jody Symula

Elementary Diving, Grace K. A. Teeples

Preservation, Grace K. A. Teeples

518 W. 29th Street, Jennifer Watson

3108 Porter Street, Jennifer Watson