found materials

New Artwork: Breaking the Pattern

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I found this magazine, Ilutegija (Maker of Beauty), at a vintage bookseller's stall in Balti Jaam, Tallinn, just before leaving Estonia. Ilutegija began publication before Estonia's 1991 restoration of independence from the USSR; this issue was published at the start of 1992. Though I found it in Tallinn, it was published in Pärnu - where my Estonian residency was located. Due to the timing of my finding it, however, this is actually the first of the paintings made at my second residency this summer: Takt in Berlin, Germany.

The page is an embroidery pattern for bullfinches on a pine branch (the Eurasian or common bullfinch, Pyrrhula pyrrhula, on a Scots pine, Pinus sylvestris). Rather than follow the stitching instructions, I painted a realistic male bullfinch and pine branch directly over the simplified pattern for him, leaving the original female bullfinch and the rest of the printed branch untouched, so the pattern and the painting sit side by side.

The bullfinch is a songbird, and in regional folklore it's tied to steadfast winter cheer. Estonia sang its way to independence in the Singing Revolution.

This is Breaking the Pattern, acrylic on Estonian embroidery-pattern page from 1992, 11.6x8.06”, 2026.

Shelby Prindaville's painting of a bullfinch on a pine branch atop an Estonian embroidery-pattern page from 1992

New Artwork: The New Collective

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This piece continues my series of paintings atop printed stationery from the Soviet occupation period in Estonia, issued under the ENSV (the Eesti Nõukogude Sotsialistlik Vabariik, or Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic).

The substrate features Soviet-era industrial graphic design for Pärnu KEK (the Pärnu Külaehituskombinaat, or Collective Farm Construction Office). Founded to build infrastructure for rural collective farms, KEK eventually expanded into a broader portfolio of late-Soviet modernist architecture, becoming one of the more distinctive construction enterprises of the era.

I chose to paint another realistic, volumetric stork, this time sitting in a flat graphic semicircle “nest” that mirrors the geometry of the underlying design. KEK's original mandate was building the physical infrastructure of agricultural Estonia. Storks nest reliably on farm rooftops and chimneys across Estonia, colonizing the infrastructure the decommissioned collective left behind.

This is The New Collective, acrylic on occupied Estonian printed cardstock c. 1980, 11.38x8.2”, 2026.

Shelby Prindaville's painting of a white stork nesting on Pärnu KEK ENSV stationery c. 1980.

New Artwork: Submerged Memory

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One of my consistent practices when traveling abroad is seeking out arts and flea markets, antique stores, vintage shops, and secondhand dealers. This has become part of my research methodology: an opportunity to encounter reference material, regional craft traditions, and occasionally, nontraditional media or substrates that find their way into the work. While I walk out of most places empty-handed, that's fine; the practice is cumulative.

On my second-to-last weekend in Pärnu, I came across an unbranded antique shop that doesn't appear on Google Maps and opens only when the owner feels like it and puts out a sign on the street. Inside, I found a small cache of printed stationery from the Soviet occupation period, issued under the ENSV, the Eesti Nõukogude Sotsialistlik Vabariik, or Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. Most of the material was too damaged for my purposes, or carried handwriting and other visual noise that would compete with the work. A few pieces, however, were relatively clean.

The surface is extraordinarily loaded. It's also materially demanding: decades-old printed, coated cardstock that requires careful handling and preparation. I purchased the few that might suit my purposes and got to work.

For this first piece, I inverted the cardstock and painted a split-level waterline view of the Baltic Sea directly over the now upside-down state emblem and its slogan. The sinking emblem remains visible, and traces of the communist motto persist in the lower register: Kõigi maade proletaarlased, ühinege! The standard English translation is "Workers of the world, unite!" though a more literal rendering would be "Proletarians of all lands, unite!"

Above the sea, a black-headed gull scans the surface below. In two earlier paintings from this residency, black-headed gulls appear as drone stand-ins, complete with stylized laser beams that complement their substrates’ perforations. Here, that same subject returns, but without overt weaponry.

This is Submerged Memory, acrylic on occupied Estonian printed cardstock from 1974, 11.38x8.2”, 2026.

Shelby Prindaville's painting of a black-headed gull flying over the Baltic Sea with an inverted, sinking ENSV state emblem and motto submerged in the water.

New Artwork: Surveillance

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I took a departure from my textile mixed-media paintings for this piece. When I arrived at Loovlinnak Creative City Artist Residency, directors Al Padrok and Taje Tross generously gave me access to their tools and supplies, including several stacks of paper. Most of it was unremarkable: construction paper, printer paper, and graph paper. But one small stack caught my eye immediately. I could tell it was old and somehow related to typewriters or early computers, and when I asked, I learned it dated to the Soviet occupation. I adopted all of it, just four sheets, one of which had some math scribbled across it in pen.

Research revealed that it is Soviet-era perfokaart: stiff punch cards with holes in specific positions that fed instructions and data into mainframe computers before modern digital storage existed. From the 1970s through the 1980s, Soviet-bloc computing relied heavily on this technology, running the economic planning, industrial control, and record-keeping systems of the USSR, including in occupied Estonia.

I'd already been planning work that referenced Soviet propaganda posters, so the cards were a natural substrate. I cast a black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) as a drone after photographing many of them in flight. The species' limited, high-contrast palette and missile-like profile suited the graphic style of Soviet propaganda posters.

I sketched a range of compositions that played off the perfokaart's holes and contours while keeping that propaganda energy, and landed on a gull flying high, firing a dotted laser beam down into the punched border. I used the scribbled-on card as a stencil for the laser dots.  I kept the first as-is, and then scaled the rest up so the beam widens from a point near the gull into an even band.

This is Surveillance, acrylic on Soviet-era perfokaart (punch card) c. 1978, 8.2x11.75”, 2026.

Shelby Prindaville's painting of a gull cast as a drone on Soviet-era perfokaart.

Phoenix Athens Residency Artwork 8

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The wooden spool end before the mosaic and concrete.

I’m always interested in manmade constructions altered by the environment and time, and when I kept finding broken fragments of marble paving stones, concrete pathing, ceramic tiles, and so forth, I started picking them up. After amassing quite a collection, I decided I’d make a mosaic that referenced some of the artifact displays I’d seen in Athenian museums, so I took the angle grinder with a diamond blade to them to cut them down to at or below my desired height.

I then put one unique piece per type into the second recycled wood round from the electrical spool - this one had the upraised interior wooden frame with a circular outside and a square inside. (To block the holes, I had already cut and glued down a piece of masonite to the back - see the image to the left.) Once I found the layout I wanted, I put a smoother white concrete (compared to the previous large-grogged grey type I used in Realms) in and around it. I thought I probably wanted to paint it, but by this point my show installation was the next day so we just installed it in that mid-way state.

Once installed, my show was up until my last day in Athens, so I then took it down and brought it back to the US. Then I began to test out different possible compositions in Photoshop, and I settled on painting a couple rings of color - the inner gold and the outer blue - around the central composition in a design that references the mati aka evil eye charms. The three cool-colored mosaic fragments in the center are intentionally reminiscent of an eye as well.

After I painted the two rings, they looked too new, so I weathered them a little and made the blue border bleed into the white band inside to soften that edge.

This is Pathways, found marble, concrete, and ceramic paver fragments with acrylic and concrete on recycled wood round, 17.5x17.5x.1.3, 2023.

Shelby Prindaville's Greek pathways mosaic relief.

BROTA and Buenos Aires Series "Gardens of Memory" Homes

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My new photographic transfer technique using methylcellulose and toner doesn’t require a flat surface for the substrate, so I also created this piece Gardens of Memory: Homes. Eventually displayed on a small marble pedestal, it is a mixed media sculpture including a found snail shell, bird’s nest, methylcellulose, and toner. The piece is probably a little larger than you might imagine - its core dimensions without the pedestal are 5.125 x 5.125 x 3.5”. The snail shell is that of an apple snail, so titled because they can grow to the size of an apple. I sold this piece while in Buenos Aires to another artist, the very talented Masako Kano.

La Pedrada de Noemi Assemblages 1 & 2

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Here are the two assemblages I created during my sick day - they obviously differ quite a bit from my normal artwork, but I enjoy them nevertheless.

The first I'm titling See Turtle and is made of beachcombed stones, epoxy, and acrylic on a 6x6" birch panel used as a shadowbox.  I did not paint or change the appearance of any of the found materials.  I did paint the panel.

The second doesn't have a definitive title yet, but perhaps it will be Beachcombing.  It is made of beachcombed stones and shells, epoxy, and acrylic on a 6x6" birch panel used as a shadowbox.  I did not paint or change the appearance of any of the found materials.  I did paint the panel.

I realize they are rather simple, but I like the concept that these were a collaboration between the local people (those who originally used the concrete/stones for construction and decoration), the ocean (which shaped them into what they are today and also contributed the two shells on the second piece) and myself (the arranger).  I also enjoy taking departures every now and then from my typical practice!