New Artwork
I just finished the second piece in my crystal series, which I’m titling Displacement. It is a companion piece to Reclamation. This series explores ocean acidification as well as natural reclamation of manmade constructions and catastrophes.
Displacement is a mixed media relief including driftwood, aragonite, calcite, and salt crystals, acrylic, and QuickCure Glaze on a wood panel, 7.25x6.75x3.25”, 2021.
Shelby Prindaville, Displacement, mixed media relief including driftwood, aragonite, calcite, and salt crystals, acrylic, and QuickCure Glaze on a wood panel, 7.25x6.75x3.25”, 2021.
In late December I was invited to participate in an upcoming exhibition and fundraising support event called The Maskuerade for local art gallery Vangarde Arts which has, as is unfortunately the case with many arts organizations, suffered during the pandemic.
Vangarde Arts has been a great supporter of the arts in Sioux City as well as of Morningside College, so I happily agreed to participate. Vangarde provided each invited artist with a white cotton 3-ply face mask, and asked that each mask be made into a unique artwork. The pieces are then to be auctioned off with the proceeds going to support their organization.
This was more of a challenge than I think many viewers might realize for several reasons:
The substrate (the face mask) is rather small and of a defined form already, so there’s limited room to work.
As an artist, I think you want to embrace the media you’re working with - so making it unrecognizable as a face mask to me ends up defeating the purpose of the challenge.
While I think one could pretty easily paint on a cotton mask as a canvas, I question whether viewers will easily differentiate an original painting from an existing fabric print. This meant I felt I needed to get somewhat sculptural while still embracing the substrate and its intended function in order to really make it transform identifiably into an original artwork.
I didn’t want to lose my own artistic focus and hand - I wanted to make this piece work within my oeuvre rather than existing outside of it.
I mentally wrestled for weeks just in trying to develop a concept, and then with only a vague starting point in mind I then physically wrestled with the mask itself for a couple weeks to try to see if that manipulation would inspire me to come up with an artistic solution. Finally all the reflection and experimentation paid off, and with an idea in mind all I then had to do was execute it!
This is Synthesis, a wearable mixed media artwork including a white cotton mask, thread, acrylic, gel, Cladonia rangiferina “reindeer lichen,” Tillandsia usneoides “Spanish moss,” pine needles, and bark. Its dimensions are 7x13x4.5”.
Synthesis, a wearable mixed media artwork including a white cotton mask, thread, acrylic, gel, Cladonia rangiferina, Tillandsia usneoides, pine needles, and bark; 7x13x4.5”, Shelby Prindaville, 2021.
The Maskuerade exhibition will have open house hours on February 11, 12, and 18 from 6-7pm in Vangarde Arts which is located at 416 Pierce St, Sioux City, IA 51101. An online auction will be open from February 15-18, and a silent auction and Fat Tuesday on Friday celebration will be held February 19 at 6pm with a live auction following at 7pm.
Sometimes viewers want to know how a piece of artwork was made, and if there are any in-progress pictures to show the process. I often don’t take as many photos of that as I could; I’m more focused on the creation than pausing for documentation, and I also think that too many process photos can slightly tarnish the magic of the completed piece.
Nevertheless, here’s a photo of the drawing in development of Velocity which underpins the painting! Usually I can get away with mostly only doing a contour and then painting the rest freehand, but this piece is so reliant on form, pattern, and detail that I needed a stronger blueprint for this one.
Happy New Year! I’ve been hard at work painting a painted turtle; it was a beast to draw and quite demanding to paint as well because of all of the pattern and detail.
I met this baby painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) while biking the Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve - I felt very lucky to have spotted its dollar-coin-sized stature along the trail!
This is Velocity, acrylic on basswood panel, 14x14x1.5”, 2021.
In my last ceramics blog post, I shared a range of planters I’ve created. (When I use the term “planter” for my own ceramic work, I am specifying that I have crafted them with drainage holes. I haven’t done so yet, but if I were to create a piece without drainage holes to house a plant, I’d call it a “cache pot.”)
I am most interested in making planters because of my extensive plant collection, so I’d say that for every non-planter piece I make, I make four planters. But I have made other pieces, including vases and bowls! Here are a few examples. The three vases all make use of my experimental embedding of iron oxide chunks, so they’re glazed in a “clear” that appears as a transparent tan.
An overhead shot of a Humphrey in the garden.
Since I don’t get to do an artist residency this summer due to the pandemic, I’m planning on producing from home! Sioux City is rabbit central - the Eastern cottontail, to be specific. Sometimes on neighborhood walks here I see just as many rabbits as I do squirrels. In my former town of Leavenworth, seeing a rabbit was notable and relatively rare. Earlier this spring, I noticed a juvenile rabbit made a home partially in my backyard (he also hops through the fence to my neighbors’ garden as well).
I named him Humphrey and began to try to acclimate him to my presence, so that I could take some nice reference photos for paintings. I talked about him to family and friends, and at one point joked with my parents that I supposed there might be several rabbits all being called Humphrey… and wouldn’t you know it, the very next day I saw two simultaneously! Since I can’t really distinguish them individually, giving them more names seemed unhelpful, so they’re now the Humphreys, plural. It appears there’s a nest/burrow under my deck, and I have now seen three Humphreys at the same time so there are at least that many but probably more. There do appear to be two different sizes of Humphrey, both juvenile but one small and one even tinier. My neighbor says she’s seen the parents, but I don’t know if I have; I’ve not seen an adult rabbit in my backyard at all this spring but I have seen one in my front yard once. And again, rabbits are ubiquitous here.
I plan to do several rabbit paintings, but here’s the first! It’s tentatively titled Emerging, though the title Under the Deck is also in consideration. It’s a 16x12x1.5” acrylic on basswood panel.
I know, I know… I made so much new work on this past summer’s BROTA residency in the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden that I still haven’t posted it all online yet - so here’s another reveal!
This piece is titled Wabi-Sabi because I think it’s reminiscent of Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetics. It is a mixed media piece including a NOID dried leaf collected from the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden, methylcellulose and toner photographic transfer, and matte medium on artisanal handmade paper, 14x11”, 2019.
This is one of my favorite new pieces from this summer’s BROTA residency in the Buenos Aires Botanical Gardens! It’s a mixed media piece including a methylcellulose transfer of a photograph I took of a Monstera deliciosa collaged atop a dried sweetgum leaf (Liquidambar styraciflua). The support is handmade artisanal paper from Ato Menegazzo Papeles.
Information is power. I try to ID all of the species I work with, as each species is important and adds layers of meaning and interest to my pieces. Accuracy is equally important however - randomly guessing at species IDs does more harm than good, in my opinion. The first leaf skeleton piece I shared with you, which incorporated a sacred fig or Ficus religiosa leaf skeleton, was identifiable due to its very specific and unusual shape. In this NOID leaf skeleton, however, the shape alone does not sufficiently distinguish the leaf from other trees in the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden. Since it is a skeleton, I also cannot use leaf color, texture, weight, and/or attached branches or flowers to contribute more identification information. Though I researched for some time hoping to find a conclusive match, I eventually had to concede that I cannot definitively identify the leaf species which is what makes it a NOID (a term we use in plant identification that - perhaps obviously - stands for no identification).
This artwork is mixed media including a NOID skeleton leaf, matte medium, and handmade artisanal paper and is 12.5x9.75” (unframed dimensions).
I’m interested in starting a new body of work that involves growing aragonite and/or calcite crystals atop various substrates including sculptures, reliefs, and found objects. I am attracted to the conceptual and aesthetic power of nature overtaking manmade constructions. Additionally, aragonite and calcite are the crystallized form of calcium carbonate, a natural material that is the primary component in seashells and corals. Marine animals with calcium carbonate exoskeletons are particularly susceptible to ocean acidification; in order to grow these crystals, I am immersing limestone (which is a sedimentary rock composed of marine skeletal fragments) in acid, so in some ways the growth of these crystals is also a funerary rite for marine wildlife dying to climate change.
Here is the first completed work I’ve done using this medium. I’ve titled it Reclamation, and it is a mixed media relief including QuickCure Clay, QuickCure Glaze Coating, acrylic, aragonite crystals and salt on birch panel. It’s 12x9.25x2”.
I experimented with a number of different chromatography processes to learn which method would be conceptually and aesthetically strongest for my own practice. Two of the failed tests I did were interesting enough in their own right that I kept them, too, though as is evident they use a different technique that proved less effective at pigment differentiation than the process I used for the main Transmigration Landscapes.
These are, respectively, Failed Test 1 and Failed Test 3.
I had my chromatography series Transmigration Landscapes framed right before moving, and so I’ve taken the time to photograph the pieces in their final form! From this Buenos Aires Botanical Garden collection, there are seven framed pieces each containing five loosely grouped chromatography plant portraits. The framed dimensions are 8.875x30”.
These are, in order:
Transmigration Landscapes : Arc
Transmigration Landscapes: Atmosphere
Transmigration Landscapes: Cadence
Transmigration Landscapes: Flare
Transmigration Landscapes: Percussive
Transmigration Landscapes: Reflective
Transmigration Landscapes: Vibration
This is one of my favorites (I have several!) of my new pieces from this residency - it’s perfect in its deceptive simplicity. I say deceptive because work went into obtaining the components of this piece, from learning how to make banana paper while on residency in Peru, to sifting through hundreds of fallen leaves in the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden before finding this perfect leaf skeleton specimen, to discovering that the two suited each other beautifully.
This artwork is mixed media including a Ficus religiosa skeleton leaf, matte medium, and handmade banana paper and is 17x11” (unframed dimensions).
And here is another mixed media leaf piece in the overall Gardens of Memory series. This one includes a London planetree leaf, methylcellulose, toner, and acrylic on artisanal handmade silk paper.
This is another mixed media leaf piece in the overall Gardens of Memory series. This one includes an oak leaf, methylcellulose, toner, and acrylic on artisanal handmade silk paper.
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.
Here is a new diptych, meaning partner pieces that will always be shown together. Diptychs can also be framed or otherwise physically linked together, too, but in this case I am framing them separately. These are mixed media pieces including sycamore leaves, methylcellulose, toner, and acrylic on artisanal handmade papers. The first paper is a very eco-friendly renewable dyed banana paper that I collaboratively made on a former residency in Peru, and the second is a handmade silk paper from Ato Menegazzo Papeles in Buenos Aires.
As you can see in this earlier post, I worked atop two very large trunk cross-sections for a permanent outdoor installation. I also worked atop smaller trunk and/or branch cross-sections as well. Here are four new pieces in my “Gardens of Memory” series. The series is so titled because the substrate is very directly a part of a once-living tree (paper is too, but in a more distanced form), and the images atop it are from various botanical gardens I’ve frequented.
Here are two partner pieces I created to donate and install permanently in Buenos Aires after I leave with the help of BROTA! They are both mixed media pieces including acrylic, methylcellulose, toner, and marine varnish on a tree trunk cross-section, and will be diagonally mounted on wooden poles outdoors when installed. The institution that will host these works is yet to be determined. The two pieces are part of my Garden Memories series.
With permission from the Buenos Aires Botanical Garden, I have been taking plant samples and using chromatography to create a series of very literal plant self-portraits that also function as abstract landscapes. I am titling this series Transmigration Landscapes. There are 35 of these portraits, as well as 2 test designs that I liked enough to keep as well. Since I currently don’t have access to a scanner, processing photos of each to share clean images of the work requires a significant investment of time, so I figured I’d share a peek now with the promise of more to come!
