Reclaimed at River's Edge Gallery

Curated by Dennis and Christina Jacobs of Perfect Laughter, Reclaimed: A Resurrection of Found Objects is a group show opening at River's Edge Gallery in Wyandotte next Friday, October 21 at 6 p.m. The couple—known for both their outstanding printmaking work and their popular arts blog—have gathered a formidable collection of artists to contribute to the show and I couldn't be more honored to be included in the mix. The opening corresponds with Wyandotte's Third Friday so there will be plenty else to do and see in the area, so please come and show your support for the local art scene! 

Above is a little sneak peak at my piece for the show. It has panoramic dimensions making it quite difficult to photograph, so please bear with these less-than-stellar shots. And now a little back story…

As you may already know, we moved into a new house in July. I wanted to do something related to this for the show and handily found this broken down mirror tucked away in a back corner of the basement under a pile of old shutters.
 

I removed the glass and in doing so managed to mangle what remained of the decorative embellishments on top — and so decided to remove them all. 

I used the broken mirror bits as a stencil to trace out the necessary shapes and then cut them out from scraps of sketch paper that had been used in one block printing endeavor or another.

I wanted to build up the surface to a workable thickness on which I could draw. I used bits of pages from a typing manual I picked up at a thrift store recently — I bought it for the cover and then have done nothing with it since! My first layer was bubbly and uneven, so I continued to add layers trying to make it smooth. In the end I added a final layer of newsprint that worked out better than the rest. I then added several layers of gesso and—at last—began to draw…

I knew I wanted the piece to be related to our new house in some way. As I showed you in this "Chandelier Madness" post, the place is filled with multiple chandeliers in every room — including the bathrooms — so it seemed appropriate to focus on those. They give our home such character — plus they're super fun to draw.  

You'll have to come down to the show to really see, as these photos are terrible. Plus you'll get to see a show chock full of amazing artists. It runs through November 18.