One of my favourite artists, Amy Rice has two shows happening this month and what's cool is one is in the US (Philadelphia, PA) and one here in Canada (Victoria, BC). The first one I'm mentioning is Rooted, at the Art Star Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. (October 7th through November 20th)
In this body of work, I have used artifacts; found items and uncommon mediums: prints on antique handwritten letters of love and loss, feed sack bags from my family farm, antique atlas pages, and the string from last year’s morning glories among other things. Rooted celebrates 100% completion, hard work paying off, fall festivals, and earnest endeavors.-Amy Rice 2011
Read more of the artist's statement after the jump.
Full Artist Statement for Rooted:
“Rooted”
was inspired by a scrapbook I discovered at an antique store. It
documents the activities of a rural American 4-H club in the 1940’s. I
belonged to 4-H as a child, the same club as my Mom and my Grandpa Ed
(Go Hubbleton Hustlers!).
Each
winter 4-H kids choose their projects for the year from a catalogue
listing all the things you can enter at the County fair. Of course there
are the farm animal projects but also all sorts of arts and crafts,
small engine repair, gardening and crops, baking, sciences, sewing,
music, butterfly collecting and more (my Mom would never let me do the
butterfly project). Then, kids meet with adult mentors and kids from
other clubs throughout the county working on the same project. My
parents wanted us to be excited and fully committed to our projects and
so we were limited to 3 per year. I settled into sheep, rabbits, and
art.
For
a contemporary urban woman, I know a lot about small animal husbandry. I
don’t think the art part of 4-H really shaped me much as an artist.
What was formative for me was the year long commitment to a specific
area of study and a corresponding project with an end goal.
The
antique scrapbook was aesthetically and nostalgically compelling to me,
certainly. But the reason I choose to make art inspired by the
scrapbook came from comparing photos of individuals posing proudly with
their ongoing projects and the fall group photo, which is labeled in
handwritten ink “100% Completion, 20 members, 28 projects”.
In
this body of work, I have used artifacts; found items and uncommon
mediums: prints on antique handwritten letters of love and loss, feed
sack bags from my family farm, antique atlas pages, and the string from
last year’s morning glories among other things. Rooted celebrates 100%
completion, hard work paying off, fall festivals, and earnest
endeavors.-Amy Rice 2011
Art Star Gallery & Boutique
23 North 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA
Art Star Gallery & Boutique
23 North 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA
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