my make believe collection 16 :: amy boone-mccreesh

Contributor post by Lisa Solomon 

all idols fall, 2011, mixed media, 43" x 72"
i don't know what the weather is like where you are, but we in the bay area are getting drenched and very grey today. sometimes on days like this i just want to be surrounded by something really bright. amy boon-mccreesh is going to help me out.

i've been thinking a lot lately about what we do culturally to celebrate and memorialize things - like banners and streamers and other decorations. i came across amy's work a while back when i was obsessively researching garlands. in one of those one artist who links to another artists scenarios, i came across her site and was hooked. i recently decided to re-vist her site and i really love how her work seems to be expanding upon itself. about her work she succinctly says :


Taking inspiration from celebratory and funerary displays in various cultures, Amy aims to explore decoration and human relationships.

on her site she displays this text with an image:


a picture is worth a thousand words. why do we memorialize with these oddly fake and overly happy things? do these things really symbolize our love and relationship to the dearly departed? are these things both repulsive and attractive for numerous reasons????


ceremonial splendor, 2011, installation shot
it seems lately amy is drawn to doing these installations - part reliquary, part piñata, part explosion of color. i like them. especially how they interact with the space - and particularly the paint splotches on the wall. that 2D/3D interaction is cool and i like that it looks like the color is a shadow or is leaking from the work itself.

untitled installation, 2012, harmon art lab, washington DC
i also like how she's using all different surfaces in the space and connecting her pieces both metaphorically and literally. i think what is even more interesting, at least to me, is that these appear as though they work not only as a family - but as individual works. i think that's actually not an easy thing to accomplish. 

leopard wall hanging, 2011, 9.5x11

i think partly i'm just naturally drawn to work that looks inherently labor intensive - or that has an element of that. or even just eludes to that quality. with amy's work you can physically see and thus feel all the cutting and gluing and labor that is involved. i like that. the process is self-evident. and i really really like her 2D drawings. 

tightly wound and easily unravelled, 2010,  8"x 24"
her use of color is just all in all pretty darn great too, no? and the thought of abundance. just one isn't enough. there must be more and more and more. 

vacay, 2010, 7x5" x 11"

white space and repetition? what's not to like?

flags and garlands, 2010, 25" x 20"
so if i had to choose? the above as a flat 2D work. and below would be my choice in the more 3D work [do you like how i'm managing to collect 2 works in this scenario? i'm being sneaky]. 

pinwheel, 2010, 38" x 22" x 5"

you can follow my collection on pinterest [where i'm realizing YET AGAIN these works fit into a very particular color scheme i've got going on - do i try to break away from that????] until next time.

Jan Halvarson

1 comment:

Art Pie said...

Hi! Just wanted to say that I love the article on Amy Boone-McCreesh! She is a former student of mine and her work was just featured at my gallery, Lowercase. I posted your article to her and to our supporters of Lowercase as well. How wonderful to see her work catching on!

Cheers!
Harriet Hacker