American Chestnut Quilt Joanne Howard Material Elements Joanne Howard is a painter and sculptor living in Nyack, New York. Her work is characterized by meticulousness, an obsession with pattern, and a determination to keep things simple. She often makes her own watercolors, using wood ash and in some cases blood. She describes her quiet, patient approach as a reaction to the ever-quickening pace of our culture. Two standouts in "Material Elements": In "Thumbprint VI", Joanne has rendered a large thumbprint in her own blood. Over the image she has hand-stitched, in cotton thread, another fingerprint pattern. The result is ethereal and delicate, but also provocative. "American Chestnut Quilt", a floor sculpture shown only the night of the opening, shares a sensibility with Joanne's watercolors. It is made from hundreds of leaves cut from humble plastic sheeting and stitched together in a circular pattern eight feet in diameter. Its beauty is entirely unexpected. "I draw upon a personal vocabulary derived from nature and its inherent patterns. My images develop through a process of examination, reinterpretation, and (re)invention. The work is fundamentally informed by the media - the ordinary, base materials - from which it is made. My manual, rhythmic working style, rooted in repetition and precision, is a commentary on, and an effort to counter, the blurring speed at which our culture spins". (Joanne Howard) November 14 - December 7, 2003 Gallery Hours: Wed-Sun 1 - 7pm Big Cat Gallery 154 Orchard Street USA-New York, NY 10002 Telephone +1 212 982 6210 Email dan@bigcatgalleryny.com www.bigcatgalleryny.com |
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