Gary Barton and Professor Lisa F. Jones, Visual Arts
What differentiates a home from a shelter? What is a mother’s role in creating the environment we call home? What role does art and craft play in the creation of that environment? These are some of the questions I had in mind as I began this project. Although I had been working in a similar direction the previous year, I found that the questions I chose to address in my project presented a challenge, because home holds different meanings for each of us. There are many possible answers to each of the questions, all according to a persons experience. The result of my endeavor to visually express a few possible answers was a series of 17 mixed media collages containing elements of an interior, and suggestions of activities that occur within a home.
I worked from six images consisting of silhouetted chairs, old photos, patterns, and textures. Using the intaglio printing process, I made several prints of each image and then manipulated them by cutting and pasting prints together, and by adding decorative papers, paint, and written lists. I also printed recipes, lists, and old wallpaper patterns for use as collage material. Originally, I had planned to make a series of boxes containing collages to be exhibited with the prints, but as I began working, the boxes became less important. Instead, I decided to concentrate all of my efforts on a larger body of prints.
The collage elements of chairs, recipes, lists, patterns, papers, and sewing all relate to the creation of a home, where many different activities and objects come together to make an environment. Traditional craft processes, such as the sewing in my images, represent my desire as a mother to create a place of warmth and security. The process of working on my prints in this way also correlates to the need I feel as an artist to use my creative talents.
Although I exhibited my project at my BFA final show in June, I don’t feel that my research is complete, and I plan to continue working in this direction. I have taken the advice of one of my faculty reviewers, and have started collecting papers, lists, wrapping paper, and other mementos of daily life for use as material in my next series. This body of work represents only some of my thoughts on home and motherhood at this point in my life. As my ideas on home change I will discover new answers to the questions I have asked, and my work will evolve to reflect those changes.