New Series and New Blog!
After having trouble with design and getting my blogger blog to look a way that reflected my art I decided to make this switch to wordpress! We’ll see how it treats me. To see my past entries feel free to go to katiegroveart@blogspot.com. I’ll also try to add some of my past entries here when I have time. For now- here is the first installation in my documentation of my newest series!
Recently I began a new series- it is a project that has been stewing in my mind for a while now and it combines several elements that I have wanted to explore but just didn’t have the right outlet for. The inspiration starts with my huge collection of glass jars full of artifacts from nature and my interest in writing and storytelling. For years and years I have amassed a collection of things that inspire me ranging from snakeskins, bones, antique buttons, cicada skins, sea urchins, pieces of watches, seeds, barks, feathers, seaglass, driftwood, pressed leaves, and little odds and ends that I find captivating. I keep these these little treasures in mason jars so that I can see them and the jars line my shelves and cabinets. Each jar is like a time capsule containing a certain time period or place. Sometimes the origin of the contents of a jar are lost on me- I may associate a feeling or a place, but can’t remember why that seed pod has significance. It is that feeling that interests me so much- the feeling of opening an old box of letters and photographs. Of intimacy and history together with a longing to understand. Or opening a drawer in an antique shop. That there is a story there that has faded with time and all you have are clues. With those clues you can reate a narrative whose status is both fact and fiction combined.
So this series is going to be about the feeling going into an abandoned house and finding all these things that have grown very old and whose meaning and context has been lost, or discovering ruins in the woods. Places that people have been, but that are no longer occupied. Making up a story. That thrilling feeling of discovery is something that i think everyone has touched as a child and I want to think about that too.
Jar!
The first step for me is always amassing a ton of material and dyeing it with natural dyes. Here are some black walnut, staghorn sumac, and sumac leaf dyed sheets. I also did a ton of writing and sketching to get my thoughts in order.
Obviously this series is going to have a ton of components, one of which is going to be a collection of 100 paintings of artifacts from my collection. However, it doesn’t seem to be important to me that they are from my collection- in my imagination they are all found in the attic of an abandoned house along with an old sewing room
Here is a piece in progress combining the image of an old farmhouse with an abandoned hornet’s nest. I collaged hornet’s nest paper onto the piece which was both exciting and difficult since it is so delicate.
And lastly here are some sculptural pieces where I took found objects (a spinning wheel spindle and an old hand carder) and wove pieces of text into them in some way. I am really excited about these- I am trying to think about books and storytelling in a different way. There will be more on this later.
Anyway! I am working out my thoughts still and I’m sure that it will change so much as I progress, but this is where I am starting. It may seem like these pieces are not totally related, but they will be! I am still in a gathering stage where I bring together all these ideas and materials and then see
