SWAMP RUINS

 

SWAMP RUINS

Artist Bio:

I work as a freelance artist in print, web, and corporate presentations. Besides graphics, I create a large, unique body of work: self-contained abstract assemblages/dioramas. In desk drawers and wooden boxes, I collage landscapes with materials like resin-infused paper, rusted objects, toys, fabric, wig hair, and twigs. I show haunting, eerie post-industrial dream vistas in colorful Led backlighting. I mix beauty with mystery and dark humor. See www.gallerytrish.com for Education: BFA, University of Colorado Nondegree studies at the School of Visual Arts New York City Non-Degree studies in digital multimedia City Colleges of Chicago

ARTWORK STATEMENT

When not working as a graphic designer, I love making my eerie assemblage art. Thinking inside the box, I scavenge desk drawers and wooden boxes to house semi-abstract landscapes. I collage rusted metal, fabric, scavenged machine parts, broken toys, twigs, and bones. Backgrounds are fabric or layers of resin-infused paper. I juxtapose ominous scenes with LED lights behind translucent media. It adds a colorful atmospheric background. LEDs stay cool and draw very little energy.

I celebrate broken, lonely landscapes: abandoned brownfields, power lines, smokestacks, rusted bridges, and industrial ruins. I like to evoke aliveness amid decay and disquiet, but with a dash of dark humor. Lately, I have been doing a lot of swamps. Nature fights back in industrial lowlands. I often sneak in toys, sci-fi, and horror elements amid the scene- not obvious-but revealed as the viewer explores. My Swamp Ruins diorama was inspired by Karen Russell Pulitzer-nominated novel, Swamplandia! The story was a suspenseful, haunting journey into Florida’s darkness on land and in the Everglades.

 

My process began on a backyard grill. I burned giant holes in 3 desk drawers, to the bafflement of next-door neighbors. The drawers are mounted front-to-back, each opening into 3 layers of mysterious materials. As in the novel, I represent industrial remnants overgrown in a menacing jungle, populated with creepy elements suggesting an alien presence as well. Diorama materials here include dishwasher parts, toys, fake decorative foliage, rubber reptiles, a vacuum tube, fabrics, and resin-infused paper. It has an outer cladding of epoxy-coated paper and burnt wood, with a glass front. To add to a hanging-moss effect, with a hint of bigfoot, I recently topped Swamp Ruins with a large, tangled wig.

REASON FOR PICKING ARTWORK

Art has some significance that speaks to the soul. Immediately at the artwork, one will know that artwork is different from other works in the gallery. It has a natural vibe and shows what the forest and wilderness look like.