Cat Rocketship

It’s out the door! We delivered all 25 pieces this morning. And I realized that I haven’t said much about the show here. So here goes!

You can see Demons and Worse Things at the Memorial Union Gallery at ISU in Ames, Iowa from May 6 - June 20. The gallery is open daily 8a - 10p. 

Demons and Worse Things is all about fear. Fears I’ve had, fears other people have, fears that are universal. You can read the whole artist statement, which explains it pretty thoroughly, here. The pieces themselves run from literal fears (scary things in the dark) to the more figurative (losing control of yourself). 

If you know me then you know that I was in a nasty scooter V. Monte Carlo accident a year ago. A lot of people have asked if this group of works is related. Yes sir. I spent a lot of time after the accident just encased in fear: from the rational to the irrational, I feared it. And it got me thinking about how we work so hard to hide our fears, and to hide that animal, and very natural, part of ourselves. It’s cheesy, but working on this show from there has been inexplicably cathartic. 

This is a body of work that I’ve been setting up for the last year, and it’s the first real concentrated body I’ve done - meaning that it focuses on one theme, it shares a style, it doesn’t wander off into whichever direction I fancy one week or the next. There are 25 pieces, most of them much larger than I’ve done in the past, and all on wood. 

Overall, I’m very, very, very proud of the work I’ve done. I can see where I need to improve, there are some pieces I want to give a bit more time, but it’s a satisfying body. It makes me very excited to get on to the next group of paintings. 

So that’s it about the show itself, but there is one more note. And this is where things get all Oscar-speechy, but meh. This many paintings is a big undertaking and took a lot of help from awesome people. I want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who helped out. And there are so many:

Thank you to everyone who helped move my studio this spring (especially Dani and Darby)

and to everyone who helped critique pieces (Dani again, and Dan, Bonker, Paula, Kerri, Neil and more I’m sure I’m leaving out)

to Dan, Abbie and Neil for helping set up the awesome preview party

to everyone who came to said party (especially Adrienne and Mitch for making Maren’s first opening mine) and had interesting questions and fun stories and their own fears

and to everyone who gave me ideas inadvertently along the way (especially Adrienne G. and Yvonne)!

And most of all, thank you to Scott for doing all of the above and pushing me hard and making working easier and workshopping through ideas to make them better and getting mad and being patient and carrying and loading and making sure I have a place to work.   

I can’t wait to get started on the next project.