Garden Series

I started my Garden Series as a Weir Farm visiting artist. As a visiting artist I received a stipend to make work that has to do with the landscape or the history of Weir Farm. Weir Farm was the home of J. Alden Weir, an American Impressionist.

 

In the history of Weir Farm there was much mention of the gardens, who created them and whether they succeeded or failed. Since I had already been incorporating steel leaves and flowers into the surfaces of my sculptures, I decided to make sculptures based on the gardens and the women who created them. Gardens and women are subjects the Impressionists were fond of as well.

 

In my recent work, leading up to these sculptures and since then, I have been exploring techniques, decorative elements and shapes that are stereotypically feminine. The techniques include weaving, macramé and sewing. In many of the sculptures these techniques are done with aluminum, vinyl, or electrical wire. Because many of the sculptures are large with surfaces created from materials with small dimensions the work looks delicate adding to its feminine quality. Does this make them feminist?