a more perfect shade of blue

I'm delighted to announce my show of new work is up at Full Circle Gallery, the little gallery inside our local art supply store, where my new work returns to to the place of its material origins.

"a more perfect shade of blue"
full circle gallery
July 26th - August 10th
10 NW 6th St
Gainesville, FL
M-F 8am-6pm
Sat 8am-5pm
352.378.2577

reception:
Saturday, August 4th, 3-5pm

This statement accompanies the work:

We seem to be mesmerized by abstraction; in cloud gazing we make a game of seeking recognizable shapes in the sky, while in more oracular traditions, significance is wrested from coffee grounds and ink blots. My own fascination -and unease- with chaos manifests through the repeated creation and preservation of tangled and amorphous masses in the attempt to find comfort within delicate systems of complexity.  

That my materials have their own idiosyncrasies and respond to manipulation in sometimes unexpected ways is central to my process. The linear elements of the Morphosis pieces are printed with graphite powder and thread I spin from cotton fluff on a tiny brass spindle and then allow to tangle beneath my hands. My inks are mixed with other materials to relinquish some control of the final form and color, but allow more opportunity for subtle shifts and surprises. Color has been rare in my work until recently when permutations of blue began surfacing as I found myself thinking of the mind as a fountain of ideas, stories, and memories. The translucency of vellum and other paper layers translate to quiet reveries where interpretations murmur beneath the surface -sometimes audibly.

Erin Curry. Morphosis #14. archival ink, graphite on panel under mylar 

Erin Curry. Morphosis #15. archival ink, graphite on panel under mylar 

If you live too far away to come by in person, some of the Morphosis pieces are available in my new etsy shop and can be shipped when the show comes down after August 10th. 

installing . . .

wherein I flaunt my love of the grid while grumbling at its demands 

and then love it again.
unnamed (as of yet) #1-9. ink, oil, and water on vellum

a blue to dive into

Erin Curry. work in progress. a more perfect shade of blue. 7ft x 3ft. acrylic on paper. 

Deep summer arrived a few weeks ago and, without air conditioning in the studio, by mid afternoon it feels like time to escape to water. My mammal mind must be traveling to the springs as this indigo blue has welled to the surface of these new large drawings worked while on the floor. No small amount of time was spent perfecting the color and it still shifts as the layers accrue one by one. Once the pages are dry, it takes standing on tiptoe to tack them to the wall layer by layer.

As with any new work, there's a bit of falling in love involved. I love the way the pale blue washes glow through the paper above and the way this particular paper wrinkles into little dimples when wet. I love that I've managed to convince the colors to separate a little as it dries, so the ink makes little dustings of pigment. Best of all is the sound. With the windows propped open in the attempt to keep cool(er), these drawings blow and crinkle in the current. My brother-studiomate was driven to tether them down while I wasn't there to stop the chatter of the pages, but I like to hear them talk when he's not around.

Part book, part print, part drawing, part installation, part soundscape: it's covering a lot of ground here with room to grow. 

During the ever important stare time -sometimes while literally waiting for the paint to dry- I'm dwelling on the mind as a fountain of associations when faced with abstraction and, in terms of process and creation, as a fountain of ideas. It seems commonsense, but sometimes east to forget: Action is Fertile.  Tilled ground is where planted seeds grow best.  Even my discards become valuable materials for experimentation with new treatments: crushing, waxing, oiling, inking, drawing, slicing, cutting. It's no coincidence Richard Serra's verb list is thrust into the hands of art students. The list is a map. If one gets stuck, just randomly point to the list and DO. 

Richard Serra. Verb List. 1967–68. Graphite on paper, 2 sheets, each 10 x 8" (25.4 x 20.3 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the artist in honor of Wynn Kramarsky. © 2011 Richard Serra/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York