Currently showing
I was fortunate to have another opportunity to exhibit a piece at the wonderful John Michael Kohler Arts Center. This Exhibit is called “Knock First” (running through the summer) and it is a collection of artistic responses to experiences with the creative bathrooms at the Arts Center and Art Preserve.
This is the realization of an idea and work done over 40 years ago! Here is my submission:
Ooo la la! A Neon Love Whisper
My work with neon started as an apprenticeship with a sign company. In 1984 I came from out of town to live in Sheboygan, starting this way in a new city with the intention of becoming a neon artist. I was, needless to say, thrilled to discover the JMKAC. As I worked 10-hour days in a factory setting, I kept sketching ideas for creative projects that I could make with my tube-bending skills. I felt far away from the art world, and unsure of my place in it. When I learned about the Artist in Industry program I saw people like myself. I was inspired by the connections that art was making, on so many levels, through the Arts Center. It helped me to persist!
I am proud to bring friends through the JMKAC galleries, and we always stop in the bathrooms (same for the Art Preserve). That’s because the immersive experience, where art all around makes you feel more precious and beautiful because you are in it, starts there.
There is a quotation by Yoko Ono that encourages us to smile at ourselves in the mirror. We find ourselves smiling in those bathrooms, and we are uplifted. That’s what I want my art to do!
This glass piece says “Ooo la la!” It was so long ago that I made it, it is as if another person measured and marked the glass. I learned to work with the torches, the hot glass, and the whole process, until eventually there was a short time when I was able to maintain an independent studio. My income came from repairs and producing unique neon signs, but I could also sculpt some of my sketches into being. For example, there was the idea for this positive message that could be spelled out in neon. I visualized it hanging on a wall over a beautiful mirror. Before my neon studio closed, I did make this idea a reality: it’s a curlicue of light that I “drew” in space! This is a full circle opportunity, to bring it out from storage now and show it here, in the home of its inspiration. It represents a beautiful compliment; something we can tell ourselves, or tell others, to replace a negative lie that might be festering. Its message is like a neon whisper heard in the artistic Knock First bathrooms. A person may feel fragile about themself, but we are saying,
“Remember the joy of this place. Ooo la la! Like the art objects all around you, you are a one-of-a-kind beauty!”
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