Studio Update - January 23, 2007

It may not look like it from the outside, but I've been busy toiling away in the studio. I have four pieces that I'm very excited about in various stages of completion. Well, it's actually five...

One of these pieces will be made with mouse bones! It's been a while since I used this subject and medium. I got them with the help of a barn owl. I can't say that no mice were harmed in the making of this piece, but at least it was natural selection.

I'm in the sorting stage of the mouse project, and I'm really struck by the spectrum of colors I'm seeing. I think some of these bones must be very old. (Click on the image to see them up close.)

"Assemblation" Reviews

"ASSEMBLY REQUIRED"
"Some pieces quirky, others quizzical, but imagination makes show a cool spectacle"

By JERRY CULLUM
For accessAtlanta
Published December 28, 2006

YOU HAVE a little time left to see how many eggs have been broken by Will Eccleston's sledge hammer at Eyedrum.

The Atlanta artist's inspired contraption begins with a knife that slowly saws through a rope, a little more each time the door to Eyedrum opens. The rope snaps, and the hammer drops. Suffice to say, the supply of eggs and rope has been dwindling.

There are not many shows that combine such up-front show-stoppers with back-gallery small treasures. But "Assemblation" has the very big and very gorgeous - Lillian Blades' stunning quiltlike fabric installation takes up an entire hallway - as well as the very small and very gorgeous.

Some of the little objects are funny, too, but many more are poetic. Veronica Scarpellino's homage to Proust's famous quest for times gone by is both. Tiny glass vials containing silvery watch parts rest in a red velvet case, and they're dazzling even if you miss the joke. Half a dozen other artists likewise turn combinations of precious and ordinary things into delicate works of art.

The stuff made from sheer trash may be the most attention-grabbing, though. Amandine Drouet's incredibly lovely recyclings of egg cartons and fluffy fabric as well as Nicholas Fraser's sculpture made of cellophane windows with junk-mail envelopes will leave do-it-yourselfers forever jealous. Especially since he includes a work table for doing it yourself.

Overall, this is seriously kicky proof that (mostly) local artists make stuff that both art world insiders and casual visitors can agree is amazing.

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Click here for another, longer review of "Assemblation" published December 24th in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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