Anja and Lori
Artist teams of the "Common Ground" project have begun work on their exhibition pieces. Here's our first sneak peek.
Last week saw the first of our “open studio” hours at the SPAACES gallery for the artists participating in the “Common Ground” project and a few of our art teams took advantage of the space and time to dive into creation of their exhibition works in earnest.
One of those was the team of Lori Wiest and Anja Palombo. The piece they have envisioned is the result of their conversations about life challenges and how we tend to create mental “boxes” that we then have to work out way out of. For example, the need to break way from social anxiety and toward being comfortable in unfamiliar situations; to move from scatterbrained to organized, from loneliness and isolation to support, or from feeling stressed or overwhelmed to functioning and confident.
“A lot of times, it seems like we create the boxes ourselves,” said Anja, a professional artist who usually works in ceramics.
In keeping with the “boxes” theme, Anja collected a number of wooden wine boxes which she stuck in her car and drove around with for days, enjoying their pine scent. But ultimately, the pair decided wine boxes were too large and chose cigar boxes instead, a variety of which Anja was able to obtain through the generosity of the owner of a new cigar lounge.
With input from Anja, the team considered the seven principals of design — from repetition to contrast — and played with how the boxes might be set up and displayed: Hanging on the wall? Set up as one, or several, vertical towers? Symmetrical or off-set?
“I think the boxes are a good idea because the human eye likes repetition and they give it a thematic thread,” Anja said. “Your eye creates notes both the repetition and the variety.”
At the gallery, they decided to paint the boxes white — in some cases leaving untouched the figures or designs already imprinted on the box — with plans to ultimately adds additions or figures representing the effort to break free of the boxes’ constraints. They were still deliberating whether they would work on boxes separately and then combine them, or work on each box together.
“I just hope I don’t do it badly,” said Lori, an original member of the FACEing Mental Illness: Art of Acceptance project.
“You’re making a box for yourself!” Anja laughed.
Thanks to Lori and Anja for allowing us to take a look at their creative process. Next week we’ll be visiting with another artist team: Laine Nixon and Chantel Gingrich. Stay tuned!
All participants in “Common Ground,” including the collaborating organizers, are donating their time to the project. If you’d like to help with the expenses involved in art materials, promotion and exhibition costs, we welcome tax-deductible donations to the SPAACES Art Foundation (nonprofit EIN 84-500-4237). You can donate online at the SPAACES website (https://spaaces.art) or you can send a check to SPAACES, at 2087 Princeton St., Sarasota, FL 34237.
We look forward to your feedback as we share more photos and stories with you about our artists and their creations.