group show curated by Natalie McLaurin
Nov 13-Dec 5 2011
Antenna Gallery
New Orleans LA

Brooding, Failure to Incubate and Rumination are self-portraits of aspects of my studio process. Working in miniature scale encouraged the adoption of a different perspective, to imagine the view from outside the atelier/ bird cage.

As I watched the oil plume hemorrhaging into the Gulf on BP’s live cam and saw the subsequent images of oil-soaked birds, I felt impotent. I brooded and wanted to find a way to respond through my art.

Being a sentinel is paralyzing work, sometimes.

Pelicans are resourceful, gimlet-eyed masters of airborne acrobatics, but oil in their feathers grounds them and traps them. Incubating and hatching an egg, like getting an idea and making art from it, rely on a fragile tensile integrity.

A British study reported that sheep prefer smiling faces and are comforted in distress when shown portraits of their herd members. A wolf in sheep’s clothing? Only an introvert artist seeking to join the spirit of community. Navel gazing, studying the carpet fibers, ruminating among ruminants, and brooding are practically art forms. I try not to take them to excess.

1. “Studio Process: Brooding, Failure to Incubate”
mixed media with birdcage, Lee Deigaard, 2010 (see above)
2. “Studio Process: Rumination”
mixed media sculpture with carpet section, Lee Deigaard, 2010 (see below)