Colleen RJC Bratton @colleenrjcbratton - Tumblr Blog

Colleen RJC Bratton Ponder the Bestowed Wounds, Repurposed fibers, embroidery thread 2105

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Consummation Colleen RJC Bratton Repurposed fibers 2015 Upcoming work for my show Real Time with Polina Tereshina at ArtsWest in West Seattle, Washington.

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Out of Sight

Vital 5 Productions proudly presents OUT OF SIGHT A survey of contemporary art in the Pacific Northwest. Curated by Kirsten Anderson, Sharon Arnold, Greg Lundgren and Sierra Stinson. In tandem with the Seattle Art Fair, Out of Sight presents over 100 visual artists in 24,000 square feet of the historic King Street Station. Join us for this landmark event. Exhibiting Artists: Humaira Abid, Iole Alessandrini, Julie Alexander, Julie Alpert, Megumi Shauna Arai, Rick Araluce, Nola Avienne, JD Banke, Crystal Barbre, Baso Fibonacci, Joey Bates, Justin Beckman, Jared Bender, Gretchen Frances Bennett, Zack Bent, Gala Bent, Evan Blackwell, Colleen RJC Bratton, John Brophy, Jazz Brown, Bette Burgoyne, Max Cleary, Frank Correa, Tim Cross, Casey Curran, Brian Cypher, Sue Danielson, Jack Daws, Patrick “Duffy" De Armas, Jed Dunkerley, Warren Dykeman, Barbara Earl Thomas, Debbie Faas, Leiv Fagereng, Jueqian Fang, Aidan Fitzgerald, Scott Foldesi, Julia Freeman, Erin Frost, Neal Fryett, Justin Gibbens, Damien Gilley, Klara Glosova, Mandy Greer, Francisco Guerrero, Laura Hamje, Robert Hardgrave, Colleen Hayward, Jenny Heishman, Julia Hensley, Jesse Higman, C. Davida Ingram, Jeff Jacobson, Claire Johnson, Sean M. Johnson, Ken Kelly, Patrick Kelly, Dave Kennedy, Izzie Klingles, Kirk Lang, Kat Larson, Mike Leavitt, Rich Lehl, Greg Lewis, Margie Livingston, Francesca Lohmann, Amanda Manitach, Chris McMullen, Jennifer McNeely, Katie Metz, Steven Miller, Ryan Molenkamp, Saya Moriyasu, Scott Musgrove, David Nelson, Matthew Offenbacher, Tyna Ontko, Michael Ottersen, Joe Park, Shannon Perry & Kyler Martz, Mary Ann Peters & MKNZ, Eleanor Petry, Jason Puccinelli, Cheyenne Randall, Rob Rhee, Tivon Rice, George Rodriguez, Ashleigh Rose Robb, Joe Rudko, Serrah Russell, Sail, Joe Shlichta, Rafael Soldi, Kellie Talbot, Polina Tereshina, Chris Thompson, Kimberly Trowbridge, Sarita Valdes, Joey Veltkamp, Redd Walitzki, Tariqa Waters, Casey Weldon, Chandler Woodfin, Robert Yoder, Claude Zervas, and Jennifer Zwick Thursday July 30th – Preview and Grand Opening Party Featuring Derek Erdman spinning, a special Doug Newman Slide Show, performance by Mal DeFleur and endurance performances featuring Alice Gosti $50 (age 21+) includes one re-entry over the weekend 7:00 – 11:00 **ENTRANCE at King Street through Amtrak Entrance** July 31 $10 (all ages) Exhibition hours 12:00 – 8:00 Happy hour bar service 5:00 to 8:00 Performance by Evan Flory-Barnes August 1 - $10 (all ages) Exhibition hours 12:00 – 8:00 Happy hour bar service 5:00 to 8:00 August 2 - $10 Exhibition hours: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm (swedish pancake brunch 10:00 to 2:00) Tickets on sale now at: https://www.strangertickets.com/events/25469403/out-of-sight-grand-opening-party Follow us on Instagram @outofsightseattle http://vital5productions.com/CurrentEvents/?p=347

Colleen RJC Bratton Neighbor's Slant Repurposed fibers, acrylic 2015

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Colleen RJC Bratton Home Vision Repurposed fibers, acrylic 2015 Join me tonight from 7-9 at the opening of Cairo's May exhibition featuring new works by myself, Isabel Blue & Brier Kaik. Cairo 507 E Mercer St Seattle, WA 98102

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Made Personal The Alice Gallery Colleen RJC Bratton, Joe Rudko, Serrah Russell May 9th-June 6th 2015 Opening Reception: Saturday, May 9th, 6-9pm

Made Personal features new work by Colleen RJC Bratton, Joe Rudko, and Serrah Russell, including photo collage, sculpture, fiber arts and a collaborative publication. The artists were drawn together by their formal composition, minimalist aesthetic, and shared interest in working with found materials that reference a past history. Through this exhibition, the artists continue studying how gestures of collage can frame common materials as personal and significant.

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Colleen RJC Bratton "Not a Void" Repurposed fibers 2015 Site-specific installation at Two Shelves A Seattle-based artist, Bratton works with repurposed cloth to create soft structures that explore the relationship between self and space. With her installation “Not a Void” Bratton fills the distance between the two shelves in an attempt to graph the dynamic relationship between two entities over time.

#colleen rjc bratton #soft structures #fiber art #contemporary art #art #artists on tumblr #women artists #sculpture #conceptual art #Seattle #two shelves

twoshelves

Between the Shelves : Jessica Powers w/ Colleen RJC Bratton

Colleen RJC Bratton is a conceptual artist living and working in Seattle, Washington. She graduated from Seattle University with a degree in visual art and philosophy. Bratton works with repurposed cloth to create soft structures that explore the relationship between self and space. With her installation “Not a Void” Bratton fills the distance between the two shelves in an attempt to graph the dynamic relationship between two entities over time. Jessica Powers is an organizer/administrator who works at The New Foundation Seattle. She has independently curated art exhibitions in the US and Canada and is a founding member of the curatorial collective TARL. Jessica was curator of Seattle University’s Hedreen Gallery from 2010-12, and communications director at Listen and Talk from 2011-2014. Her prior experience includes program and outreach positions at the Museum of Glass, Path with Art, and Western Bridge.

Covenant. Repurposed fibers, 2014 Jessica Powers: I first met you when you were an energetic and promising student at Seattle University. What did you do in the year after graduating from undergrad? How did you start and develop your studio practice? Colleen RJC Bratton: I got engaged ten days after graduating so for the first six months of my post-college life I was planning my wedding day. It felt much like an art project itself as I handmade most of the decorations. My senior show was emotionally heavy and exhausting so planning the wedding was a good break for my psyche. After Chase and I got hitched I started slowly getting back into the groove of working on art projects. To stay disciplined I set up a work schedule for myself, devoting at least two full days a week to creating or researching. Much of my free time was spent experimenting in the studio, reading, curating shows at Gage Academy of Art, going to shows around town, and meeting new artists. I decided early on that I wanted to be careful about what kind of work I put out into the public eye. I would start new projects and then quickly abandon them if I couldn’t see myself devoting at least a few years to it. It was frustrating but humbling. Not many artists find their shtick at twenty-three and I was definitely not one of them. After about two years of working out of my apartment I subleased my first studio workspace. This changed everything for me. Surrounded by hard-working artists was inspiring and motivating. Six months later I woke up and realized that I needed to make art full-time. I quit my jobs, found a permanent space, and now currently work making art 10am-5pm four days a week.

Morning Doorway. Repurposed fibers, 2015. JP: Tell me a bit about your site specific work for Two Shelves. Does “gradient” stand as metaphor for energy, sentimentality, or social process? CRB: Yes, I see the gradient as a metaphor and a graph that speaks to the progression of sentimentality over time. The start of the gradient in this case is white. White symbolizes that first introduction within the social process; it’s stark with no background information. Over time and with increased experience, that relationship tends to warm up and become enriched with information and emotional attachment. White no longer suffices to represent that relationship and so the colors change. The work ends with a rich and shimmering brown. The color and fabric is complex and alluring. I wanted to think about how Kelly and Joe must feel about their apartment. When they first moved into their new space it was just that: an empty space. They’ve lived there for quite some time now and have shared many memories with it. It no longer is just a space, it’s become a home. It’s evident when you walk into their home that they love it: there’s all these little details they’ve added, plants that have grown, a kitty who has claimed it as her own, and an energy that feels very Joe and Kelly. It feels very warm and inviting just like the end of the gradient.

Perpendicular Walls. Repurposed fibers, 2014 JP: You went from making work about the Hanford Site, a mostly decommissioned nuclear production complex near your hometown, to this current project which is about a very different kind of energy. How did your current work evolve out of the Hanford series? CRB: The Hanford series was one of the projects I abandoned after realizing I couldn’t see myself devoting years of research, thought, and work into it. Through the project I developed my love for working with fabric and for sewing. It also revealed something about my character that transfers into much of my work: I tend to look on the bright side of life. Hanford produced plutonium for the Fat Man bomb. It’s an ugly and awful history of secrecy and murder but without it my grandpa would never have moved to Washington state and met my grandmother and in turn, I never would have come into existence. That’s a strange fact to live with. Soft Structures came out of many hours thinking about the negative attitude many people have towards art and the museum and gallery space. I gave tours at the Frye Art Museum for about five years and heard many different viewpoints on the subject. People perceive a kind of hierarchy that tends to put them off. I took the stark, blunt white walls of the museum and turned them into these soft objects that are warm and inviting. This project has many off shoots that explore an optimistic viewpoint on spatial relationships.

Entrance from the Inside. Repurposed fibers, 2014. JP: What does it mean to pack negative space full of stuff, in addition to filling it with this gradient? CRB: Packing this negative space with hundreds of layers of fabric calls attention to its existence. This may sound obvious but, without a visible marker of an invisible thing people don’t really acknowledge it. It’s like a drawing explaining the universal law of gravitation, there’s arrows representing the force between the two objects. “Not a Void” will drastically change the visual dynamic of the two shelves. It will represent the invisible force between the two shelves. JP: Tell me about role cloth plays in your practice at this time? CRB: All of the fabric I work with has a previous life. It either comes from a friend or from a thrift store. This unknown history makes the material very personal to me and gives it more dimension. Fabric is extremely visceral and tactile for me. It makes sense since I’m in contact with it everyday in the form of clothing. With all of this complexity in mind, I transform cloth into architectural and spatial representations. These works aim to speak softly yet deeply about the relationship between space and self.

Vitrine. Repurposed fibers, 2014. JP: Do you see any conflict between work/craft and sociality? Particularly as it pertains to the uniquely isolated studio work? CRB: I do see conflict between the two. As an artist who aims to make work that is accessible to the everyday person and not just other artists, it’s important that I remember to create familiar entry points within my work. Otherwise viewers can’t access the work and attempt to relate to what it’s communicating. When someone goes into a gallery and looks at a work of art a dialogue begins and hopefully the work speaks a language the viewer can understand. My work’s entry points are: fabric and space. Humans are in contact with fabric everyday as well as space. To find these entry points I have to be social. It takes a lot of effort especially when a lot of my work happens alone. It means posting photos of pieces and seeing how social media reacts, choosing a work environment where other people are working and keeping the door open, having a critique group, and knowing what’s going on in the world on the macro and micro level. Without these relationships and the empirical knowledge that comes from them communication becomes much more difficult.

Cased Opening II. Repurposed fibers, 2014. JP: Can you expand a little more on your interest in interpersonal sociality? CRB: To put it simply: the more I understand the dynamics of a relationship the more I come to appreciate it. And to expand: this appreciation in turn affects my respect for that person or thing. I believe it positively affects the environment. This is why I don’t like the term “void” or “negative space” because I don’t see it as such. It has a bad connotation in my mind. Without that space I couldn’t fully come to recognize what I see and where I begin and the other thing ends. I learn about myself and I learn about the other. I see the complexity and mystery of a creation. The space between can intensify and the gratitude builds. It’s one reason why lovers come together. They bridge the gap to show admiration. Having a relationship (my marriage) that I’ve dedicated the rest of my worldly existence to is a profound thing. This person will change over time because of all of his relationships. The ones he has with people, his God, the spaces he lives in, and with me. Understanding the dynamics of relationships will help prepare me for changes, appreciate growth, look fondly on the past, and treat the present with more respect. Each layer that forms adds depth and reveals the richness of that person’s identity. JP: Let’s dig a bit further into why the terms “void” and “negative space” are problematic for you. CRB: These terms are problematic because they direct attention away. They tend to “undescribe” what they’re attached to. I look at the white space around an image within a frame and see it as holding the image and giving the eye breathing room. The title of the work “Not a Void” is a play on words: I see the space between the two shelves not as a void that’s empty of everything but as filled with this energy and because there is something to understand there the mind should not “avoid” giving it attention. The whole should be considered: the two shelves, the space around it and the space between. JP: In a deeply cynical (art)world, you manage to maintain an uncanny optimism in your demeanor and in your work. How do you do it? CRB: It’s not easy. It helps to have a good sense of humor and to not take myself too seriously. I have a thirst for knowledge and experience and thankfully this complex world is full of more knowledge and experiences than I could ever take in in my lifetime. Art has the ability to open people’s eyes in new and incredible ways. I would love to make art that inspires people and makes the world a better place. People tell me I’m naive but I always think about the seventeen-year-old girl who saw Rauschenberg’s Bed for the first time and cried (me). I didn’t cry because I understood the whole history behind the work, I wept simply because it struck a chord with me. It was more than the aesthetics, there was an energy reverberating from the piece that I couldn’t explain. That mystery didn’t frustrate me but instead motivated me into a humble exploration. That was the day I decided to become an artist. Not a Void - Colleen RJC Bratton Thursday, March 12th 7 - 10 pm

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Come hangout with me & some other cool cats this Thursday. Much love to Joe, Kelly, & Jessica for all their love & support.

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