#crafthousegr

[rdhay]

The clouds came down for a while. 2016. Photo courtesy of @acarmera #acrylic #woodpanel #galleries #crafthousegr #contemporaryart #abstractart #abstractpainting #abstractexpressionism #geometric #grandrapids #

[rdhay]

Photos from last weekend's show at #crafthousegr. #abstractpainting #grandrapids #acrylic #abstractexpressionism #artwork #contemporaryabstract #interiordecore #interiordesign #geometric #galleries

[rdhay]

Got a new picture of an older piece, thanks to @acarmera at #crafthousegr 😄 Uruapan #2. #abstractart #abstractogram #acrylic #artwork #contemporaryabstract #abstractpainting #woodpanel #grandrapids

[crafthousegr]

From Aunt Allie Goes to Africa, a collection curated by @kate_garman on view now at #crafthousegr http://ift.tt/1BFF3LA

[crafthousegr]

Aunt Allie Goes to Africa, a collection curated by @kate_garman on view through January. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:30pm-8:00pm. http://ift.tt/1HzYAAY http://ift.tt/1DpSmkX

[crafthousegr]

Aunt Allie Goes to Africa, a collection curated by @kate_garman on view through January. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:30pm-8:00pm. http://ift.tt/1HzYAAY

[crafthousegr]

Jenna Para gives us the honest truth...

So Jenna, how did this latest set of prints come to be?

"I didn't take my idea for the second "Thoughts of Home" show very seriously when I first thought of it, actually, because it stemmed from a pretty ridiculous conversation Coco and I had about losing things at home, like the night I lost my betta fish down my sink drain while cleaning his tank. (Don't worry; I got him out.) So I brushed the idea off for awhile.

 I view discussing "home" as a fairly heavy topic, so how could these little objects possibly be capable of fully encompassing what "home" means? The idea kept nagging me though, and I gave into pursuing it after some helpful conversations from the Co-Op and a few fellow printmakers. 

As I screenprinted the objects, I thought about their impact on our lives and it morphed into this larger metaphor of what we can lose at home. It wasn't just these little objects, was it? Sometimes we lose the people who make us feel at home. Or we have to pack up and move, leaving behind roofs and cities and familiarity. And we're left to contend with the weight of separation and distance and loss. So we figure out the best ways to replace these missing objects and keep going with our lives. I think it pains part of me to see what's been lost get completely forgotten over time and since replacements make that transition fairly easy, I wanted to create something in memoriam of the losses we might view as too small." -Jenna

Official Statement for y'all...

"Since most of my work already focuses on the idea of home and the repetitive quest of trying to find what has been lost, I asked each of my fellow Co-Op members to think of an object they tend to lose or misplace in their homes. These objects are fairly standard in our every day use of them, but once they are lost, our routines are thrown and we are left to improvise until we can find what is missing. When we cannot retrieve what's been lost, we resort to replacing it, which can be as easy as a trip to the corner gas station or as tedious as waiting for a new bank card in the mail. No matter the process though, we know we can always get that replacement, so the loss is never permanent. With one object secured safely in a frame and a large edition of "lost" objects strewn about the floor, I hope to give a form to the objects we no longer see."  -Jenna

[crafthousegr]

Co-Op Spotlight on… Michael Rodriquez.

"I am a builder by trade and an art collector by passion, and in both ways self-describe as part of the art community's "support system".  For the Co-Op Project I want to construct objects that literally hold the stories of others. In this work, the art frame is not an after-thought, applied when the creative work is complete; rather, I see the frame as integral to the artwork, and its construction and assembly as the primary art-making."

"For Thoughts of Home, each subject was photographed as I led them through a short mediation. Each person was invited to consider their own experiences of home. It is interesting to hear that the idea of home evokes emotions of both pain and of comfort, both nostalgic longing and the excitement of yet unrealized ambitions. It is at once a place in the past, a present accommodation, and potentially everyplace in the future's wide field of possibility. Each subject's eyes are closed, temporarily unaware of the camera lens. The photos are then mounted and framed. Materials, proportions, and companion objects are selected for aesthetic considerations, as well as a play between how the subject sees himself or herself and how I, working as the art maker, interpret their story."

"The final step belongs to the viewer. Framed objects are often subconsciously considered to be more permanent, more valuable, more complete, and perhaps because of their containment, more easily investigated. Because the subjects' eyes are closed in the photographs, the viewer is freed from the small anxiety of meeting eyes and returning a gaze. They are quietly invited into each small home, to look a little closer, to study each face, each object, each material, and each story." -Michael