art delivery : 10.07.23

Soooo, last Saturday I featured an installation, titled “Path”, by Sara Dehghan. It’s about the “displacement and movement” of immigration. This was already wonderful enough, but then Sara sent me an email with the ‘behind the scenes’ story, and her ingenuity was too fantastic not to share:

“… Fun fact about the Path installation. Due to my husband's job we had to travel to India for four months. This happened right before my MFA solo show. In India I turned my room, which was less than 150 sqft, into my studio. I had to come up with an installation idea which could fit in my suitcase, yet be impactful enough for the size of the gallery. With my room's low ceiling, the installation hung at the floor throughout the process. Also, didn’t have the space to put all the pieces up at the same time, so I never saw how the whole show would look till the day before. There were so many factors that kept me awake at night but I had no other options than keep moving forward and shutting down my doubts. I was in that room for four months, then packed everything in my suitcase and flew back to California. I had my show the next week.”

No other option than to “keep moving forward and shutting out doubts”… yes, this! Bravo, Sara, bravo.

This week’s fabulous ART DELIVERY sponsor is Art Fluent, supporting artists worldwide through juried exhibitions and funding opportunities throughout the year. These are two of their featured artists… the photographs of Jim Richards (first two images), and Heather Evans Smith (bottom two). Here’s a bit of insight into why/how they do what they do:

JIM : “In 2018, a friend mentioned that his son was making a straw camera. I asked: What’s a straw camera? He showed me a picture. I looked it up, did some research, bought 4000 straws (I guessed) went to my studio and made one. I use the straw camera as a projector. It is a visual projection device through which an image is broken into 4000 parts, transported from one place to another, and then reassembled in the mind of the viewer. It is in this disassembly and reassembly that no small bit of magic takes place, and previously unknown truths about the image are revealed. All human beings have multiple aspects, or shades of character. This is what is discovered in the straw camera. I didn’t know this, could not have known it, until I made and used it.”

HEATHER : “Some say my dad’s death was the spark that ignited my depression, but this feeling has been brewing for a while. I started to notice a sadness creep in a few years into my 40s. I searched “depression in women” and stumbled across articles stating women are the most depressed at age 44. I was, at that very moment, 44. Loss during this time in a woman’s life can weigh heavily. Children are getting older and need the comfort of a parent less; the health of one’s own parent(s) is starting to fail, and hormonal shifts begin. By using the color blue, which for hundreds of years has been associated with melancholy and sadness, these images evoke this period in my life and how it affects those around me. A mid-point, as I am stripping down, taking stock, and finding a new place amongst the loss.”

Ahh, beautiful x 2! Visit Art Fluent to read full interviews / see more work by both Jim Richards and Heather Evans Smith… and thanks to Art Fluent for supporting this newsletter and the fabulous community we’re building here!