August 2009
By Sherri Baierl
Medium: Mixed (conte, charcoal, ink, graphite, pastel)
Notes: Shown at NWTC ArtWalk, Shown at the Art Garage, Shown at Gallery Night Green Bay 2009 & 2010
Julie M. is an artist, who I can never pronounce the name of and rarely remember how to spell, but I think she does outstanding work. This is a drawing that I did after I did a series of studies of her work where I tried to duplicate parts. They were unlike art I’d seen up to that point and were inspiring in that they could hold a lot and tell an interesting, action-filled, dramatic story. This story is about my college years and all of the trials, testing, joy, fun, heartbreak and change that came with it.
The time was an exercise in flexibility. There is nothing like living among hundreds of people in close quarters.
There are all kinds of symbols wound around each other through the piece. A wing alluding to Julie's work and to the metaphor of spreading your wings. There is a heart and flames for trials, a chapel that is similar to Wesley Chapel and the door way to the prayer chapel which can be both that and a symbol of a doorway. Trees and nature because that was a large part of that time...
Pieces like this feel risky to me. The irony is that there is so little that people would understand without knowing me and the stories of that time of my life and yet this feels like it is all out there wide open--like someone reading my journal. It is interesting that we often feel like so much of our lives are right out there for the world to see when it is necessary to tell the stories and share about the pieces, otherwise they are just pretty or dynamic or...whatever.
