Last year the Art Gallery of Ontario had an amazing show of Jean- Michael Basquet. His work was amazing, frenetic and packed with ideas and messages. Paintings that Urk and make you think.
My work is about seeing and often the message is quite simple- LOOK MORE- PAY ATTENTION!
So I decided to put myself in Basquet’s shoes and try making work in his style. This is harder than you think. This is what I came up with. I took my simple idea a bit further and decided to start a seriesn fo works that have a witness in the image, a lone often hatted person -paying attention much like what the Quakers do. -January 2016
Any Colour Fist Is still a Fist, pencil, xerox, 14 x 17 Irregular , 2015 $40
Mediocrity : by Product of Indifference , acrylic & oil pastel , 17 x 14 , 2015 $25
Leg of Basquet: Get a leg up , pencil, Xerox, tape, 10 x 13 2015 $40
Get to the point, oil pastel, collage, 13 x 10 2015 $40
Bare Witness: Need Speed, Greed, acrylic, oil pastel , silkscreen, ink 17 x 14, 2015 $60
Bare Witness: Blessed with a kernel of curiosity…, acrylic, oil pastel and silkscreen, 17 x 14, 2015 $25
Bare witness to the Trees , monoprint marker, oil pastel 10 x 12, 2015 $40
Bare Witness: Stop. Watch. Grow.Th , acrylic paint, sink screen ,ink, stamps, 15 x 10.5” 2015 $40
Bare Witness: Stop. Watch. Grow.Th
Palestine Collage, ink stamps, Xerox 8 x 11 2014 $40
Time , acrylic, Xerox, tissue, ink , 17 x 14, 2014 $70
Over Christmas and especially due to all of the news about Syrian Refugees I came to the realization even though I am a a somewhat unknown and medium income artist, I am part of the Group classified as the 1% or the people of the haves. I have shelter, food ,clothes, family, a job, health and wealth in the bank . I even, have the ability to spend my extra money on a Christmas tree and ornaments and presents . This led me to thinking about the two main classes of the HAVES and the HAVENOTS. Spoon Collections reside in many homes across middle America collecting dust. This is a testament to being a Haves. If this is a spoon collection that never gets used then why not make it out of very unlikely materials; hair, nails, volcanos, the moon, concrete etc. This is the thought process for these works. They are conceptual, silly and commenting on what us Capitalist Haves spend our hard earned money on. Feel Free to SPend you rmoney on my Unlikely Spoon Collection.- January 2016
From the Land of Milk & Honey , spoons, acrylic, pins , 8×8 x1.5, 2015 $65 (2)
I work at the Art Gallery of Ontario and this past winter Turner has been our main show. His work is all about sky and the long view towards a horizon. I was inspired by this and by finding a whole bunch of plastic on the road. Putting the two together to create this series.
Factory Scape V acrylic detritus, on wood panel , 12 x 12 x 1.5, 2015 $150
Factory Scape I acrylic detritus, earring, on canvas , 8×8 x 1.5, 2015 $100
Factory Scape III- with rusty man and shadow acrylic detritus, on canvas, , 8x8x1.5, 2015 $100
Lone Munitions Factory, Acrylic, bullet casing, detritus on canvas, 8 x 8 x 1.5, 2015 $100
Factory Scape IV acrylic detritus, on canvas, with clock, 8x8x1.5, 2015 $100
SOLD Big Dipper Above Our Damaged Earth, acrylic, detritus, rust, on canvas 8 x 8 x1.5, 2015, $100
Factory Scape II – with wheel acrylic detritus, on canvas, , 8 x 8 x 1.5, 2015 $100
Call of the Elements at NUUC by Lauren McKinley Renzetti
The Tree of Stewardship, installed on the left, is made from cut, glued, screwed , gouged dremmelled and carved plywood with acrylic paint stained on top and is six feet wide and seven feet tall. The tree is a representation of The Earth Element, and how we as Unitarian Universalists care for our world: we are the stewards of the planet, we must care for all living things. That is why it has the look of a manicured Bonsai. Lauren’s tree design is influenced by Canadian artist Patterson Ewan, the Group of Seven, and has the intention of whimsy much like Dr. Seuss.
tree of stewardship
The Solar Egg is the second piece, hanging to the right.Itis painted in acrylic on plexiglass and is six feet wide by four feet tall, and is hung above the Wiggle Room. It represents the element of Fire, the Sun in the form of an egg. The Sun nurtures us and gives us light, warmth and also energy. We harness the sun with our solar panels on our roof. The spirals coming out of the sun are shaped from the Golden Section* radiating out as our seven guiding principals. The way this was painted was by starting with all of the smallest detail elements painted first and then working towards larger and larger components, finishing with the rich blue cosmos in the background.
solar egg
close up of solar egg in making
* The Golden Section is a ratio (roughly 1.618) found in the design and beauty of nature, which can be used to achieve aesthetic beauty and balance in art, architecture and design of any kind.
The Blue Elementals:Air & Water is the third component. This middle piece, is the largest piece in the installation measuring, 10 feet wide and 21 feet tall at the peak. This hanging quilt project, was community oriented created by most of the congregation through donation of fabrics, and small groups from Neighbourhood led by Lauren from March to June of 2014 . The Blue Elementals consists of over 50 panels. One of the first stages was dying cloth to have a series of green, blues and purples for background pieces and to cut up for smaller quilted elements. Several small groups were involved in making parts. The choir, youth group and all ages of children took part in workshops to create group and individual panels along with smaller elements that represented different aspects of water or air. A dedicated few also helped with the initial cutting out and arranging of background panels. Some of the panels are the choir singing, a kite flying, musical instruments playing, a hot air balloon in transit, spirals, and windmills which all represent air. Other panels are snowflakes, clouds, waterfall, rain drops, fish in the sea, growing plants, trees, crops, waves, river systems, and silhouettes of people represent water. The biggest challenge with this undertaking was not only its size but having more than forty people contributing different parts of a whole, and trying to piece all of these parts together mindfully. The seven columns of images are not all the same size and thusly the piece in its entirety is not symmetrical. The most time consuming part was figuring out the placement of each piece within that column and to the columns on either side, staggering the colours and images evenly and then sewing it all together and backing it to be all one piece. The look was to have some recurring themes jumping from column to column. This was to reflect not only, the interconnectedness of our seven guiding principals but also to help acknowledge the interwoven nature of our ecosystem. It had to make sense, with some logic in the placement of celestial bodies far up in our outer stratosphere and move down to the actual surface of the earth at the bottom. After all the air and water does start at our feet.
Hegelian Seed Collection Statement by Lauren McKinley Renzetti
The Hegelian Seed Collections: Seeds of a Future and Seeds of Extinction are a commentary on choices.
The collection so named after G.W.F. Hegel1 because of his belief in absolute idealism. If we follow his three steps – study the nature of our society and acknowledge what should be removed and become extinct and what should remain and be encouraged to Nurture and Flourish we will not only be looking at Society but taking necessary steps to Change Our Society.
The collection and nature with which it is presented is indicative of the cabinets of curiosities so popular at the turn of the 19th century. The artist is looking down on society, is passing judgment, and hoping that these collections through time become a curiosity that our children and future generations can say “How quant remember when there was genocide, malnutrition, war… we were such heathens… So glad we stopped that .”
Ironically no seed can grow in an air tight box with no sun, water, nutrients and a pin through it. This is a perfect environment for seeds of extinction to wither and petrify. This does not hold true for the seeds of the future but hopefully they are plentiful and so common that they never move to the endangered list. The categorizing, presenting and intimate viewing through a looking glass invites the viewer to ponder
Why these words?
Why not Boredom? Hunger? Death?
The artist asks this question of you.
Can you come up with a reason?
It should be simple and if it is not then please ponder further.
-Lauren McKinley Renzetti created circa 2014 statement written March 2015
1Hegelianism is the philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel which can be summed up by the dictum that “the rational alone is real”, which means that all reality is capable of being expressed in rational categories. His goal was to reduce reality to a more synthetic unity within the system of absolute idealism. The first and most wide-reaching consideration of the process of spirit, God, or the idea, reveals to us the truth that the idea must be studied (1) in itself; this is the subject of logic or metaphysics; (2) out of itself, in nature; this is the subject of the philosophy of nature; and (3) in and for itself, as mind; this is the subject of the philosophy of mind (Geistesphilosophie). – from Wikipedia
Journey of Blue, Red & Yellow, interaction: Sir Blue, Sir Red and Sir Yellow all have different questsacrylic on canvas, various detritus, floss, metal men24″ x 26” $400McKinley Reliquary, Interaction: view Reliquary through the frame provided wooden shadow box, various items, gold leaf nail 6″ x 8″ $150
After working a few years in national gallery settings like the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Art Gallery of Ontario I became frustrated in the inability to touch art works. Brancusi created sculptures that were created with the full intention of being touched by the blind – these are housed behind glass. Through the use of very thick impasto textured paint, inclusion of found objects and street detritus in my art I came to realize I was reacting to this premise in galleries. I allow even encourage my work to be touched & experienced through your hands not just eyes. Many of my works are about the physical journey your hand takes whether that is by small men who walks on a journey on the canvas or the viewers personal exploration of the work through rearranging the composition, or looking through a small frame . Altered books are a newer art medium for me and they beg to be flipped thorough and explored like any good book deserves.
Jesus Toys , acrylic , lace, maps on loose canvas, dowel , tassel, 24″ x 24″ October 1995 $150
Stain and Light is an exploration of colour, texture, luminosity and light refraction. I was influenced by old English and French stained glass artisans of the 16th Century to the present day craftsman, along with Medieval tapestries. I wanted the lyrical quality, clear shapes of colour without the heavy religious connotation or heavy leaded line. I also chose to mount them as simply and as lightly as possibly with sewn canvas on dowel with rope and tassel instead of stretched over a frame to remind us of the tapestries of old.
Works on plexiglass are unframed with a simple fishing line hanging system through holes directly in the plexiglass. The work is painted in acrylic, UV protected & can hang directly in sunlit windows. Works tend to be 6 x6 or 10 x10 inches. I will take commissions and work is priced reasonably at $30-60 per piece, depending on the size. All works pictured here are sold commissions or located at Unicamp.
