Tim Abel
pattern in accumulation (detail), 2013–17
Paper, plastic, fabric, and thread
Dimensions variable, final arrangement installed on-site
Photography Courtesy of the Artist

Tim Abel

Martin Antaramian
Black Waltz, 2005
Black walnut
24 1/2 x 24 1/2 x 25 inches
Photography Courtesy of the Artist

Martin Antaramian

Artist Statement

What makes something real? This question is what drives my artwork. We created words so that we may label and describe what we observe. The creation of a formal language completely changed the way in which we perceive our world. Our realities have become constructed around objects or ideas that we can label and understand.

The inspiration for my artwork comes from the desire to make objects that break down people’s preconceived notions of what things should look like. For me, every single object in our world is sculptural, and I encourage people to see them as such.

Most of my work is wood carving—I like to make furniture that is sculptural in order to point out that just because something serves a purpose does not mean it cannot also be a work of art. For this past year, inspired by the movement of fabric, I have been pushing the concept of wood-carving to new limits as I craft a Victorian dress out of cherry wood.

Kirsten Bartel
Rocks at Medicine Bow Forest, WY, 2014
Digital inkjet print and pen
8 x 8 inches
Photography Courtesy of the Artist

Kristen Bartel

Artist Statement

My most recent body of work, American Dreaming, takes a hard look at how we gauge ourselves against one another and the consequences these relationships have on landscapes, environment, and climate. The artworks I am creating explore the impact of consumer culture on natural resources within the context of the “American Dream.” I am compelled by the cost of this idea, both large and small.

Using print and digital media, I create paper-based works that seek to understand constructs and signifiers embedded in the classic definition of the “American Dream.” I seat related, yet incongruous, images next to one another to better see hidden aspects of their relationships. Photographs shown upside down suggest something disconnected. My use of cookie-cutter shapes references mass production which relegates landscape to a thing that is consumable. I consciously call into question my use of duplicable media in relation to mass production. For me, print media is innocent and democratic, yet also suspect, and an accessory to the collective building of “bigger, better and more” thinking.

Lisa Bigalke
Cashew Crevasses at McClintock from the Marinette County Series, 2017
Reduction linocut
19 x 15 inches
Photography Courtesy of the Artist

Lisa Bigalke

Artist Statement

Most people have a place that makes them feel alive. For me, this is being outside with my feet in the grass. The bulk of my imagery has come from places explored with friends. This body of work began on a trip with my sister and mother exploring places found in my father’s notebooks. He died on a hunting expedition when we were children and this was a way to feel close to him.

Traveling through these places, being able to document through photos, drawings, and notes, gives me the opportunity to reinterpret and organize. I include maps, statistical information, and personal letters in my final work to indicate reality, the actuality of these places, and my relationship to them.

The spirit of the place comes through in the color and texture. Abstracting from nature allows me to create decorative patterns and visual texture in both the macro and micro of the landscape. I include a readable landscape with an enlarged abstracted fossil, flower, or water pattern. The overlapping and concentrated use of the pattern puts the viewer into the realm of my journey.