Artist Statement

My work investigates the constantly changing relationships in the environment. The layered and meticu- lously worked surfaces of my paintings, drawings and cut-paper structures navigate the spaces, places and perceptions of my surroundings. Withstanding the vigorous manipulation of materials and processes, these works become a testimony of resilience and strength.

In daily walks in New England or my travels further afield I explore the forces of nature and diverse eco- systems through the lens of the natural sciences. Wind, light, and water are recurrent sources of inspiration for my work. Through observation, I find interconnected relationships in the underlying order and structures that shape our visible landscape.

In the studio, the work comes together in a lively exchange of materials, recollections and experimentation. My archive of field notes and drawings are an invaluable resource for the patterns and structures found in the landscape. I consider and contemplate these notations to establish visual relationships of experiences, past and present.

The work proposed for exhibition explores the endless possibilities of paper. The paper chosen for many of these works are made in Asia. They are favored for their translucent, delicate nature and their ability to endure robust experimentation and invention. These papers withstand being soaked, cut and torn— alterations that transforms their original state into artifacts of the history of their making.

Some of these works rely on the stiffness of the paper to tenuously hold their form. In Wallwork, the inter- woven linear structure is cut from large sheets of heavyweight, hot-pressed paper. This work is modular,
it hung from the ceiling with monofilament thread and then reconfigured as a wall piece as seen in the image supplied. In presenting this work, the delicate work is hung with pins to magnify their fragility, while the larger drawings hang with magnets. The smaller works are framed and hung in the traditional manner.

I included Unfolding Chaos (a work-in-progress) in this submission because I see this work as an installation drawing that needs a space to direct its final form. Its current configuration, approximately 7 x 10 feet. The drawing is a mosaic of prints and drawings, torn and mended together into a tentatively, cohesive whole. The work is constructed in a continuous torrent of piecing together and pulling apart. Forms accumulate, dissipate and congeal en masse. The threads traverse the space above the underlying network of graphite lines to visually pull the elements of the structure together.

Looking at a tree over many years, leaves appear from branch tips and the trunk widens. It emerges from a tiny seedling no smaller than the size of a finger, twisting, forking, bulging, and towering beyond my grasp. From where does the force build? What are the small changes that accumulate as it ages? What are these powers of growth and decay? With these questions, I create my own work using slow processes of subtraction and accumulation.

For example, I explore subtractive processes in burning through thin layers of paper as a method of gradual erosion and excavation. Carving and drawing into the layered paper, I use the ember from incense to create openings that allow the paper to move. The burning is an irreversible physical change—a death. The breathing movement of the paper suggests an addition—life. Herein lies a paradox, the simultaneous existence of life and death, of love and loss.

In additive processes, I pile stickers to generate figures and systems. One sticker connects to another, building steps in time. When two stickers build off of one, a forking path occurs, like two different choices. With these pieces, I use a set number of units or a range of sizes in the same shape. Through piling I ask, what can the parts become?

Through careful attention at each step, I cast aside pre-conceived notions and discover meaning in direct response to the materials. The work is an engagement with the mystery of being.

Chris Perry alters unwanted books to impart information without the use of words or images. The books themselves are the idea – the shape of the paper and the information within. These ideas are conveyed through book selection, number and size of volumes, how filaments are employed, and where and what, if anything, happens inside the assembled mass. The focus is always on water in its many forms.

Artist Statement

I work between two-dimensional media: printmaking, drawing, painting and collage. I am interested in the rapport that working between these mediums has encouraged and the reexamination of contemporary usage of these traditional materials and practices.  Each media offers a different resistance, different palette, different surface and space.

Cutouts and collages as stencil forms and templates have become an essential tool in my working process through all the media I work with. The use of cutout and collage has been strongly influenced by the printmaking process, the layering of color through multiple plates and the kind of decision this requires.  The structure from stencil is developed through freehand mark making, using brush, pencil, eraser and rag, among other materials and dependent on the medium of a particular work. The literal layering and combining of the already made structure with the more reactive response encourages the reexamination and self-critique that is essential to my working method.

The work is strongly inspired by the geography that surrounds me.  The variety of experiences and perceptual relationships that I find within and seek out in my surroundings are an intrinsic source to the work.  I find in the landscape visual occurrences of the new within the familiar, the irregular within the regular, the unexpected within the assumed. As significant as landscape is, the gathering of information and experience is broad and varied with parts and pieces entering the work in different ways. Within the making of an individual work, there occurs a shift that separates, selects and asserts through an open-ended process that involves visual constructs. There occurs a shift of the experiential through materiality and formal constructs to resulting form. The consequence of the collisions of history, critique and my individual response are what trigger ideas and drive my practice. 

Artist Statement

My work is about joy.

Joy is integral to our lives, and I appreciate its power more with each passing year.

Joy has always been essential to my process and my objectives.

I have explored a variety of media over the years, primarily working with drawing, painting, handmade paper and collage in both 2d and 3d approaches. My work is process driven. I revel in the total engagement of making my pieces- whether it’s close contemplative observational drawing, or the messy physicality of my hands in paper pulp, paint, or glue.

Creating my work is akin to solving puzzles. The first moves with materials are often intuitive and spontaneous. I then study and respond to these visual clues to resolve the images to my satisfaction. I love engaging with the mystery as the work reveals itself in ways I could never have planned or predicted.

This process brings me an enormous sense of soulful, joyful connection. My hope for the viewer is that my work engages the imagination and invokes a similar sense of the joy I feel in the making.