September 2006 Featured Artists
Robert Diamante ~ Photography / Teresa Mowery ~ Jewelry and Assemblage
Robert Diamante and Teresa Mowery kicked off DeBlois Gallery's September show on Saturday, September 2. Diamante's photographs have an uncanny ability to evoke the essence of the subject of the photo, which explains why Teresa Mowery has trusted him to showcase her evocative assemblages and jewelry. Now both artists come together to collaborate in a new way, displaying their individual works in parallel with one another.
Robert Diamante
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ARTIST'S STATEMENT Box 5042 ~ Portland, Maine ~ 04101 ~ 207.874.0587 ~ www.robertdiamante.com For the past several years I have studied the history of Western Still Life art. Questions concerning the history of theology, and their impact on art, have played a central role in this exploration. The coding of religious art is well documented. I attempt to play with the established system of coding to achieve similar, subtler inspirational modes without employing direct known references. I do not discount the codes that are in place, in fact I rely on these as vital starting points. However impossible it might be for me to tune out my embedded archetypes, I work inside these "vehicles" to arrive at a place where no one credo or dogma is amplified; I am working from the metanarratives down to the details, which are then composed within my own frame of reference and through my own lens. For me, the symbolic possibilities and the psychological impact of the still life are not exhausted avenues of exploration. An orange will always be what it is in the empirical sense. But an orange ceases to function logically when it becomes swept up by my desire to have it perform as a conduit for something other.
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Grapes
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Acorns
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Teresa Mowery
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TERESA MOWERY'S BIOGRAPHY Teresa A. Mowery received her B.F.A. in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from Maine College of Art in 1991. Since then she has worked for various jewelry businesses as well as Art Museums including the Newport Art Museum and the Fuller Museum of Art, while continuing to design and create her jewelry and sculpture. Her recent body of sculptural work is a combination of mixed media and encaustics. Many of the larger wall pieces begin with found objects and are created “assemblage” style combining various colors and textures to create the desired affect. The artist is inspired largely by ancient and primitive art, both in her sculptural pieces and her jewelry.
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ARTIST'S STATEMENT My artwork generally begins with the found object. I am particularly inspired by discarded materials which, left to the elements and time, become weathered. These pieces intrinsically reference both mankind and nature at once. The pieces transform their original function and, seen separately, can be viewed as symbols or icons. Discarded industrial parts can become like microcosms. Many of the shapes I find mirror the shapes found throughout nature. The starburst, the spiral, the circle etc... these shapes are repeated throughout our world, from subatomic chemistry to astronomy, we see them again and again. The parts I choose to begin with tend to have a melancholic romance to their decay. These objects are beautiful in their patination yet are also a dark sign of our own glutinous population. My response as an artist is to exaggerate the qualities I am drawn to in these found pieces. The strongest work comes from the heart, is honest, and allows the process to dictate its outcome.
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