OPENING RECEPTION & PREVIEW
Thursday, August 16, 2012 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm
TRUNK SHOW
Saturday, August 18, 2012 from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
In August, Asher Gallery welcomes two popular Houston artists—fiber artist, Carolyn Dahl, and metalsmith, Marcela M. McLean—for a special summer trunk show. Please join us for a reception/sneak preview on Thursday and show on Saturday to meet with the artists and discuss the motivations behind their nature-influenced pieces.
“Fingerprinting nature” is how artist Carolyn Dahl describes her technique of leaf printing for her shimmering, one-of-a-kind silk scarves. After collecting leaves from Houston’s trees and plants (many come from HCCC’s Craft Garden), she inks the leaves with foil-like metallic paints, presses them to the silk, and burnishes until their beautiful imprints transfer to the cloth. Carolyn explains, “Artists have traditionally been inspired by landscapes, sketching or painting what they saw. But I love using an actual object from nature to make art, to hold a leaf in my hand and be a collaborator with nature. Printing allows me to see what my naked eye might have missed in a leaf: the intricate lace of the tiniest veins, the jagged contour of a nibbled edge, or some detail that inspires me to enhance it, turn it into a butterfly, or float it across the silk as if a fall breeze had suddenly arisen.”
Long known for her versatile, enameled-flower jewelry, Marcela M. McLean has been branching out, working with coils of copper and painting with enamel. She’ll feature some of this new work at the trunk show, and we’re excited to show the full range of her imagination. Though Marcela does not directly incorporate plants into her silver, copper and enamel jewelry, she draws great inspiration from the beauty of flowers: “I grew up in the middle of the Andean mountains, where I still find myself captivated by an infancy surrounded by natural streams and an abundance of nature only found in the tropics. The balance of rich colors, natural lighting, and even the sound of nature is the inspiration for the intimacy I try to create between the human body and my work.”
Above: Carolyn Dahl, “Ramie Leaf Portrait.” (Ramie leaf from the HCCC Craft Garden.) Scarf made with silk fabric, metallic textile paints, hand burnishing. Photo by Rick Wells. Brooches by Marcela M. McLean. Enamel on copper. Photo courtesy the artist.
