Paintings that bring a big breath of fresh air into your space
A couple of weeks ago I gave a talk at The Art Gallery at Congdon Yards. We talked about my background, inspiration, processes, and techniques, and the group had some great questions. The gallery was kind enough to film the event and make a video, and you can watch the talk and Q&A below.
My artwork is on display there during my exhibition entitled A Place of Leaves and Earth from Jan. 25 – April 19.
Join me this Thursday at The Art Gallery at Congdon Yards for a one-hour discussion. We’ll be talking about inspiration, techniques, and processes for my exhibit, “A Place of Leaves and Earth,” currently on display at the gallery. The program is free and open to the public, and there will be coffee and doughnuts! Registration is required.
The gallery is located at 400 W English Dr, Suite 151, High Point, NC 27262.
I recently made a series of 6 sculptures using encaustic. Encaustic paint is made by melting wax and damar crystals, and mixing them with pigments for color. Each painted layer then has to be fused to the layers underneath it by liquifying the surface with a propane torch.
The materials I used are: encaustic (wax, pigment, damar resin), cardboard, galvanized steel, and polyvinyl acetate (a fancy way of saying Elmer’s Glue or white glue).
I documented the process from ideation to completion, and you can scroll down to see it from start to finish.
The sculptures are on view and available from the Art Gallery at Congdon Yards in High Point, NC till April 19th.
My sketchbook a couple months ago: the sculpture shape ideas (right) and color combination ideas for sculptures (all over the place). There’s also a drawing for a painting (top left), planning for this exhibit (bottom left), and random ink marks
Drawing a shape on cardboard
Cutting out shapes using an X-acto blade
Cutting and shaping steel wire for the legs and base. The base pieces are also shown
Testing the steel legs and base for balance
Clamping and drying the sculptures. Here the body shape has been attached to steel legs, which has been sandwiched between 2 base plates.
Some of the sculptures after I filled in all the edges with Golden Light Modeling Paste. This way I have a nice smooth, not rough cardboard-y, edge. I sanded and shaped all the edges.
Priming the pieces using R&F Encaustic Gesso for a nice smooth absorbent surface. I sanded the surfaces before and after.
Four of the sculptures primed and ready to go
My encaustic hotplates with melted unmixed colors in the big pots and mixed colors in the lids. The big containers contain clear medium and white.
Six finished encaustic sculptures
In this video you can watch how I fuse the encaustic layer using a propane torch.
My exhibition “A Place of Leaves and Earth” is up at the Art Gallery at Congdon Yards in High Point, NC January 25 – April 19, 2024. Here’s a walk-through of the exhibit that features paintings, sculpture, video, sound, and installation. The work is available for purchase from the gallery.
About the work:
Making my work and moving my body outside have always been the ways that I process things. The work in this exhibit is deeply personal, generated by time I spend in nature alone and with family and friends. It is also born from the range of emotions I feel as I read the news and I make my way through the world as a human. My grief and anger and fear over our changing environment and socio-political upheaval are filtered through the quiet meditative space I find when I’m moving through nature and is sublimated into the artwork.
This grouping is comprised of paintings, video, sound, sculpture, and installation made in the last 5 years, a time that coincided with my son’s time in elementary school. Now that he is older and more independent, I have more uninterrupted time in the studio. I have space to meander, and to sit back and observe and to play. This body of work is a culmination of ideas that have percolated over the last two decades, and of giving myself the grace to learn new techniques and ways to engage the senses.
I hope you’ll experience this work through a poetic lens and allow yourself to be flooded with the sensations and memories this work evokes.
“Before we can save this world we are losing, we must first learn how to savor what remains. This is more than an ecological crisis or a political crisis — it is a spiritual one.” — Terry Tempest Williams
(January 4, 2024, High Point, NC) Award-winning artist Jessica Singerman announces her exhibition of works entitled A Place of Leaves and Earth opening at The Art Gallery at Congdon Yards on January 25 and continuing through April 19, 2024. The opening reception is free and open to the public on Thursday January 25th, 5:00 – 7:30 PM.
Says Singerman, “Making my work and moving my body outside have always been the ways that I process things. The work in this exhibit is deeply personal, generated by time I spend in nature alone and with family and friends. It is also born from the range of emotions I feel as I read the news and I make my way through the world as a human. My grief and anger and fear over our changing environment and socio-political upheaval are filtered through the quiet meditative space I find when I’m moving through nature and is sublimated into the artwork.
This exhibit is comprised of paintings, video, sound, sculpture, and installation made in the last 5 years, a culmination of ideas that have percolated over the last two decades, and of giving myself the grace to learn new techniques and ways to engage the senses.
I hope you’ll experience this work through a poetic lens and allow yourself to be flooded with the sensations and memories this work evokes.”
Emily Gerhold, Director of the Sechrest Gallery of Art and Assistant Professor of Art History at High Point University, writes “Singerman’s work first engages they eye with its color and vibrancy, and one cannot help but feel excited as they are welcomed into the space suggested by her gestural, energetic brushwork. But, balanced with the dynamic elements of her work are passages that inspire deep feelings of tranquility… [This exhibit] will invite audiences to meditate on the myriad embodied responses, from the ecstatic to the profound, provoked by encounters with the beauty and power of the natural world.”
The artwork in the exhibition can be purchased at the gallery.
About the artist: Jessica Singerman earned her BA with Highest Honors in 2002 from the College of William & Mary, Virginia, and her Masters of Fine Arts in 2004 from the University of Delaware while on a fellowship. Her award-winning paintings and drawings are exhibited and collected internationally. Singerman lives and works in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
THE ART GALLERY AT CONGDON YARDS, including A place of leaves and earth, by Jessica Singerman, January 25 – April 19. 400 W English Dr, Suite 151, High Point, NC 27262, www.tagart.org 336-887-2137.
Happy New Year! I read somewhere that it’s a good practice to pause and reflect on the previous year, so I’ll do that here and celebrate some highlights with you. Here we go in no particular order:
Now I’m focusing on getting work ready for my upcoming exhibit in High Point, NC. My show opens at the Art Gallery at Congdon Yards on Thursday January 25th, 5-7:30pm. I’m showing paintings, video, sound and sculpture. Scroll down for a peek at what I’m up to in the studio.
This Sunday at the Millennium Center in Winston-Salem, come see some artwork and listen to live jazz. I’ll be there along with a group of Artfolios artists, and all artwork there will be available for purchase. The center is at 101 W 5th St, Winston-Salem, NC 27101, and the event is from 2:00 – 5:00 PM. You can find all the details here.
The Spring Studio Refresh is still open if you haven’t had a chance to check out some of these artworks. These are pieces I’ve made to try out ideas, to hone my craft, to demonstrate technique to students and for fun. You’ll find that work here.
And lastly, I’m headed to France soon to visit family and friends and for some hiking in the Alps. I’m closing my shop while I’m away, so if you have your eye on something you’d like to get your hands on soon, now’s the time!
Last day to order a painting for delivery or pick up this month is Monday June 6th.
It’s been a strange couple of weeks. We got a bunch of snow a few days ago – AND IT’S STILL HERE. If you’ve spent any time in the South, you might know how weird it is to get snow and for it to actually stick for a while rather than turn into a grey mess. While my classes at UNCSA started last week, I still haven’t had a chance to see my students in person because all our classes have been online. My son has been off school all week due to the winter weather. And I ran 23 miles last Friday – on a mountain. Yeah, you heard that right. I ran 23 miles and I’m still kicking.
If you’ve been following along on my journey, you might remember that I’ve been training for a trail marathon in my favorite place, Pilot Mountain. It’s been almost half a year of training so far and I have one more long run to go before the big day. But back to last Friday.
It was a pretty terrible run. Nothing felt right for most of the 5.5 hours I spent up on the mountain. But worse than the physical discomfort was the mental anguish (not exaggerating). I just couldn’t get it together and dealt with self doubt/pity for most of the run. It’s normal to have a particularly bad training session at some point, so it wasn’t totally unexpected. There were some bright spots during the run though: I got to use my first aid kit and save my foot from an impending giant blister for example.
After this experience, I have a good idea of what to improve on for my next long run. And as my husband Tim said, “Look at it this way: on a bad day, you still ran 23 miles.” ‘Nuff said.
In the studio, I’m in my usual winter routine of digging into fundamentals and studying color. I’ve been working on color studies and playing with ideas for a new project involving Legos. I’m not sure this project will amount to anything big, but it’s keeping my momentum going and may lead to other ideas.
My show at Charlotte Russell Contemporary is up until February 16th and we’ve scheduled a closing reception on Friday February 11th 5:30-7:30pm. Find more details on the gallery website here.
Happy New Year!
It feels good to embark on new beginnings… I’m prepping for a semester of teaching at UNCSA – which starts next week – and am kicking things off with an exhibit opening in Raleigh, NC.
I’m pleased to share with you that Charlotte Russell Contemporary invited me to show a group of paintings in a two-person show called Fresh Air with textile artist Sydney Zester. It’s interesting to see the interplay of colors and shapes between my work and Sydney’s, and I’ll be curious to hear what you think when you see the work together.
The exhibit Fresh Air will be at Charlotte Russell Contemporary Jan. 14th – Feb. 16, 2022.
Find more details on the gallery website here.
Because of the current Covid surge we’re moving from having an opening reception to a closing event, so stay tuned for that date.
Come with me as I take a walk through my exhibition Of Stones and Earth and Air at the Sechrest Gallery of Art at High Point University, NC. The show is up until December 15th, 2021.
Watch a timelapse video showing the 40 hours it took to install this show here.