Nature: Highlights from the Episode exhibition
NATURE: Highlights from the Episode opened on Saturday, March 18. All but one of the works in the show come directly from plants, but all of the works very much relate back to the theme of the episode: exploring the beauty and wonder of the natural world.
Preston Singletary’s glass interpretation of the Tlingit creation myth sits in the window, allowing the piece to be enhanced by the changing light throughout the day.
Two grass-like vessels by Mary Merkel-Hess frame the doorway with their bright red fronds alluding to the grasses that influenced the works as her 9-piece leaf work adds a movement that is naturally dynamic, but motionless all the same.
There’s such a wonderful intimacy about artists’ books, and Catherine Alice Michaelis uses both subject matter and process to showcase her connection to the land. In some of her pieces, she uses a process called eco printing to dye paper using found local plants.
Interspersed throughout the show are Michelle Holzapfel’s carved wood pieces. While not only impressive from afar, these pieces are so interwoven and intricate that it is important to see them in-person.
You can find out more about Singletary’s mythological sculptures, Michaelis’s eco printing, and just how Holzapfel persuades the wood to fit together so precisely by visiting the Craft in America Center and by tuning into NATURE when it premieres on PBS on April 21st (*check local listings).
