July 2017: Deborah Unger & Carolyn Garcia

Carolyn Garcia’s artwork is created with thin layers of acrylic paint, colored pencil and graphite of the hardest lead (9H). To quote Carolyn, “My process is time consuming and often I feel like a jeweler, as I use reading glasses and a magnifying glass to see what I am doing. The work for this show was inspired by the loss of my friend Shannon Kraft to cancer. We met as teenagers and spent every year up to her death exploring the world and enjoying traditions that we created during the 34 years we knew each other. These paintings have brought back memories with more power than merely remembering. Sometimes the recollections have been painful, but other times they have made me laugh out loud. I plan on creating a graphic novel about Shannon, to illustrate the ridiculous joy, difficulty, nuanced strangeness, hard work and love it takes to have a friendship that spans many decades. These paintings would be part of that book.”  

Deborah Unger "Safe from Me" carved wood fabric Deborah Unger creates small-scale figurative sculpture in carved wood and mixed media. The figures are carved out of basswood using both hand and power tools. She then makes patterns for, and sews the clothes in which the figures are dressed. These figures often exist within structures or other environments, which create context. Though undeniably doll-like, they are not about the figures as much as they are about the substance. "The pieces employ metaphor and symbolism to portray relationships and internal conflicts. These are intended to convey a particular feeling or emotion, often fleeting, without any evaluation of it.”  Though the artist admits most of her work is autobiographical, she hopes it is left sufficiently open to interpretation, inviting viewers to identify with it in a personal way through their own past experiences.