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inspiration in the ordinary By
Jeanne Claire van Ryzin |
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Faith Gay is busy. All the time. She likes it that way. It's second nature. Habit. Part of her upbringing. "I come from a line of Southern women who were always in constant motion, doing things all the time," says Gay on a recent morning, her voice tinged with just the slightest touch of twang left over from her hometown, Port Arthur. Perched on a window seat at D Berman Gallery, where she currently has a solo exhibit, the 37-year-old artist grabbed a few minutes to reflect and, well, just not multitask for a moment.
Faith Gay calls herself a hunter-gatherer and searches thrift shops with her daughter for vivid toys she uses in her art. "I'm a process artist," she says. "The more I can do, the more I can put color and pattern together, the more interesting art-making is for me." Gay has certainly been very busy making art since finishing a bachelor of fine arts degree at the University of Texas in 1995. Her work has been shown across the state and snapped up by collectors who are undoubtedly seduced by Gay's creative patterning and extravagant use of color. And by the very stuff Gay uses, too. And what a range of stuff that is: plastic craft beads, fluorescent-hued packing and labeling supplies, circular paper punch-outs of all sizes, yarn. The typically taken-for-granted stuff of everyday life is Gay's artistic medium. "I was a crafty kid, always doing something, always had a project going," she says. "We spent a lot of time on weekends on our deer lease in the Big Thicket doing everything ourselves: fishing, hunting, shelling beans, making all the food. Listening to the bugs at night." And finding awe in the colors and patterns of nature. "Ultimately, nature is where I get my ideas and inspiration from," she says. That inspiration leads to vivid artworks that in some instances literally explode over gallery walls. Gay has arranged thousands of tiny plastic craft beads into undulating, organic collages, fused the beads together with a heat gun, then tacked the work on a wall, often wrapping the collage around corners. More recently, Gay has been celebrating cast-off objects, particularly children's toys. "I'm a hunter-gatherer," she says. "I have a circuit of second-hand stores I visit every week." Most days find her centered in the East Austin home she shares with her husband, graphic designer and ex-Ed Hall drummer Kevin Whitely, and their 4-year-old daughter, Honey. Art-making and child-raising are the priorities. (And a little DJing, too: Known for her eclectic music collection that ranges from classic soul to Brazilian funk, Gay has a regular Saturday night gig at the downtown restaurant Bess.) After a year or so of regular thrifting with Honey in tow, Gay gathered a sizable collection of plastic toys — specifically Mattel See 'n Says and Fisher-Price Corn Poppers. She also developed a fascination with arrowheads she found during the construction of her home and on subsequent forays around Central Texas. The results? The toys have become orderly, patterned sculptural arrangements. The arrowheads have emerged into explosive collages of carefully cut paper forms tightly arranged in radiating sunburst designs. "I love knowing everything about where I am," she says. "And also the process of discovering it, too." She does, after all, have to stay busy. jvanryzin@statesman.com;
445-3699 |
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©
2007 www.dbermangallery.com
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