Art is the only way I know of to reach those deep secrets and wounds that I fear to speak in words and that hold me hostage. I believe in the power of using easily recognizable, discarded items in my art. For me it partly stems from my family background to re-make and re-use, and also from my personal need to recycle those items into something that will transform their meaning and function. Making art from nothing relates me directly to the nature of creation and the Divine creativity. And it allows me to express my spirituality in my art.
The use of assemblage has the art take on the form of shrine or altar, which, with my Roman Catholic background, was a natural choice for me, combining my religious background with personal experience, my personal vision in a more universal form. I consider the process of making art to be a prayer; prayer as the opening up to something larger and deeper and then letting go into it. This letting go and releasing of images is the expression of my art that begins in woundedness and ends in healing. I find that naming the woundedness always sets one on a journey to wholeness and forgiveness. Each shrine becomes a prayer to healing.
The Guardian Series is my attempt to vision and name those voices that both support and limit me in hearing my calling as an artist and seeker. Each guardian has a positive aspect that guides or protects me, and a negative aspect that restricts me in some way. They are the dichotomy that lives within me which I must be aware of and balance each day to move with the flow of my life and work. I honor them as archetypes of my being, teachers and torturers and champions of who I am and may still become.
The Guardians are constructed from odd bits of junk, ripped cloth, rusted bottle caps, old beads, safety pins, tarnished silver dishes, and objects people have found for me. As the granddaughter of a trash collector, I have spent my life being called by odd bits of texture and form which recreate me as I transform them.
The use of assemblage has the art take on the form of shrine or altar, which, with my Roman Catholic background, was a natural choice for me, combining my religious background with personal experience, my personal vision in a more universal form. I consider the process of making art to be a prayer; prayer as the opening up to something larger and deeper and then letting go into it. This letting go and releasing of images is the expression of my art that begins in woundedness and ends in healing. I find that naming the woundedness always sets one on a journey to wholeness and forgiveness. Each shrine becomes a prayer to healing.
The Guardian Series is my attempt to vision and name those voices that both support and limit me in hearing my calling as an artist and seeker. Each guardian has a positive aspect that guides or protects me, and a negative aspect that restricts me in some way. They are the dichotomy that lives within me which I must be aware of and balance each day to move with the flow of my life and work. I honor them as archetypes of my being, teachers and torturers and champions of who I am and may still become.
The Guardians are constructed from odd bits of junk, ripped cloth, rusted bottle caps, old beads, safety pins, tarnished silver dishes, and objects people have found for me. As the granddaughter of a trash collector, I have spent my life being called by odd bits of texture and form which recreate me as I transform them.
Art Shows
Nita Penfold’s work has been exhibited at The Nave Gallery, Lynn Arts, The Elm Street Gallery, Andover Newton Theological School, Peck Gallery, North River Arts Society, Newburyport Art Association, Episcopal Divinity School, and the Gallery of Social & Political Art.
Solo Show: Shrines and Other Prayers, March, 2005, Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
Solo Show: Shrines and Other Prayers, March, 2005, Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury, Vermont.