Invoking Narratives
Carolyn Reed Barritt | Michael Komala Sept 7th – Oct 3rd
My artworks consider character and place, invoking narratives and identities which often effect each other. In my newest abstracted landscapes I utilize a feeling of constricted space to create confined, intimate views of imagined and otherworldly lands, seas and skies with a combination of calligraphic marks, organic shapes and color. My sculptures combine disparate, yet familiar elements to create new, off-balance realities and characters formed from a combination of man-made and natural elements. For the Bejeweled sculptures I fuse ornamentation with modified segments of tree trunks and branches, creating new creature-like hybrids. On the surface, these hybrids are enticing and beautiful, evoking sparkling sea creatures and otherworldly entities, but upon deeper reflection they represent our commodification of the natural world, and a visual articulation of flora in dystopian flux by the integration of bright colors and unnatural, growth-like embellishments onto organic objects. – Carolyn Reed Barritt
I try to incorporate things from my daily life into my work. Over time, shape and color repetitions are established and develop meaning. This rhythm is meant to make work that seems distantly familiar for the viewer, inviting them in to explore further. – Michael Komala
