This month, I present to you an artist who became a coincidental source of inspiration for my current project Aves is Petah Coyne. Coyne is an American sculptor who is known for her organic, large-scale sculptures. I have begun dipping my paper cranes in candle wax and one of my peers asked me if I had seen any of Coyne's work. I told him that I was not familiar with her and he said that my project reminded him of her work. So I did some research and the similarities are quite uncanny.
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| Untitled #810 Mixed Media Coyne, 1995 |
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| Untitled #1336 Mixed Media Coyne, '09-'10 |
Above is an idea of Coyne's newer sculptures. I enjoy the whimsy of her work and the elegant, dark beauty of the creations. The following is a portion of a review of her work by Sebastian Smee at the MASS MoCA,
"Unlike many contemporary artists who focus on social or media-related issues, Petah Coyne imbues her work with a magical quality to evoke intensely personal associations. Her sculptures convey an inherent tension between vulnerability and aggression, innocence and seduction, beauty and decadence, and, ultimately, life and death. Coyne's work seems Victorian in its combination of an overloaded refinement with a distinctly decadent and morbid undercurrent. Her innovative use of materials includes dead fish, mud, sticks, black sand, old car parts, wax, satin ribbons, artificial flowers and birds, birdcages, and most recently, taxidermy animals, Madonna statues, and horsehair."
I am very happy and thankful to have found such a unique contemporary artist. As I look at her work, I find myself pushing my thesis farther towards the characters of the imagination rather than the human figure on its own. I feel like Coyne's sculptures belong in Grimms' fairytales. For more of Petah Coyne's fantastic sculptures, here is a link to her website.
www.petahcoyne.org
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