Sculptor Stephanie Bedwell exhibits at Hyde Art Gallery

El CAJON -- The Hyde Art Gallery at Grossmont College opens its Fall 2013 Semester with “From This Place” – a Sculpture and Installation Exhibition that will feature the work of Stephanie Bedwell  from Monday, August 19, through Thursday, September 12.

“From This Place,” according to Art Professor Malia E. F. Serrano, is a “study in consciousness that calls us to notice the material world and the paths we take through it. The exhibition includes diminutive objects, such as bones, bees and hearts fashioned from beeswax and clay, which sound a personal and vulnerable note. We are reminded of our human frailties, emotional and otherwise, by the organic forms nestled carefully into Brown Valise. Larger installations of stick and wool-tied boats, such as Predicting Vulnerability, or hammocks knitted from silken fibers, such as Turmeric Hammock, encourage contemplation of individual or collective narratives. It may prove difficult for a viewer to traverse this exhibit without moments of self-reflection. Bedwell’s concern with themes of life and rebirth will intuitively register with the viewer.”

As a sculptor, Bedwell “embraces the detritus of our mundane existence and uses it in new ways that can best be described as alchemical,” Serrano said.. “From the discarded, cast-off, or overlooked, she recognizes and claims materials for a new life. In Skeletal she binds electrical wires, guts from her son’s discarded Yamaha organ, to construct a backbone. From whittled twigs and fallen branches, she fabricates boat hulls and the pilings to which they are moored.  In Wrought and Escape Route, tarpaulins and upholstery foam, salvaged from old couches and backyard sheds, become ground cover.

“The practice of turning discarded material into substantive works of art is important to Bedwell, as a metaphorical component of her art. But it is also motivated by the artist’s interest in sustainability and commitment to minimize contributions to, as she calls it, the ‘toxic burden’ of the planet. In addition to using found media, she may use natural dyes from turmeric, or tea, or shellac, a resin made from beetles, to saturate or otherwise enhance the patina of many of her sculptures.

“Issues of origin are inherent to the meaning of each object. Bones of a dolphin carcass scavenged during a beach walk in Ventura become the sculpture, Fear. Slabs of shale collected while camping in the White Mountains generate a base for Lost. The exhibition title, “From This Place” is meant to acknowledge the starting points of a creative process that can accommodate an intuitive, generative process, and sculptures that become markers of place and documents of her journey as an artist, mother, teacher, and healer.

Bedwell is a prolific fiber and mixed media artist with an extensive background as an art educator. She includes among her recent exhibiting credits the first one-woman show at the newly renovated art gallery at Mesa College, and a Sculpture Installation commissioned by Chaffey College for the atrium of their new Center for the Arts building. Her solo exhibitions include Body and Spirit, San Diego State University, Archetypes, J. Dewers Gallery, and imago mundi: Reflections on the Whole, Mesa College Gallery.

The Hyde Art Gallery, located in Building 25,  is open free to the public  Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.  It  is closed Friday to Sunday and legal Holidays. Parking is available during the exhibition with the purchase of a permit from the vending machine in lot #1F.