I haven't posted here on my blog for awhile, but if anyone's looking, I want to announce that I have been on Instagram since January, 2022 and that's where I'm posting current work and happenings. https://www.instagram.com/janetvanfleet/
Most recently, I've been working on a series of FACES that are mounted on black bases:
Two pieces were sold during the recent exhibit We the People at Green Tara Space in North Hero, in the Champlain Islands. They look pretty happy in their new home!
The piece in the previous post, SNOW, was sold in the silent auction at the Bennington Museum, bringing in $1,651, of which I will get half. I'm a bit sad to not see it anymore (as I didn't have it in the studio that long before delivering it to the museum), but people often ask me if I'm distressed about having work sold and gone. The answer is "No! My artwork is a bit like my children, and we want our children to grow up, possess their own lives, and make their way in the world, not keep them exclusively tethered to us." I make work for the world, and am delighted when it finds its way to a new home.
Have a look at my new website, and the images of all the pieces in this series of People: https://www.janetvanfleet.com/people There are new ones coming along all the time!
I have a piece called SNOW in the Transient Beauty exhibit at the Bennington Museum from November 26 through December 31. Artists responded to the artwork of Snowflake Bentley in a variety of ways.
My piece is made with wood, cascades of white buttons (representing snow), and a plexi-fronted box as the head. Here are some pix:
The annual Celebrate (Members') Show at SPA is opening today! I have lots of cool little things for sale -- dolls, ornaments, nail people. Time to not be serious for a few weeks...
I hope to see you at the Art Social on Saturday, Nov. 13 from 4-6PM. Guests are required to wear masks. (No refreshments will be served.)
I haven't previously posted all eight pieces from the Dissolution series that was exhibited at the Vermont Supreme Court in 2019, and thought I should do it now!
The pieces in this suite chronicle the dissolution of a "relationship" between humans and the natural world (represented by animals), from the Peaceable Kingdom beginning to the Armageddon end. The organizing idea was a love story of acquaintance, courtship, marriage, estrangement, and separation, ending in hostility and battle. I also intended the series to resemble the Stations of the Cross, in the sense of offering viewers an opportunity for observation and reflection as they move through the numbered series.
These eight pieces are built on 20-year-old oil-on-board paintings from 1998, which were among those exhibited in my first solo show in Montpelier, at the Arts Council’s Spotlight Gallery! The paintings were stored in my studio for 20 years, until I decided to repurpose them for this exhibit. I sealed them with shellac (a surface treatment made of the secretions of a female insect from India or Thailand, the lac beetle), then collaged over with figures of people and animals made with wine foils (the wrappers at the top of a wine bottle that seal the cork).
I’ve been using wine foils for many years in my work, inspired by the work of the late Vermont artist G. Roy Levin. In a more recent association, my work has affinities with the Ghanaian artist El Anatsui, who makes wall sculptures that employ thousands of caps from bottles of alcoholic beverages. The phrase in vino veritas expresses the idea that wine brings out the truth. In this moment, we are certainly in need of truth, however we can elicit and examine it.
1 The Beginning, 1998/2018, mixed media, 27”x 36”, $1350
2 Parnership of Equals, 1998/2019, mixed media, 24” x 32”, $1200
3 Mutuality, 1998/2018, mixed media, 30” x 30”, $1200
4 Irreconcilable Differences, 1998/2018, 29.5” x 35”, $1400
5 Attempted Communication, 1998/2018, mixed media, 36” x 28”, $1400
6 Parting Ways, 1998/2018, mixed media, 24” x 33”, $1200
7 Tipping Point, 1998/2018, mixed media, 31” x 31”, $1200
8 The End, 1998/2019, mixed media, 36” x 54”, $2700
