gretchen, writing from the ohio. my first time blogging so we’ll see how this goes. i’ve been enameling thirty-some years. i began while in undergraduate school at kent state university with mel someroski. what i thought was a brief break from another studio major became the unintentional focus for life. my work is usually 2-d for the wall with an emphasis on drawing and a painterly use of enamel. images are most often derived from the surrounding landscape including garden, fields and water. my website www.gretchengoss.com shows examples of previous work but has not been updated for a couple years. recent work has focused on bodies of water impacted by our existence on the planet. studies of the gulf of mexico and arctic circle follow. the last work made focused on vernal ponds. reading recent posts about walking in rural environments remind me of the small ponds and their budding life in spring. the sound of spring peepers is a subtle joy of spring when living with widely diverse seasons.
blogging or time spend on the computer is not a favored activity. teaching full-time provides a flood of daily of email and work on the computer so when it comes to my studio interests i don’t head for the computer except for some digital imaging. i may not write often. work for this exhibit has been weighing heavily on my mind. i’m naturally inclined to work on the wall but have never been satisfied with work installed except through traditional hanging methods, ie nails in the wall. due to the gallery restrictions i’ve been considering all options and am not sure at this point where the work will land.
Gretchen Goss
Gretchen Goss is an enamelist and educator who lives and works in the USA. "An ongoing attraction to the natural world is the inspiration for my work. Prevailing themes derived from the landscape include; farms, gardens, plant forms and water; an examination and view of the most valued aspects of my life." Gretchen featured in our first Heat Exchange exhibition in 2012.
Dear Gretchen, hello, lovely to welcome you to the Blog. Your imagery inspired by water sounds so fascinating and I love your last image above. Have you come across Roni Horns project ‘Thames’? She spent time photographing the water of the Thames in London and I saw the originals a couple of years back in an exhibition. They are amazing. Yours will be very different of course, individual and stunning.
I would encourage you to make work for the wall; there are 6 boards in the gallery we can drill into, I have been told, although, even so they promised, the Shemer staff have not sent digital photos or measurements yet. Also, our plan is to ring all the artists in mid-February to get a bit of an overview of what everybody is planning to have in the show and how to display it. It’ll be either Elizabeth or myself who will ring.
Beate xxx
i’m always drawn to images of water and those are wonderful. i’d love to have seen, or to see the originals someday. i’ll keep thinking about alternative hanging solutions. if working with the water images, vernal ponds i’ve thought about the floor, where they belong naturally.
The floor sounds such good idea, Gretchen and you are right it seems natural that as water images they ought to be seen from above.
You sound well on the way with your thoughts; I am slowly progressing too; I have begun to resolve the ‘first layer’ of imagery (I hope). I might take some photographs of my paper test pieces again and post them up, but I am not sure yet.
Beate xxx