Monday, November 18, 2013

My Father's Stuff III

     In two previous posts, here and here, I shared about the significance of November 18th, and the week leading up to it.  In keeping with that established tradition, below is third installment of "My Father's Stuff"*, selected from a full body of work created this summer on location in Vermont and Massachusetts and hung as part of the annual art trail here.  Photos follow the artist statement. Click any image for a larger view. Enjoy!


 
My Father’s Stuff
Redemption

This is the third installment of work begun in 2010 to sort and process the deeper spiritual truths of my father’s death from lung cancer several years ago.  While the first two installments addressed the hard realities of my father’s diagnosis and passing, and my own transformation as I walked that timeline of events, this new installment finds me on the other side of that grief.   Now seen emerging is a complex foundation of redemptive peace intermingling with authentic joy, and new sense of self.  True self.  And the honest recognition that these new pieces, and this new self, could not be if not for my father’s passing.  That’s not to say his death had to be for me to arrive here at this place of understanding, but more to acknowledge that when we willingly, and ofttimes precariously, walk the road we unexpectedly find ourselves on, releasing and becoming as we go, we will indeed journey forward and quite possibly find ourselves living the truth of beauty from the ashes. 

Pam Lacey
November, 2013


Exhale Into Peace
rust-transfer dyed muslin
2013




Seeing From The Inside Out
rust-transfer dyed muslin
2013




Come To The River
rust-transfer dyed muslin
2013



  

Joy Moves
rust-transfer dyed muslin
2013

 

About The Artist

Pam Lacey is a self-taught artist currently working in fiber, metal clay and glass to convey experiential messages centered on transformation.  Just as heat, friction, fusion and most recently, oxidation are necessary to transform and merge her chosen media into finished work, so it is with life and the necessary heat, friction, fusion and oxidation that transforms all of us from who we are to who we will become.  Sometimes organic and spontaneous, sometimes intentional and planned, the end result of transformation shares the message of the transformed.

All works are for sale.


* This body of work was made possible by The Connecticut Office of The Arts via an Artist Fellowship grant for the 2012-2013 fiscal year.  Forty-six Connecticut artists were selected from a total of 331 applicants in the visual art categories of Craft, New Media, Painting, Photography, Sculpture/Installation and Works on Paper.  My work was one of seven chosen for a fellowship grant in the Craft category and the only fellowship recipient for the city where I live.  The single review criterion is artistic merit.

This fellowship award helped make it possible for me to go deeper with the process to create more complex and informed work, and continue to work on location  outdoors in Vermont and Massachusetts during the summer months of 2013.