Saccharine, Splenda, Aspartame
John Bissonnette establishes sentiments with a pile of beer cans and the memories fostered. A trained artist, Bissonnette's work is intrinsically tied to craft and low culture both materially and conceptually. His paintings are made from such things as motor oil or purchased art-making kits from Wal-Mart. It is at the junction of the abject and the romantic where Bissonnette's work resides.
Katherine Nanfro contributes her own nostalgic narration with her recollections of Disney and Henson through her interpretive drawings of animals, memory, and imagination. By taking her drawings outside to picturesque landscapes and photographing them, Nanfro is encouraging her creations to exist within her realm.
Shawn Gallagher's portraits of Professional Wrestlers bypass his academic formalism transcending into the handcrafted styles of Neo-Folk art. Gallagher composes a poetic heroic narrative in his "Wrestlers" series. Sean Gallagher uses delicate frames to border his paintings' as an abstract representation of a trophy awarded to an achieved, adored Professional Wrestler. The love of the sport, and more so the individual athlete, is reveled through the gentle gestured depictions of each character.
The marriage of the ordinary and unnoticed with the pensive and purposeful is at the core of Laura Katherine Abigail Coe's practice. Throughout all of Coe's work there is evidence of an attempt at control, but one that is waged with things that are by nature impossible to tame. Her means of waging this battle are forever tied to the domestic, low craft, un-precious materials, and unabashedly sentimental imagery. A constant in all of Coe's drawings are her kittens, serving the purpose of the narrative or becoming witness to material events that deny narrative.
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