Toe in the Waters
ANNABELLE SCHAFER
FEBRUARY 8 – APRIL 9
Guava Jelly Studio presents Toe in the Waters, our first solo exhibition of works by Annabelle Schafer. Comprising paintings and drawings, the show illuminates community interconnectedness and transformative unity, drawing inspiration from the troubled shared oral histories of friends and family, of the rich heritage of the landscapes of Southern Virginia and Eastern North Carolina.
My large-scale, multi layered paintings are simultaneously in relationship and in tension with the landscape.
I am interested in ecosystems independent and dependent of human intervention, as these narratives contain the keys to understanding the earth’s history, its healing capabilities, and the restorative efforts of humans in the face of catastrophic climate change.
For the past several years living in Southern Virginia and Eastern North Carolina my inspiration has drawn from shared oral histories of friends and family of the rich heritage of the landscape. Oysters begin their lives floating disconnected from another. They cluster on older shells, piers, rocks, or any hard submerged surface. Only in community can they grow together to form hard rock-life reefs that in turn work to heal their inhabited ecosystems and support other marine animals and plant matter.
Structure, mayhem, precision, faithfulness, confusion, disarray and finally appreciation accurately define the order of my creative practice.
Observational drawings and collages form the basis of my paintings. Both serve a distinct yet vital perspective. My drawings hold a narrative in a sculptural sense. Collaging mimics the hand of a printmaker. It is a mechanical search for truth. Rather than focusing on a single figure, I envision the empath. I think about the fleeting relationship between a figure and its ecosystem it is working to heal, or in some cases, destroy. The iridescent colors and figures’ veiled postures allude to another world. Light sources shatter the banality of the space, allowing a figure to escape to a hopeful place.
My work stands as a physical testimony and in some sense, an alternate history to the world we live in. I explore the fraught relationship humans have with the natural world, displayed through a lens of playful humor and an attentive, honest hand.
About the Artist
Annabelle Schafer creates large-scale abstract narrative paintings. She holds a BFA in Painting and a BA in Art History from Indiana University. She was the Indiana University nominee for the Yale Norfolk School of Art, and a resident at the Mount Gretna School of Art. Her work has been featured in several galleries, Map Literary Magazine and Hiedra Magazine.
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