Artist Statement

IN THE MAIN GALLERY: Above & Beyond

Vintage chairs, architectural details and outdoor environments mix it up in this group of oil paintings. The chairs and other furniture have left the house and feel settled in wild patches of fields and in gardens. My images consist of fantasies; a chair tipsy after drinking wine, a chair sitting high in a tree observing a bird. My Cape Cod memories somehow seem contemporary to me though, as if they are still to be enjoyed. Others have their own memories to pass on to future generations. 

IN THE CENTER GALLERY: Uninvited Guests

What do you do with uninvited guests? We've had our fair share of critters and creatures and they settle in at the house when we aren't there at Cape Cod. They have wings and little stingers that make your life miserable when they get territorial and attack you. However, they're worth studying, labeling, categorizing and mounting on boards with pins. 

They can be attractive or creepy, making themselves comfortable in our living room, but their real habitat should be outside. 

CONSTRUCTING THE INSTALLATION 

Initially I had the idea of being in a room that symbolizes a place in our house at Cape Cod. As if standing in the middle of the room, looking out the windows you see marshes in untamed landscapes, depicted with oil paint on canvases which are nailed directly into the walls of the gallery. To this room I added accessories such as curtains, cocoons and insects. The furniture was added to the room to show how the interest in the insects in the installation became the focus of a scientific pursuit of classifying and studying. The structures of the cocoons are from large twisted sticks I found on the beach and the rest of the cocoons and the insects were made from fabric, wire and flower arranging materials. How I handled the fabric and combined it with other materials drew on my previous experience designing window displays and painting theater sets.

"Matter Out of Place: Domestic and Wild Scenes from Joan Baldwin's Inner World," Kingston Blog, " October 30, 2021.