Curiosity Cabinets: I like to think of these boxes and the accompanying painting as “theaters of memory”. They are staged presentations of the small things we collect.…...things that require further inspection. So we bring them home, tuck them into drawers, place on shelves or discover in pockets. These pieces are my way of honoring the things I found irresistible at one time or another.

Each box has its theme set with the background of an inked collograph made on an etching press and cut to fit. Compartments are constructed within the box to fit not only the collected items but handmade books, hidden drawings and watercolors. Some things are removable, some are not. There is just enough space left for the owner to add a bit of their own collection.

You are seeing the last of mine...

Sandy Webster

Remains: The works for this exhibition are a revisiting to the lingering thoughts of birds and boats. Birds and home were the theme for a body of work done a few years ago and presented in a solo show titled “Evidence of Experience”. While building the boats for a subsequent exhibition titled “Temporary Shelters”, I kept a journal for all the ideas of boats and how I felt about them and the safeness they offered away from water. Using the text from some of those writings along with the pairing of a boat with a bird or birds of personal significance I built a narrative on each canvas which pulls together remaining thoughts left unattended in the previous bodies of work.

The Mungo Experience - A Response: In 2008 a group of artists from the US, UK and Australia gathered at Lake Mungo in southwestern New South Wales. For this retreat I prepared a special sketchbook/journal made by recycling an old book on the Australian Outback and housing my pigments made from soils in Australia within the structure. In the book I recorded my responses to this sacred site in a visual and verbal way that became what I relied on to do artwork to be sent back for exhibition the following year. A large work (26” x 32”) was made of three collographs of land formations which were then assembled with silk cloth and threads from Australia. Next a portfolio was made using the same cloth for texture and houses a kangaroo bone and six collographs and drawings about the land and my experiences while there. The sketchbook/journal is being donated to the Queensland State Library in Brisbane.

Evidence of Experience: Showing at David's Fine Art Gallery, Murphy NC...The entire gallery has become an installation of Sandy Webster's works on her narratives of memory and place. In addition to several series, there is a hand written artist statement surrounding the walls and several artist books for the viewer to examine.

Focus Breath Exhibit: Shown at the St. Louis Artist Guild Gallery....Tai Chi Panels with Figures and Recollections Series

Skins of Australia: This work was inspired by the landscape of Australia through the eyes of a traveler documenting the surroundings through writings and botanical drawings. When back home all that is really left to work with is the memories, the recorded evidence of my presence and the desire to fix the feelings of the land in some type of tactile form. Here are three of the seven states and territories of Australia.

Portfolio of Observations and Applications of Horsham Fibre Forum 2005" presented at Memories, References and Journeys at Horsham Regional Art Gallery, Australia 2006: The eight small mixed media sheets are a collection and recollection of my time at the Horsham Fibre Forum in 2005. I chose this means of expression because the stitched thread is so much a part of the artistic works by Australian women and my sketchbooks and photos are so much a part of my way of remembering.

Sound of Art Folios: These five folios are in response to the soft sounds of guitar soloist Edward Gerhardt, in particular the haunting refrain of Shallow Brown. The music sets the mood for writing and then making a companion visual image composed of a meditative selecting and placing of objects within a ground of gathered clay pigments and stitching…. each a metaphor for the time and place in the writings.

Miscellaneous Exhibitions: The following artworks have either been shown at galleries or are being prepared for exhibition.

Egg Tempera: The seven pieces on exhibit are small glimpses into the fading farm scenes around Brasstown North Carolina. Each painting is done in the slow deliberate process of egg tempera with some of the pigments ground from the actual clays of the area.

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