Fantastic Coffee Creatures
New works by Heather Brothers McDole
September 7, 2019 – September 30, 2019
Opening Reception:
First Saturday Gallery Crawl: September 7, 2019; 6-9pm
Heather Brothers McDole will have Fantastic Coffee Creatures series exhibit at Blend Studio during the art crawl Saturday, September 7, 2019 from 6 to 9 PM. The artist will be available on the opening night of the First Saturday Art Crawl.
Artist Statement:
“Coffee Creatures, like every creature on Earth, began as an accident in March 2015. Coffee splashed across a drawing board that I’d prepared for a study-sketch. However, the resulting stain forced my eyes, and pen, into another direction. I realized that I stood at a crossroads to chose a new direction to explore my art. I believe I choose well.
Much like one can’t control life, the coffee cannot be forced into specific imagery. It is chaos built of numerous variables:
– The splatter of coffee on board.
– Flow of gravity as it covers the surface
– The heat and air of the embossing gun.
– Chance and happenstance
These combine to create the organic environment from which I translate to reveal the story in illustration.
– Outline the shapes and splatters in ink.
– Build depth with hatchwork and shadow.
– Breathe life in with watercolor pencil.
– Believe in chance and happenstance.
Coffee Creatures are the Ultimate Rorscharch Test provoking the array of human emotions of storytelling instead of an Oedipus Complex. You, the viewer, give it final life to tell its story. I am simply the prism that refracts the coffee stain into an illusion of shape and color. My color use depends on my translation of the stain: subtle to sooth, tertiary to compliment, or garish to shout across the room. I am just the passenger.”
Heather is a practicing Nashville-native artist. They have an associate’s in graphic design and bachelor’s in commercial illustration. They freelanced during their education and it remained their foundation while working a landscape reduced to low-paying, temporary, or unreliable gigs. Their post-graduation career began during the Great Recession, and they became active in the local art scene in 2009. Over the years Heather’s work has been included in: Untitled Artists’ Group quarterly group shows (2009-2013;) monthly residence with the Hong Meow collective; group shows at Corvidae Collective Gallery; a month-long display at Slow Hand Coffee plus too many one-night shows to susinctly list.
Blend Studio is Heather’s first solo show, and first show after a two-year hiatus from the art show scene. They are much excite.
BLEND STUDIO 