UPDATED: Jodiann Strmiska drawings on view at Outer Gallery at West Cove studios

Outer Gallery at West Cove Studios
30 Elm St., West Haven, (203) 627-8030
Big and Small: Drawings by Jodiann Strmiska
Through July 14, 2012.

Press release

(UPDATE, Wed., June 27. When I first posted this on Monday, I mistakenly wrote in the title that it would include soft sculptures by Jodiann Strmiska. In fact, this is a show of just drawings although many of the drawings reference her soft sculptures as their subject. HH)

(Note from Hank: I erred in thinking that the opening for this show is this coming Saturday. In fact, the opening for Jodiann Strmiska's drawings show was this past Saturday, concurrent with the exhibition Marking Time, on view in the A-Space Gallery. Strmiska's show will be on view through July 14.)

Jodian Strmiska's recent work encompasses drawing, soft-sculpture and cut-paper installation.

Strmiska's artist statement:

Creating my own soft-sculpture models from foam rubber and fabric, which I can pose or manipulate at will as both authentic object and studio subject, references the use of stuffed toys by young children as 'transitional objects' which function as touchstones of emotional comfort independent of parental influence and which can take on a life of their own, like 'The Velveteen Rabbit' of the classic work of children's fiction.

The Bunny Heads, as depicted in my work, with their crudely stitched-together craniums and floppy ears, symbolize the psyche and the essential vulnerability of human nature. In dyad form or in the context of the imaginary, biomorphic landscapes they sometimes inhabit in my drawings, the bunny-heads are engaged in the eternal battle of self vs. 'other.' In multiple form and color, the soft-sculpture heads represent the never-ending proliferation of ideas which often exist as 'things-onto-themselves' without any larger context or meaning within the confines of the artists' imagination; i.e;- 'multiplying like bunnies.'