The button portraits grew out of my obsession with old buttons. I love how unique and interesting the shapes and colors are-- like little gems of industrial design. I started by cutting out pieces of patterned collage paper, gesso-ing a center spotlight, and then trying to recreate each button as a hovering object in that space using pencil and colored pencils.
Win Win Win, was a solo presentation of work by Amy Boone-McCreesh at Peep Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. Borrowing from the aesthetics of lottery tickets, advertising, and working class life, she builds an environment that speaks to the absurdity inherent in socioeconomic systems. Recurring brick patterns appear within works on paper and custom ottoman seating, alongside good luck charms and garlands. Amy’s work examines who has access to beauty (sometimes determined simply by one's view out their window), and how architectural elements can signify wealth.
Amy Boone-McCreesh’s newest works on paper borrow size and format from cloth napkins, all measuring roughly 20” x 20”. The domestic sphere has been a consistent source of inspiration for her, as she continues work to visually untangle notions around decoration as it relates to the ways we inhabit spaces and hone visual taste. Sewing samplers of the 18th and 19th centuries have also become centers of interest in Boone-McCreesh’s new work. Samplers were not only a way to practice domestic skills, but also to display what a woman had to offer a spouse or household.
I had been considering trying to work flat for quite a while. Then a call for entry to the Maryland Federation of Art's "Art On Paper Exhibit" got me actually working. Sometimes the criteria for an exhibit might be the motivating push that I need. So, I began with the shallow shadow boxes, some old photographs from the family photo-bin, some of my old lithographs and etchings, and the Art Nouveau switch plate frames (used to protect the wall-paper) that had been sitting around the studio for quite a while too.
The swan, widely associated with the far north, is the subject of numerous folk stories. According to one Finnish oral tradition, swans are uniquely capable of passing between the mortal world and the underworld; when dipping their heads below the water’s surface, they see into another plane. The Kalevala, Finland’s traditional epic, features another “swan of the underworld,” whose song is so beautiful a hunter cannot kill it. Jean Sibelius, Finland’s best-known composer, drew upon this story as inspiration for his 1895 orchestral work, Swan of Tuonela.