Mom & Pop
Patty deGrandpre + Monica DeSalvo
June 1–25, 2023
SoWa First Friday Art Walk: June 2 | 5:00–8:00 PM
Artist Talk: Saturday, June 10 | 4:30 PM
“Mom & Pop,” features the work of two friends of forty years, Patty deGrandpre and Monica DeSalvo. It’s deGrandpre’s “Mom” and DeSalvo’s “Pop” that are the inspirations for the exhibition, and the conjunction of parent and child is palpable throughout. The artists utilize printmaking, photography, and collage to depict the dance of communication and interaction they had with these two complex people.
DeGrandpre constructs works that channel the person who had the most impact and importance in her life, her Mom. DeSalvo conceives artworks that offer a front-row seat to her late father’s interpretations of reality throughout his journey with dementia. The visual languages and intricate approaches used by both artists blend seamlessly as a plethora of recollections are unpacked from suitcases too full to zip up.
PRESS RELEASE (PDF)
PRICE LIST
“Lovely display of cohesion and storytelling—Love the color!”
Sitting on the Seawall with Sand in Your Suit (Devereux Beach)
Patty deGrandpre’s mother was just shy of 41 years old when she gave birth to her first and only child. An intense connection from the start was magnified by the inevitable split form the artist’s father that felt more like an escape than a divorce. So began a chaotic journey of multiple moves, packing and unpacking. Items unique and indicative of an era that deGrandpre would have cherished, were discarded in a hurried purge.
For “Mom & Pop”, deGrandpre pays homage to her childhood and late mother at a time when she is staring down a relocation to New Mexico with her husband. Never expecting to leave the area where she grew up, deGrandpre grapples with the idea with ambivalence. As she looks forward to what’s to come, she becomes melancholy with thoughts of what will be left behind. In her latest body of work, deGrandpre utilizes deconstructed photographs and imagery depicting interactions, scenarios, and objects from her upbringing. Attempting to mesh past with future, the artist occasionally intertwines imagery from her travels, including New Mexico, with pictorial recollections of the past.
DeGrandpre uses personal subject matter as both visual content for her work as well as a means to document and remember moments in her life. The art of printing and image transfer is an obvious method for deGrandpre to appropriate within her creations. Through thoughtful use of form and color each piece deliberately blends the pictorial of both past and present with the abstract. In order to share her story, deGrandpre temps the viewer to look closer, like pages of a photo album.
A Bus Tour in the Woods—Stage 1
A recent trip to Greece for an art-making workshop on the island of Skopelos influenced Monica DeSalvo’s new series, “A Bus Tour in the Woods.” Inspired by one of her late father’s hallucinations during his decline and waxing dementia, his recounting of this tale filled her head with enchanting images. Caring for him at the end of his life had already prompted an exploration of dementia by using mixed media and collage to illustrate his perspectives and visually capture shared experiences. DeSalvo wondered if Greece would weave itself into these explorations.
While walking up a narrow, hilly footpath, the feeling of being engulfed by fruit trees with intact and fallen foliage accented with new sounds and smells was what she wanted to capture visually for the series.
Fallen leaves used as monoprint stencils took on more meaning. These wafting, irregular entities were treasures despite being at the end of their life cycle. In addition, DeSalvo was awed by the dedication to preserving ancient structures all over Greece—often damaged, no longer symmetrical or balanced—standing boldly with their missing parts. This notion fed her commitment to exposing the value of something “old” despite its imperfections.
DeSalvo regularly uses a Gelli plate to print directly onto her father’s paper memorabilia and other diverse paper surfaces. Used as bases for her work and collage elements, the resulting “visual duets” are catalysts for themes beyond the bus tour.
