Allie R Dickerson
The Wedding Bouquet
oil painting on panel
40 x 60 inches
Allie R Dickerson
Collateral Beauty; The Apart
clay sculpture on board
30 x 40 inches
Allie R Dickerson
Collateral Beauty; The Intertwinement
clay sculpture on board
30 x 40 inches
Allie R Dickerson
Collateral Beauty
Allie R Dickerson - Artist
ARTIST STATEMENT: COLLATERAL BEAUTY
One day we were. And then one day I was full of grief and at a memorial service.
There was no context to this event. There had been a rhythm to our lives. And
then there wasn't. And everything felt unfamiliar. There were days when the
silence in the house felt so loud.
It drove me outdoors where I felt I could breathe. I would walk the lake. At
the start of my walk there was an area of thick plant life just before glimpsing
the lake around the bend. There, I would escape from my thoughts when a sound, a
flutter, a rustle or movement out of the side of my eye caught my attention -
a beautiful egret moving among the trees at the lake. Its colors were so similar
to its environment that it could barely be seen except for one bright spot of
color. And gradually... over time... I became more present. I would start my
walks looking to the left and to the right instead of looking down the path. I
became familiar with particular bird calls. The red-winged blackbird would
sometimes be sitting on the railing of the first lake bridge. I would observe
things I hadn't seen before. I brought scissors and clipped off branches. After
carrying them home I would set them on the counter and examine them. I took
photos of the plant life around me. I wasn't interested in the names of the
plants. I was interested in how they were built. I saw that their complexity
was derived from the repetition of one form. The leaves on one stem, though the
same form, weren't exactly the same. Sometimes one was curled, frayed or damaged.
The sizes varied. I looked at how branches differed. Roots in the ground at my
feet had me thinking of words like rootless and rooted. I saw sense in nature's
metaphorical example. The natural order is where collateral damage and collateral
beauty coexist.
I don't know exactly how clay happened. I had done a little bit of clay work
during my time in the MFA program when focusing primarily on paint. But I hadn't
touched it since. I think it became interesting again because clay seemed the
way to make plants. This moving into clay has become a turning point. I am able
to satisfy quite naturally my attachment to order, my love of intricacy and
specificity, utilizing the properties that are inherent in clay. Each piece is
constructed by hand individually. Sometimes I will just move the clay in my hand
and have a leaf. Importance is placed on the form and the process of making. At
times as in life, things break, are created by happenstance or... are what they
should be. Intuitively, I adhere pieces one at a time to a board until the work
feels complete. I make the shapes in multiples moving from the simple to the more
complex. I burn the clay to achieve various shades from white to black. When
finished, each clay painting morphs, impacted by light and space, and becomes
what it will in response to its environment and its viewer.
Conversations of interest: single versus the whole, repetition and discontinuation,
brokenness and renewal, beauty and loss of beauty, separate versus connected,
fragility and strength.
ALLIE R DICKERSON
Represented at Artspace111
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