Bernice Strawn

Bernice Strawn

Artist Statement

12-30-2021

My study of art at the University of California in Berkeley benefited from the broad University Curriculum, Anthropology, Archeology, Astronomy, and Art History in particular were favorites.

Some of the art courses were based on ancient media, egg tempera, oil painting and mosaics. As a Masters degree project I constructed a 5’x7’ mosaic of chopped marble tesserae of early Christian figures.

My interest in early Christian Art History and Romanesque Architecture has informed my work. I like to build things, dealing with real pieces of wood and stone, solving structural problems. There is freedom when you can lay pieces of wood or stone on the floor of your studio to make changing compositions.

For the last 50 years I have concentrated on wood and metal constructions, which are mostly wall hung; some are free standing.  I am attracted to the warmth and versatility of wood and I frequently recycle old wood, which shows the scars of its history.  I am pursuing simplicity of shape, an individual gesture in each piece and refined color.  I spend much time applying and removing acrylic until it seems to be part of the wood.

We moved to Colorado where I became familiar with Southwest Santos.  Ancient petroglyphs and pictographs also gave me inspiration for numerous wood figures I called Spirit Figures.

Later I wanted to build out into space and I developed boat forms with thin wooden strips.  These became Spirit Boats with the space moving thru them rather than being closed vessels. The potential poetry of this theme led to many kinds of boat forms and groupings that hang freely in high atriums. Some of the boats had developed wings, which led me to the idea of making Flyers, and a large installation of invented flying forms for the Dairy Center of the Arts in Boulder, CO.               

Recently I have returned to an old inspiration, the art of Japan.  I have made a series of Temples, Fans and Kimonos on wood panels. My latest work is inspired by old chairs, which I have taken apart and redesigned. Objects have a new life. Going to my studio helps me in this process of ageing.

The viewer can participate by seeing how these elements interact and discover that they are architecture. The elements I work with are the spaces between verticals, verticals that collide with horizontal bars, planes of wood that tip away from or toward each other, very small or very large rectangles, converging lines, and overlapping planes, these act out a space dance, pushing away or accepting and receiving.