CAVIN-MORRIS GALLERY

MUSIC FROM A GARDEN AT DUSK: NEW WORKS BY SANDRA SHEEHY

NOVEMBER 29, 2012 - JANUARY 19, 2013

Sandra Sheehy creates biomorphic and zoomorphic constructions using thread, shells, layers of paper, sequins, yarn, beads, and painted textiles.  Over the ten years that the gallery has represented her, the work has become increasingly dense and dreamlike.   She wrote the following about her most recent pieces:
 
I make many pieces of work in the garden, surrounded by insect and bird life. Many miniature worlds, some co-exsisting, some waging battles against each other.

Although I am happily ensconced in my own world, their worlds seep into mine.
Spiders' tightly bound bundles of larder and curled leaves hiding black eggs.
Dragonflies' iridescence and bright daylight butterflies shifting over to moths' mutedness in the evening.
Eveything so full of boisterous, desperate life.

And then the quiet, stillness.

Cupping abandoned nests in my hands, redundant cocoons turning slowly to papery nothingness and the sadness of the swifts leaving.

When all the pieces were done, I laid them on the floor. Seeing them lying side by side gave me a feeling unlike any other work I have made, a feeling of quiet and solemnity.

Some of the pieces I made seemed to need burning to release them, which seemed a destructive thing to do after so much time spent making them.
The burning revealed parts that I had made and then hid from view and like a forest fire it gave new things light and space to breathe and grow.

Bringing things full circle.