Patricia Brown and I sit across from each other in her new art studio. The unique room, used as a hair salon by the previous homeowner, has a bathroom, a plethora of storage, and a separate entrance from the rest of the house. Drawers of collage scraps are labeled “animals”, “people”, and “multi-colored patterns”. Tubes of acrylic paint are sorted by color, a bookcase houses more sketchbooks than I’ve ever seen. Adjustable spotlights cast a comforting glow over the space, illuminating paintings in progress, and finished pieces adorning the walls. It is one of the coolest rooms I have ever set foot in.
In the February show “Awakenings”, Patricia’s work spans two different walls in the gallery. The first, nestled right inside the front window, is titled “Love.” She kept the scale of the series small as she was in the process of moving, and didn’t have the space to create anything larger. During Covid quarantine, she made over 200 collages. They were abstract, nothing realistic about them, she didn’t want to deal with subject matter or the world. Then in the winter of 2021, her abstract pieces started featuring hearts, a theme that would trend throughout February. A selection of these bright and hopeful pieces sets a tone of optimism and light that pierces the Ithaca winter and invites patrons in from the bitter cold.
This show inspired her second series, titled “Retreat”.
Moving from her house of 30 years where she raised her kids, Patricia realized that a house and a home are two different entities altogether. A house is a building that you move into, and if you’re lucky, it can become your home. She’s lived in places that have never become her home. She was very conscious of this as she moved into her new house and intentionally began to lay the groundwork for making this house a home.
Through her artwork, she explored this concept, making little house collages. Some abstract, some subject-based. She worked on the idea in different mediums, making a painted paper sculpture of tiny houses, before returning to the original collage format. The first piece in the series just came to her. She didn’t plan it, she didn’t edit it, she just let it happen. There wasn’t much meaning to it, she was just trying to break out and play. This got her thinking about the concept of above and below, first floor and second floor, which gave her a lot more to play with. Pairing opposites, pairing similarities. She would find textural similarities and then take a step back and start thinking “what could it mean?”. She pursued the themes of doors, portals, and included images of art she loves. It’s her way of paying homage to artists who have impacted her.
She began setting the houses in landscapes, giving them a place to reside. There are similar color and textural themes that marry the house and the outside world, sometimes there are symbolic reasons for the background, and other times it’s based on trying out a myriad of different images and seeing what blends well. They are rooted in place and memory. Different subjects remind Patricia of art galleries she’s visited, and one piece even includes an old postcard of a spiral staircase from a bed and breakfast, the Rose Inn, that burned down 22 years ago.
When sourcing collage material for this series, Patricia pulled from her collection of images she has been amassing for over thirty years. Following college graduation, she tried to figure out what kind of art she liked, separate from the art her teachers or art history told her to like. She began compiling scrapbooks of images of art that inspired her. Some of the images for the “Retreat” collages came from these scrapbooks.
At the beginning of this series, she had no idea it would ever turn into a show in the gallery. It was quarantine; she couldn’t find it in herself to make big conceptual pieces, and was having enough trouble finding happiness in daily life. So, she would just do a little something each day to keep herself thinking about design elements. Focusing on color, texture, and light was a great escape from the monotonous and repetitive daily life, she found. She didn’t have any pretense, it wasn’t intentional, but as she created more pieces and hung them on her studio wall, she suddenly realized- this was it. This was her next show.
Patricia doesn’t think she’s done with the idea of house and home. She’s started painting again, now that her studio space is functional, well lit, and ready to feel like home. She’s wondering to herself- “What’s going to be my next thing?”. It hasn’t come yet, but it will come. It always does.