Shirley Scheier : Netting the Wind Artist Talk, March 2023

The net is one of the oldest tools of the human species. It allows ease in gathering sustenance. I live by the water where nets are part of my day-to-day reality. The thin material and numerous sections of wide-open space surprisingly creates a strong structure. I have been painting and drawing nets for many years. I have made up visual narratives of nets, I have studied nets as if drawing their portrait, I have learned how to make a net. The recent shift in my work is dipping or soaking the nets in paint. I then press the net by hand on paper or canvas, as well as use the net as a drawing tool. I’m casting it across the canvas, searching for and catching the energy, vitality, and the spirit I bring home from long sails and walks. The net as a mark-making tool gives shape to life energy in constant motion The image develops from a dance of bodily gestures and intuition. I use this fabricated object to engage and welcome life affirming forces.
Shirley Scheier

[@margylavelle4848]

Apologies for rough start - I was talking about the gathering of snow geese and the murmations they make before they migrate.