Absence and Humor

It has been a while since my last update but I have continued to produce art and think via artistic means amongst the utmost frustration and sadness of rejection from exhibitions and other art world experiences.

On my website, I have posted images of recent works including humorous condolence cards (with handmade envelopes) and recipe cards for cremation.

I am currently working on a fundraising project for PAWS Ohio and a local pet cemetery titled PAWS and remember.

A project recently rejected for exhibition titled Markers is still currently in progress as well. The work is a series of coloring book pages illustrating gravemarkers. To be colored in with markers, crayons, etc. by adults and children alike, these pages will be on view at a local community center through a party and reception I will be hosting.

Through Markers, Bake Until Crisp: recipe cards for cremation, and my humorous condolence cards, I have come to realize I can look at how we mourn a death in a lighter manner that uses humor as a healthy tool for calming the anxieties surrounding death.

Bake Until Crisp: recipe cards for cremation. 2012. Image: Nicholas Fenell

The Mourning Strip

I am currently working with collage, letters, advertisement, and scanning in the creation of a new series of work titled The Mourning Strip. This work examines how humor can be used as a tool for mourning and acceptance of death as natural.

Below is a quick scan of one of the prints in progress, For When It Hearse The Most.

Image: Nicholas Fenell, 2012. For When It Hearse The Most.

After A Response to Decoration Day

In an attempt to keep an active and creative mind post graduation from the Cleveland Institute of Art, I have spent the past year dancing around and stepping in and out of different mediums and projects while learning to adjust to full time employment with Starbucks, great involvement with The Sculpture Center, and the necessity of time for mental rest. 

I have a thoroughly active website that is updated with images of current projects. Recently, I uploaded images from my performance picnic piece A Response to Decoration Day. Unfortunately, the turnout was dismal and the white roses for each of the graves were not received on their designated date. Regardless, the planning of A Response to Decoration Day and its process from creation of invites to hand-delivery of each invite in a personal and intimate setting can be seen as an ultimately success first foray into performance art, via a picnic. 

In the coming year (2013) I have two major curatorial and fundraising efforts underway ensuring active involvement in the arts. I will continuing updating both this blog and my official website as I continue to forge my path in the deep and well rooted forest of the art world.

Image: Nicholas Fenell. 2012. A Response to Decoration Day.

Progress on A Response to Decoration Day

All six invites for A Response To Decoration Day have been hand delivered to their recipients. Images have been posted of the invite and handwritten note to my official website.

Much more work remains before the performance takes place in May. Look for image updates on this blog as the menu develops, the picnic setting unfolds, and the fresh white roses are ordered.

A Response To Decoration Day: the handwritten invite

The first of six invites for A Response To Decoration Day has been received. With five more to go out in the next week, look for images to be uploaded to my official website in the coming days.

However, here is a sneak peak of one of the handwritten notes included in the invites. Each invite also contains fresh bread/ pastry and fresh white rose petals.

Image: Nicholas Fenell, 2012.

Progress on A Response To Decoration Day

In May 2012, a performance with invitation only is scheduled for Orange Cemetery in Pepper Pike, Ohio. The work is a favorable response to research and study of the traditional Decoration Day in Southern Appalachia.

Since the invitation for guests is one of the main physical components, it must be more than an invite. The invitation is a sculpture in its own right, appealing to its recipient for its taste, smell, and warmth.

The standard bakery shop cake box will serve as the vessel for the invitation. Inside, the box will have fresh white rose petals, homemade bread, and text with all the information for the recipient. Each invite will be hand delivered to its recipient.

New Year, New Works

On the Other Side, a permanent outdoor installation at the East Cleveland Township Cemetery, has been approved. The work will examine the line separating the roads of life and death, in this case marked by a fence. Scheduled to be finished by fall 2012, look for posts on progress of project in future weeks and months.

A Response to Decoration Day is a performance by invitation only to happen in May this year. Look for photos and updates on both this blog and official website.