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| Stoney Island Memories 2019 |
Working alongside Penny Berens is one of the highlights of my career. Noticing how she maintains her own heart felt vision helps to keep me grounded.
It's easy for me to find artists in books who seem to know their own selves and are able to write about their making process and belief systems, but Penny is a real person with whom I can speak with on the phone. I just spent nearly a week with her in Nova Scotia when we installed and spoke about our joint exhibition, In the Middle of the World.
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| Resting Between Tides 2019 |
She notices details.
Her work is drawn with needle and thread in her lap. She does one artwork at a time.
Each of her pieces is directly influenced by some particular event or sight or feeling that she has experienced.
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| Walking on Stoney Ground 2019 |
There's nothing general about her interpretations, although her works do have an atmosphere.
Our work complements each other because of the differences between our two approaches as much as because of the similarities.
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| When Autumn Leaves Fall 2017 |
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| Winter's Edge 2021 |
My work communicates a lasting feeling of spirit and intimacy. It sets you up to receive the details and imagination of her wall pieces, as you slowly move past them, one after the other.
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| Details of Winter's Edge |
You are ready to notice the details and the events and the change of seasons in her interpretations of nature.
Also the boulders and the piles of smaller rocks.
The sun and the moon.
The wind and the beaches. The grasses and the berries.
All the small repetitive marks that nature paints in the bush or on the beach are detailed in Penny's work and it is interesting to experience them, step by step, with close observation.
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| November Song 2024 |
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| detail of November Song |
She says that she wants to work more abstractly and messier.
The last thing she said to me when we hugged good bye was that she was going to start doing this right away. She's five years older than I am and neither of us are going to retire.
I'm glad that she's only a phone call or a text message away. She keeps me on track. She encourages and inspires me.
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| Beaver Moon Dreaming 2020 |
I'm lucky to have an artist like her in my life. Making the two person exhibition together with her and also with our cheerleader and advocate, curator Miranda Bouchard, was an important step in both our creative practices.
Thank you for being real, Penny. Thank you for being full of integrity and personal strength.
All artwork in this post is by Penny Berens. More of this body of work can be seen on Modernist Aesthetic.
In the Middle of the World was just installed in Nova Scotia. Read Miranda Bouchard's curatorial statement and see my sculptural pieces at this link.
6 comments:
Oh my dear friend you overwhelm me with your beautiful words. Thank you. I miss you already. But just those few short days have renewed my resolve and inspired me. Even might have the energy to work on more than one piece at a time!
Love you!
I love both Penny and her work. Hope to some day meet the both of you super stars!
I find Penny's art captivating. How fortunate you both are to have such a friendship.
Thank you so much for bringing my attention to Penny and her works--they are so amazing and inspiring. Her nature visions really "touch" me....I can see why you two are friends and how your works complement each others. What a gift to have found each other....
hugs, Julierose
(((Judy))) So good to see you and Penny touring this fabulous exhibition!
This is such a beautiful love letter to a dear friend and fellow artist. You two, paired together in a beautiful symbiotic relationship. (((hugs))) Nancy
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