One of the sad facts about 1st Thursday is that it is impossible to make it to every venue that deserves a visit. That is why I have always secretly hoped that more places would schedule special events on a different night of the month. The only thing required to make 1st Thursday special is for all the galleries to stay open after dark. For just about any other special event, it make far more sense to spread the calendar out and to hold the event on a night that does not compete with the rest of 1st Thursday’s offerings. Just my 2 cents….
So, the Closing Reception coming up this Friday at Wall Space Gallery is something to get excited about. If you haven’t made it in to Wall Space on 1st Thursday, this is a perfect chance. It is the only gallery in town that focuses entirely on photography, and the work on display is of the highest quality you’ll find in town. Mark you calendar. See you there.
Wall Space Gallery
113 West Ortega Street, Santa Barbara, CA
(805) 637-3898 · wall-spacegallery.com
ANGELA BACON KIDWELL: TRACES OF EXISTENCE
Closing Reception: Friday, April 27th 6 – 8p
Frost Bound by Angela Bacon Kidwell
About Traces of Existence -
The motive in this body of work is to mend the tension and tragedy created when conflicting emotions meet. Walking through the highs of my recent travel to China and the lows of significant personal loss, I have been searching for a visual level of communication that would unite traces of my existence. I have become increasingly fascinated by how tenacious life is and yet how in a moment survival ceases. The fragility of life is represented in this work by a personal language of symbols. I want all my images to have real meaning for me, even if it is not easily read by the viewer. By working more abstractly, the dissimilar images connect to one another in unexpected ways causing a thought or idea to evolve. The juxtaposition of death and despair, represented by skeletons, old age and holes connected to a joyous life filled with children, birds and Ferris Wheels examine the complicated and chaotic ways in which life contracts, expands, converges and divests in our personal journeys. By stretching the image to near disintegration by burning, freezing and submersions I seek to release my emotions and give respect to a life that has been fully lived. The emotions I sought to bandage together resulted in a somber, but completely liberating experience.
Process:
Numerous layers of hand painted photographs, drawings and resin make up a single image. The final results are a complex layering process and not complete digital manipulations. The image is printed and re-photographed under various conditions in one final effort to heal the tender wounds that bind my own existence.
About Angela Bacon-Kidwell-
Angela Bacon-Kidwell lives in Texas and is a painter as well as a photographer. Her work is wonderfully creative, personal, fun and surreal. In the last few years her photographs have been published quite a bit and exhibited in various shows around the country.
She says about her photography, “My work is a journey and surrender with known and unexplained emotions. Using contradictory symbols that are personal and multilayered, an image can simultaneously represent what I am questioning and what I have answered. As I move through my day, I am keenly aware of my encounters with people, places and things. I mentally record the details of these situations, and the physical or emotional responses that they evoke. These fleeting associations replay themselves in my dreams. The random moments combine to form sleep stories that are rich narratives, ripe with symbolism. With that as my model, I construct sets, use props and invite myself and models to perform in a natural, intuitive way. In essence, I attempt to create a waking dream.”
