Chela Fielding
"Striped Attire with Hopes and Fears Inside"
I am fascinated by the forgotten or ignored debris of peoples’ lives. My passion is to transform discarded items into something beyond their ordinary existence. Through my art, I conjure up stories that give these castoffs new forms and identities.
My work explores the connections between objects that one would never imagine co-existing. I look at an old chair, shoes, fabrics, or used and discarded wood and wonder what new identities I might create for them? What do they have to offer? What are their stories? And what do they hide? This process inspires me to make sculptures that speak to everyone who has experienced being unnoticed or ignored or forgotten. I want my sculptures to give voice to the “lost” with style and humor.
My artwork is also about communication and transformation. I embrace the whimsical and quirky side of things. I combine disparate elements to find out how they unite, collide, and diverge. When I’m working with found materials, sometimes they fail, fall down, and break. Yet, when the elements come together, they are transformed into sculptures that provoke unexpected feelings and responses.
I am currently exploring the effect of painting stripes onto surfaces of various elements of my sculptures. The act of painting the stripes requires me to focus on the texture of each material and become more intimately involved in both its past and emerging identities. The stripes act like a magnifying glass. They are vibrant and catch the eye. They draw on my creativity and transfer my energy to the piece, hopefully giving it its own new life force.
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