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Winter Studio Visit: Angela Eastman

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We stopped by the drawing and painting studio recently where core fellow Angela Eastman has set up winter operations. She showed us this span of foliage she was assembling–a shaped wire armature with painted tar paper cuts affixed (see above). The piece is Angela’s first private commission, made for a Brevard family’s home. 

 
Angela walked us through the process of creating the piece, opening her sketchbook to drawings she made at the site. “The spear pattern on the wire is a continuation of patterns I found outside of the house,” she said. 

 

As we looked back up at the piece, we saw the sketches translated into three dimensions–a challenging fluidity captured. We talked about how the installation would go. Angela smiled and recounted carrying one of her wing-like wire pieces up a hill on her back, and how it jived with an ongoing thought she has: try some paper-form costumes for dancers and pieces for the stage. 
 

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After looking at the commissioned piece, Angela handed us one of the metal cups stuffed with black tar-paper cuts left over from the process–she will use them for something–and continue her exploration of pattern, line, and form. She expressed a desire to use all materials at hand as well as employ greener resources. Next in Angela’s sights? Chasing a balance between making smaller, functional work and larger pieces: floor-length paper-cuts, jewelry and neckpieces, ephemeral land-based sculpture.
 

 
But our eyes were drawn back to the world of small things in Angela’s work space. This table, which speaks to one artist’s close attention to visual rhythms and disturbances in nature: 

 

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To view an image of the finished private commission by Angela Eastman (seen above), visit: angelaeastman.com
 
Photographs by Robin Dreyer, writing by Elaine Bleakney