Jane El Simpson
Artist Statement Frequently, I walk through the woods to work. After spring flooding, the trail is littered with natural debris. Through the chaos I spy twigs of unusual shape and see fallen pine needles lined up as if someone spent hours arranging them. I collect materials and scribe this vision in my memory notebook. Later I’ll recall this eloquent forest language as I create minimalist sculptures, fusing single elements culled from many, into peaceful works of art.My recent body of work was created in response to the 2010 British Petroleum oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. After seeing endless photographic images of decimated shorelines and wildlife I became mindful of the creatures that we cannot see with our bare eyes. Most of the oxygen that supports life on earth comes from those microscopic drifters of the sea called Phytoplankton. There was no mention of them in the nightly news and yet their significance is global in scale. I’ve created enlarged models of these tiny creatures using an economy of common elements; paper, thread, twigs, pine needles, thorns and shadow to illustrate the graceful balance of systems working collectively to support life on earth.
Biography