Catherine Bell Smith

Shrinking my world

2011-10-26T13:35:00.000-04:00

It's always good to try new things. Honing a skill is the perfect reason to give myself permission to be a little messy, a little careless, a little off topic. Since my next series is "All About the Crown," I plan to shrink my world and enter the realm of the jeweler. Much easier said than done.

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Copper

1 1/2" x 7 1/2"

Holding Pattern, a work in progress.

2011-09-14T18:04:00.000-04:00

Holding Pattern is in the Strands exhibit in the Carnegie Gallery at our own award-winning Columbus Metropolitan Library along with many fine works by the artists of Creative Arts of Women (CAW)

My work doesn’t often lend itself to themed exhibitions but I was drawn to create a piece for Strands in support of the Hair Theater Fund: http://www.hairtheater.net/fund/fund.html

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For me, a strand is a thread of conversation. It is a woven pattern of memories. It is a wisp-thin filament that stitches together fragile moments. It is the last, tacit connection as seed falls from tree, leaving behind the stem, once nurturing and strong. Holding Pattern is a testament to the power of tacit connections and a witness for memories too often relegated to the back of the drawer.

Holding Pattern

Cotton loop-woven potholders, copper wire, Sunset Maple seed stems

63" x 72"


(detail)

(detail)

Rose Mallow Series, Winter's Toll

2011-09-11T22:13:00.000-04:00

Exhibited in CAW's PAPERazzi Exhibition at MadLab in Columbus, Ohio and juried into the 67^th Ohio Annual, Zanesville Museum ofArt, Zanesville, OH

Winter's Toll

Vellum, copper wire, Honeylocust thorns, Hickory shells

27" x 16" x 6"

(detail)

Rose Mallow Series, Hail Mary

2011-09-11T21:30:00.001-04:00

It is important to contemplate the mysteries

and remember that

when action fails, there is only prayer

beads that don't slide

smoothly through these fingers

mother

In May, 2011, I was proud to exhibit this piece as well as Sycamore Series, Halo with Mother Artists at Work at the Concourse Gallery in Upper Arlington, Ohio. You can read a review of the exhibit here.

Rose Mallow Series, Hail Mary

Copper mesh, wire, wood, Honeylocust thorns,

and plastic glow-in-the-dark figurines

12' x 6' x 2'


(detail)

Rural Routes (not your traditional landscape) Exhibition featuring works by Claire E Smith and Catherine Bell Smith

2011-09-11T20:04:00.000-04:00

This exhibition at the Ohio Art League Gallery with Claire E. Smith took place last April. The show consisted of lithographs, drawings, and three large sculptures. The series of lithographs and the sculpture "Black Angus" are the creations of Claire Smith and can be viewed here. The drawings, Sentinels of Route 68, and the sculptures, Reliquaries and Watershed are mine. The opening was Thursday, April 7 and it was packed with friends and family from Columbus, Cleveland, Wausau, and Chicago. Their support was overwhelming.


Sentinels on Route 68 I, II, III, IV Charcoal on rag paper 53" x 24"

Reliquaries

Hardware cloth, screen, steel, fountain grass seeds

3' x 10' x 14'

Reliquaries (detail)

Watershed
Fountain grass, wire mesh, steel columns

4' x 8' x 35'

Watershed (detail)


Watershed (detail)

Rural Routes (not your traditional landscape) is an installation inspired by the long, repeated trips along Interstate 71 between Columbus (where Claire grew up) and Cleveland (where Catherine grew up). Speeding along through a landscape in order to arrive at a destination only allows driver and passenger snapshot glimpses of the whole picture. Memory strings those images together, shifting size, losing detail, collapsing distances. The countryside that separates two places becomes the route that connects two homes. Home begins to include those spaces between. And, though we don’t work the land, we claim a connection with it.

Milkweed Series

2011-02-25T12:46:00.000-05:00

Longhorns (Chocolate Pecans & Caramel)

2011

Chocolate box, paper, mesh and milkweed seeds

15" x 12"

a submission for Eat, Drink and be Merry

Rural Routes (not your traditional landscape)

2011-02-25T11:44:00.002-05:00

An installation about impressions, memory, distances, and place and the route that connects them.

Watershed (detail)

2011

4' x 8' x 35'

Fountain grass, wire mesh, steel columns

In April, I am privileged to exhibit at the Ohio Art League Gallery with Claire E. Smith. The show will consist of lithographs, drawings and three large sculptures creating the installation, Rural Routes (not your traditional landscape). The opening is Thursday, April 7 from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. The location is 1552 North High Street Columbus, OH 43201-1121.The exhibition will run from April 7 through April 29.

Rural Routes, Mystery Tour

2011-01-04T13:57:00.004-05:00

The Rural Routes Series is inspired by the long, repeated trips along 71 between Columbus and Cleveland. Driving at high speed through a landscape in order to arrive at a destination only allows glimpses of the whole picture. Memory strings those images together, shifting size, losing detail, overlapping structures, collapsing distances. A thread develops and the countryside that separated two places becomes the route that connects two homes. And what you call home begins to include those spaces between.

Mystery Tour, Route 161

Charcoal, copper wire and hickory nut shells

1-14, 13" x 8" 15-20, 6" x 6"

November 2010

Sycamore Series

2010-10-05T16:24:00.009-04:00

The Sycamore tree, belonging to Earth’s oldest clan of trees, Planataceae, presides regally over every landscape it graces. Look out over winter’s bone yard when the sky is this planet’s deepest blue and linger on the pristine white branches of these iconic giants.

The bark of all trees must yield to a growing trunk but the Sycamore invites the world to witness its growth as its outer layers, intractable and dusty with age, split and spall in great irregular masses. This bark, like shed skin or old beliefs or lessons learned, settles on the ground at the base of each mammoth; proof in the form of a disappearing halo, that life means growth--painful, messy, necessary.

Halo
Installation
Sycamore bark
16' x 16'
September 2010

Birds

2010-10-05T15:21:00.005-04:00

So, Fly!

Alabaster and steel
4' x 3" x 18"
June 2010

So, fly! was included in Birds of C.A.W.-An Art Exhibition curated by Helma Groot at C.S.Gallery in June, 2010

Milkweed Series, Weed 1,2,3,4

2010-05-12T00:09:00.013-04:00

Weed: a plant of no value
Graphite on rag paper
35"x35"
2010

Weed: a plant of no value was included in the Ohio Art League's One Night: Absolutely Absurd Exhibition in May.

Dawn Redwood Series

2010-04-30T11:42:00.018-04:00

Forests of Dawn Redwood flourished throughout North America 50 million years ago. Before its rediscovery around 1941 in a remote region of China, metasequoia was considered extinct. Through the efforts of Harvard University, ornamental specimens survive throughout the world. But it is with dedication and determination that the stewards of North Carolina's Crescent Ridge Dawn Redwood Preserve are succeeding in birthing a magnificent, flourishing forest of these living fossils.
The cones in this series were collected over several years with permission of the owner of two wonderful specimens in Upper Arlington along my daily walk. Imagine my surprise and satisfaction when a simple curiosity led me to uncover such a profoundly moving story. There are infinite connections to find when we remain open to quiet inspiration.

Still Fertile is on exhibit in MAW's Hard Labor Show at the Sean Christopher Gallery in Columbus, Ohio through the month of May.
Look for more pieces in this series in the near future.

Dawn Redwood Series, Still Fertile
Slate, Face-cut wood, Dawn Redwood seeds
18x18x14
2010
(The face-cut wedge is provided by Dr. Raymond Hartke, tree-feller extraordinaire)
Still Fertile is dedicated to my sister, Alice Louise Hartke

Still Fertile is the flow and ebb of the creative process-like childbirth and the loss of that potential, like layers of sediment metamorphosed by great pressure, like the felling of a once vital tree.....the potential rebirth of something long thought dead.

2010-04-09T13:11:00.002-04:00

Mother Artists at Work (MAW) presents "Hard Labor"

at Sean Christopher Gallery at Health Perspectives
815 N. High Street
Columbus, Ohio
Opening Reception May 1, 2010 6-9pm

Look for my new sculpture in wood, slate and seeds

Loaves and Fishes (can't you tell him we had that last night, mom?)

2010-03-27T14:43:00.013-04:00

Loaves and Fishes

2010

copper and aluminum mesh, metal lath
hydrangea and poplar seeds
8"x18"x14"

This piece was my contribution to the Mother Artists at Work miniature golf hole, 17th Nervous Breakdown, for A-Holes which took place March 19-21 at the Gateway Film Center. We will definitely do this again!
"Get 18 art groups to make 18 holes of miniature golf, add refreshments, invite the public. What you end up with is a unique event that mixes art and fun without all the pretentious attitudes."

2010-03-22T18:18:00.004-04:00

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to Christopher A. Yates for his complimentary review of the 99th annual Spring Juried Exhibition of the Ohio Art League in the March 21, 2010 edition of the Columbus Dispatch. Eighty pieces by 54 member artists are on display at the Shot Tower Gallery of the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in Columbus, Ohio until April 27. Please check it out Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm.
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I Give You Socks

2010-01-20T22:46:00.002-05:00

2007
Watercolor
(sizes vary)

In the mist of clouds

or the flow of water;

wind sculpted in desert
frozen in ice;
in the duff of the forest floor or
a tumble of rocks

I give you socks

Why socks?
Before the disease of mental illness gripped him in its insidious vise, Alex was a joyous boy. At his funeral family and friends gave witness to his life; not to minimize his death but to realign the bones that gave structure to his existence. As memories crowded in the years unfolded. When his mother's sister replayed a long-ago Christmas morning, we all experienced his elation upon receiving a box filled with socks. Simple pleasures. As a parting tribute to a boy so recently touching and releasing manhood, our minister suggested that we gift each other, that approaching Christmas, with socks.

This series of sixty watercolors is dedicated to my cousin's son, Alex, who died in November of 2006. Each painting, inspired by folded and jumbled heaps of socks fashioned into landscapes, was given to a member of my family as a celebration of Alex's life.

Milkweed Series, Full Circle (installation)

2010-01-17T14:31:00.006-05:00

This piece was selected by Ron Pizzuti for the Ohio Art League's 99th annual Spring Juried Exhibition, 2010.

The sacramental structure of Full Circle may evoke whispers of grace, sacrifice, offerings and incense or be symbolic of a dining table cherished by generations, a place of ritual and respect. But at its core Full Circle is an attempt to elevate the mundane, the over-looked, even the eradicated in our lives...and maybe atone for past sins by planting a seed considered a noxious weed by some, a promise of life for others.

Milkweed Series, Full Circle
2010
Wood table with gold leaf letters, seed packets,
glass and copper wire ciboria,
brass censer and incense

8'x4'x4'

In one segment of the installation the components are Milkweed seeds attached to 850 two inch paper discs soaked in seed starting fertilizer. A fine metal mesh is stitched to the dried discs with a copper wire to hold the seeds in place. The discs are embossed with a cross pattern and placed in four glass and copper vessels on a four foot round table. The altar-height table is inscribed with "vitam aeternum" and the scientific classification of Milkweed from Kingdom to species in gilded letters. Incense wafts out of a censer from my childhood Catholic Church, suspended above the table.

The other segment consists of 850 envelopes and a gilded drop box accompanied by a small sign that reads:

If you wish to fully participate please self address an envelope.
Leaving it unsealed, enclose a dollar and drop it in the box.
At the close of the exhibition you will receive one seed packet and planting instructions.

Milkweed Series, Offering

2010-01-17T14:20:00.000-05:00

Milkweed Series, Offering
2009
Seed packets, glass, copper wire
4x6x6"

Milkweed Series, Hush

2010-01-17T13:16:00.000-05:00

Milkweed Series, Hush
2009
Seed pods, metal lath, copper wire
6x6x6"

Ohio Hurricane Series

2009-10-17T21:24:00.000-04:00

Rebuilding I
2009
Wood, mourning dove feathers
24"x36"x16"

Rebuilding I
(detail 1)

Rebuilding I
(detail 2)

Rebuilding II
2009
Wood
28"x16"x16"

Rebuilding II
(detail 1)

Rebuilding II
(detail 2)

Milkweed Series I

2009-10-17T18:35:00.001-04:00

Gathering
2009
Watercolor, milkweed, mesh
30"x30"

Migration
2009
Watercolor, milkweed, mesh
24"x40"

Emerging
2009
Watercolor, milkweed, mesh
4'x2'

Preserved
2009
milkweed, mason jars, wood

9"x6'

Preserved (Detail 1)

Preserved (Detail 2)

Preserved poses the question: Weed or Wonder? Set adrift by cool autumn winds these silky tufts are the bane of the gardener, the delight of a child and nourishment for the Monarch butterfly. Honeyvine Milkweed is classed as a weed; a plant of no value and of rank growth that tends to choke out more desirable plants. Yet during WWII the silk filled life preservers and without the leaves and stems the Monarch would not survive.
So are these seeds being saved so they can be sown or have they been collected to preserve the cultured garden? What do we value, what do we destroy? Metaphorically, Preserved is an illustration of a dilemma felt deep inside, a personal struggle or global predicament. It perhaps brings clarity to the choices but offers no solutions.

Milkweed Series II

2009-10-17T18:17:00.003-04:00

Grateful
2009
metal lath, wood, milkweed

Escape
2009

watercolor, milkweed, mesh
24"x22"

Safely Forward
2009
watercolor, milkweed, mesh
24"x22"

Swept Away
2009
watercolor, milkweed, mesh
24"x66"