WHAT: Jackson Street Gallery Professional Art Opening #2: Everything All at Once and Falling
ARTIST: Vanessa Marsh is a visual artist working in Oakland, CA. Born in Seattle, Washington she first became interested in Photography when her mother gave her a Nikon E series camera in 9th grade. She earned her BA from Western Washington University in 2001 and her MFA in 2004 from California College of the Arts. Marsh has exhibited widely including the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Dolby Chadwick Gallery in San Francisco, Foley Gallery in New York, and photo-eye Gallery in Santa Fe. She has received fellowships from the Headlands Center for the Arts, The MacDowell Colony, Kala Art Institute and has been an artist in residence at Rayko Photo Center and Jentel Foundation.
CURATOR: Gale Jesi
WHEN: Opening Reception: Friday, November 2, 5:00-7:00 PM; Art Show up from November 2 - December 2
WHERE: Jackson Street Gallery and Lounge
WHY: Artist’s Statement: Exploring the intersections of man-made, natural and cosmological power through a mixed media process based in photography.
I remember as a child the first time I looked intently out into a starry sky. I was away at summer camp up in the San Juan Islands and we were sleeping outside in a field by our cabin. It was dark enough to see the Milky Way; so dense it looked like a large smudge of light across the sky. Our counselor explained that the light we were seeing took so much time and crossed so much space that the stars it was coming from may not even exist anymore. I don’t remember when I fell asleep that night, but I know it was awhile that I lay there staring up, my heart pounding, realizing the vastness.
Looking back, I’ve identified those moments as my first, and so far, my most intense, experience of the sublime. That intimate time with the night sky led to a life-long interest in the workings of the cosmos, the physics of light and photographic process.
Within my work, I bring to form imagined landscapes and intensely starlit skies, highlighting both a personal as well as a collective experience of the world. My goal is to create a relatable false reality.
The images are made through a personally developed process involving drawing and painting and darkroom techniques. The work is intended to be a space for the viewer to contemplate their own personal place in the universe. Also, to consider how we understand the real and truth in contemporary experience. www.vanessamarshfineart.com