For the series Homebodies, we will explore the more personal spaces of community members, the artworks and interesting objects they’ve collected through the years, and how those pieces live with them every day. Edition 8 brought to you by our friend from Nevada Humanities, Stephanie Gibson.
1. I like odd pairings, like this vintage Bob Dylan album cover alongside my husband’s grandfather’s doctored transcription card that got him into the Belgian Resistance when he was 16 years old.
2. I like this grouping too: a replica of Lawren Harris’s 1919 painting, Shacks, and a needlepoint sampler by my paternal grandmother.
3. This work comes from my father-in-law, Benjamin Rondel, a photographer based in Toronto, Canada. This is from a series called Borderline and is a photograph of the US-Canadian border taken somewhere in Vermont, from the US side. He has been photographing the expansive US-Canadian border since 2014, traveling from east to west every year and capturing mundane border patrol stations, as well as the weird stanchions, posts, and markers that serve as seemingly arbitrary markers between two countries. As the politics of borders continue to be amplified, this series takes on new meaning year to year.
4. I have seen this print in another friend’s house too, so Social Butterflies by Eunkang Koh is more than just a picture of fluttering, chitchatting butterflies. These butterflies really get around, and I love them so much as they gossip in the corner of my sunroom. I hope they’re not talking about me.
5. I hang these paintings by Ahren Hertel (top) and Nate Clark (bottom) together because they both look like landscapes to me.
6. Art can mark milestones and this photograph of a newly redesigned Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto was a big one in my life. I was on the team that guided this Frank Gehry project, and Edward Burtynsky – the resident documentary photographer – gifted the staff with a photograph of the final product.
7. I think it’s important and humbling to hang a piece of your own bad art in your home. I painted this piece during a particularly angsty period of my teenage years, and I just really love it. I also love the little person I was when I painted it. I have had it hanging in apartments or houses for years. It’s in my kitchen right now. Materials: black acrylic paint and a long sharp nail, in my basement, on a cast-off piece of foam core. I was learning about both Sol Lewitt and Agnes Martin at school at the time. This was maybe a homage to them both, but more likely I was just a really pissed off 15-year-old. I also just bought this sweet tiny ornament (below) made by local artist Tia Flores. All proceeds get split between the Community Foundation of Western Nevada COVID-19 Relief Fund and the Sierra Arts Foundation’s Artist Relief Fund. You might want to buy one, too!