Artist Talks @ Bunnell

“There are many things that I am inspired by: old New England tobacco barns, the color of honey, glacial ice, Sung Dynasty pottery, Native Alaskan ivory bird carvings, children’s book illustrators such as Harrison Cady, Tasha Tudor and Jerry Pinkney, Danish furniture, cooking, dodo birds, redpolls,  the work of French automobile body designers the 1930s and 40s such as Gabriel Voisin and Jacques Soutchik.…. As I am working in the studio, my interests blend together and emerge within the world of functional objects. Simple and clear statements that speak of my desire to tell a story that will somehow stir the souls of others.” more.

“In the past year, I have moved between two vastly different environments – a woodworking fellowship in urban Philadelphia and my home studio outside of Fairbanks – and been imprinted with their unique visual energies and abundant sound. Recent pieces convey the shaking of elevated trains, the buzz of insects and heat rising from a weed-infested ditch, urban demolition and construction, endless traffic and the places where nature breaks through human control. I’ve applied the same attention to action and noise in a more familiar Alaskan setting – water and ice surge down a creek, the backup alarm for heavy equipment at a nearby mine duets with a woodpecker, dogs’ voices split the cold, the downtown power plant and rail yard trade off in conversation, trees crack and fall in a windstorm. more...

“My pottery is made to be used and enjoyed in the home, and each piece is deeply inspired by the natural world. My love for nature began in my adolescence, working at a local Michigan nature preserve—a formative experience that continues to shape my creative vision. To this day, I spend countless hours observing animals, studying plants, and exploring geology, drawing endless inspiration from the living landscapes around me. Using my passion for carving and drawing, I strive to capture the essence of these natural inspirations in my surface decorations. Every image is hand-carved, then thoughtfully combined with glazes chosen to complement and enhance the carving. The result is pottery that not only serves a functional purpose but also tells a visual story of the places I live and explore.” more

"My paintings reflect the tenacity of an Alaskan summer, autumn’s brilliant demise, winter’s seemingly impossible unraveling, and the amazements of spring. This body of work emphasizes the endless details, changing seasons, and everyday beauty here in the North.” more.

“My creativity and life stories are expressed with coastal marine themes that capture the wild beauty of my home, Alaska. Encaustic is my material of choice – a blend of beeswax, damar crystals and pigment – often using charts, scraps of paper and found objects that are embedded in the wax medium. I draw upon first-hand experiences of fishing, its dangers and excitement." more.

“Every time I pick up a limpet shell I marvel at its compact form with its subtle shifting curves and endless variety of striations and ribs. Their color, pattern and textures layered in an inimitable way that strains my greedy eyes.  I love to pinch them out of clay and this activity brings me great pleasure.  The barnacle on the other hand populates surfaces with a multitude of jagged and clustered forms. Duplex, quadraplex, high rise insanity their variation of sizes clustered together suggest family or village.  These toothy forms offer me the opportunity to recklessly claw and scrape the clay surface into a satisfying jumble of planes.” more

A guided conversation with Megan Murphy and collaborators Ilarion (Kuuyux) Merculieff and Brianna Lee, for the book release of The Inner Garden.

About the book: The Inner Garden is a channeled guidebook and vividly-illustrated card deck that offers a personalized map to learn more about yourself and your gifts so that you can navigate and address your particular needs with confidence for the rest of your life. The guidance within the book can enable you to align your own rhythm to that of Mother Earth’s seasons; determine your own unique physical, emotional, and spiritual constitution; and support you in developing and practicing heart-centered living. more

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"When I received the invitation from Megan Murphy to collaborate on creating the images for this book, "The Inner Garden," I was both honored and nervous to accept the offer. As a working mother, artmaking had become less and less a priority in my life. Simultaneously, I began to feel like I was losing my artist identity and felt shame, even embarrassment, when referring to myself as an artist. Megan’s invitation to collaborate on this project has helped me remember and realize the importance of nurturing the artist within.” more

“The space we knew as our subsistence camp near Nome, Alaska, has been altered by climate change and was washed away by Typhoon Merbok. This work connects past, present, and future Inupiat and records our stories from fish camp, recording what climate change hasn’t erased – our ties to each other and the memories of place.” more...

Sean Derry spent the past two summers on the southside of Kachemak Bay carefully deconstructing a homesteading cabin dating from Alaska’s statehood. He has transformed the artifacts and materials from the cabin into a new collection of artworks. Sean hopes the project promotes a form of migration that lacks the injuries of colonization. “Key to this ideal is accepting the knowledge already present in a location and remaining mindful of how one’s presence alters the identity of a place. I hope that erasure of the cabin can exist as both an open investigation and an apology.” more.