NEWS & UPCOMING SHOWS / PROJECTS:
Got married and now hoping to take a bit of a breather. Planning on working on some large pieces in 2012.
RECENT SHOWS / PROJECTS:
December 2011 Holiday Market at Alabama Chanin Studio, Florence, Alabama
December 2011 Group Show at LiteBox Gallery, Birmingham, AL
November 2011 "Phantasm" Group show, Birmingham, AL
September 2011 Group Show at Domy (Austin, TX) with Tim Kerr, Jim Houser, Chrissy Piper, etc.
November 2011 Group show at Space 1026 Gallery in Philadelphia, PA
August 2011 SOLO SHOW Kentuck Art Gallery Annex in Northport, AL
April 2011 GROUP SHOW Acme Gallery, Birmingham, Alabama
December 2010 Group Show: "Come One, Come Y'all" curated by Tim Kerr at Needles and Pens (San Francisco, CA) needles-pens.com
January 2011 Group Show: "Farewells and Introductions," The Front Gallery (nolafront.org (New Orelans, LA)
2010 *Brooklyn Art Library's Sketchbook Project
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Merrilee Challiss
ARTIST STATEMENT
The world is ephemeral, often brutally so. I find that I tether myself to the world through the process of making art. My work arises from a miasma of disparate sources: fairy tales, flora, fauna, and medical anomalies. Drawing has always been the mainstay of my practice. I usually begin with pen and ink, and without much planning, follow my intuition. The work evolves organically out of an obsessive process (mark-making, stitching, etc), in which some sort of “order” is created, subverted, and re-established.
Much of my recent work has been consumed by a sense of taking stock of nature, depicting a world out of balance. Forrest creatures, tidal pools, and sub-aquatic creatures reflect the fecundity of life, teeming --albeit, despite a vulnerability -- from birth to death, from the bloom of life, to adaptation, to decay and back to life again. I feel my work links both Voodoo and Victorian sensibilities, through a filter of natural history and childhood book illustration.
BIO
I live and work in Birmingham, Alabama. In my twenties, I spent three years living abroad, in Germany and the Czech Republic and along the way, have traveled as far as Cambodia, Turkey, and Tunisia, and many points in between. In 2002 I moved from Philadelphia, PA, back to Alabama, with my partner, Brian Teasley who is a musician and writer. Together we opened a Cafe / Bar / Venue here in Birmingham in 2006 (along with my brother) called Bottletree (www.thebottletree.com). Aside from running BottleTree, which usurps most of my time, I draw, as much as possible, using ink & gouache. Our house and our lives are filled with cats (six), plants, and pop-culture.