The Fred Schnider Gallery gladly presents an ‘Artist Talk’ with two women artists Catherine Day and Betsy Packard. Along with curator David Carlson, they will discuss there latest two person exhibit titled ‘Subtle Energy’
Exhibit Statement by David Carlson:
There is a quality of experience, unseen, unheard, and beautiful. This attribute permeates the
work of Catherine Day and Betsy Packard through content, material and process. Physically,
their art, seemingly different shares a common thread through the painstakingly hand stitched
meditation which ruminates on time, place and memory.
Catherine Day starts with photography capturing moments such as covered chairs at a grave
site, laughable images of mundane scenes, relics, and symbolic gestures in the landscape.
Her next step in creating the work, in the artist’ s words, “I use silk sand antique linens as
materials in printing my photographs, to depict loss, grief, and the fragile nature of memory.
I also use these materials to underscore the human mark made on our environment”.
Betsy Packard “Nearly everything I do with fabric is hand sewn, made with used household
linens or clothing, my own or given to me by family and friends. Someone wore it, used it. It
can evoke remembrance”.Frugality and low-tech processes are important to the artist. The
repetitive process of hand stitching serves in the construction of the piece and becomes a
form of contemplative calm.
Both artists reflect through objects things we all experience, but take little time to sense the
subtle energies that are always with us.
-David Carlson