Heather Patterson

Gerda

2015

Artist Comments
I have used grade one Braille as a form for recognizing what is unknowable and unseeable, until we feel it. As a way of connecting sight with feeling, intertwining the two. This piece is meant to be touched, explored, felt. Made in honor of Gerda Klein, after reading her autobiography of her experiences as a Holocaust survivor. In Braille it reads and then there was one, from whom came many. Found, reclaimed and resurrected- an abstract wood relief ;painting; in an assortment of soft and hard woods puzzled together within a salvaged antique window frame. I am a collector and gatherer of everything left behind, overlooked, tossed aside. From abandoned barns in Maine to kitchen remodels in Massachusetts to a razed rectory built in 1893- each piece of wood carries a history and a past and now a new purpose. Each piece of wood has been individually cut and sanded by hand, some may receive a color treatment of stain or paint, some will be left in their natural state, before the entire piece is finished with Tung Oil. Your artwork will arrive ready to hang, signed on the back.

About the Artist
When asked how she became an artist, sculptor Heather Patterson replied, “I just seem to be built that way.” Heather is passionate about creating, and is constantly inspired by her daily surroundings and experiences. The artist’s body of work is governed by her mission to reassign meaning to materials that have outlived their perceived purpose. She works with reclaimed wood and window panes to produce geometric wall sculptures that may remind the viewer of abstract modernist paintings. Modernism conjures an underlying tension in Heather-–a “vibration,” she calls it. Each sculpture is created without a premeditated plan or sketch, but is instead governed by feeling and intuition.

Gerda
Heather Patterson
wood on wood
One-of-a-kind
Signed on back
2015
24.5 in. h x