North Adams Open Studios -

Debi Pendell

Artist Statement:

The conversation between the accidental and the intentional guides my mixed media collage work. Some materials are found by chance: paper, letters, images, ribbons, wire, fabric. With these accidental ingredients I mix the intentional: specially painted papers, original drawings, my own photos, clay objects that I have made, pages of text that I have written. Acrylic paint and various acrylic mediums and gels (i.e. soft gel, molding paste, fine pumice gel, clear granular gel, tar gel) provide the basic ingredients. Other various media, such as pencil, marker, ink, crayon, wax, aluminum foil, sand, sawdust, and anything else that the work calls for, is added as the conversation develops. Through several processes – painting, glazing, photographing, drawing, transfer techniques, gluing, writing, stitching, lacing, etc.– the work evolves into existence. Some of the works are noisy, crowded, complex and intense, worked and reworked, using many processes and materials. Others are simple and more spontaneous, as if they were dashed off in a moment. Many of my most recent works use only a few processes and materials. But all the works spring from the same interaction between the accidental and the intentional; happy accidents being as important as planned elements. My focus is on materials and process, with the finished work standing as a physical record of my search and discovery.

Biography:

Born in Connecticut, Debi Pendell currently lives and works in the Eclipse Mill in North Adams, MA (www.eclipsemill.com). Her work is represented by Kolok Gallery in North Adams MA and Gallery 100 in Saratoga Springs NY. A graduate of Central Connecticut State University (B.A.) and Wesleyan University, Connecticut (M.A.L.S), Pendell is a 1999 recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship Grant from the Greater Hartford Arts Council. She participated in CowParade 2000 in New York City, an event in which more than 500 life-sized fiberglass cows, painted by various artists, were displayed throughout the 5 boroughs; Pendell's was on Broadway. In 2007 Pendell was granted a 5-week artist residency in Bulgaria by the Griffis Foundation of New London, CT and the Orpheus Foundation of Sofia, Bulgaria.

Pendell's work is in the permanent collections of The District Art Gallery and Museum, Smolyan, Bulgaria; OppenheimerFunds Inc., New York, NY, Sheppard Pratt Health System in Baltimore MD, The D'Amour Center for Cancer Care in Springfield, MA, and, in Connecticut, St. Francis Hospital, Hartford Hospital, Naugatuck Valley Technical Community College, Hamilton Sundstrand and West Woods School, along with several private collectors in the United States, Canada and Germany. Pendell's work has been exhibited in Bulgaria at the Palace of Culture in Sofia and The District Art Gallery & Museum in Smolyan, as well as in many galleries in the Northeast United States, including: The Gallery at the Pen & Brush, New York NY; Mass Mutual in Springfield MA; Young & Constantin Gallery in Wilmington, VT; The Eclipse Gallery and Kolok Gallery, both in North Adams MA, and, in Connecticut, SmallSpace Gallery at the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, The Promenade Gallery at The Bushnell in Hartford, 100 Pearl Street Gallery in Hartford, The Norman Stevens Gallery at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and the Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University in Middletown.

Pendell teaches classes and workshops - mixed media collage; drawing; acrylic painting; and papier mache sculpture, masks & vessels - for both adults and children in various locations in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Debi Pendell's work can be viewed on her website, www.debipendell.com, in her Eclipse Mill studio, at the Kolok Gallery in North Adams MA and at Gallery 100 in Saratoga Springs NY.

Artist Website:

www.debipendell.com