|
“But it doesn’t look like papier mâché.”
It’s a refrain Gail Rydman hears frequently in response to her sometimes whimsical sometimes evocative papier mâché art. Many of us equate papier mâché with the balloons we covered in elementary school, but this medium can go way beyond strips soaked in wallpaper paste. “As an artist’s medium,” Gail is wont to say, “papier mâché is much underrated.”
Gail pulps waste paper in batches depending on the dominant colour of ink or paper stock; she then mixes this paper mash with paste to build sculptural pieces, masks, wall plaques and other amorphous shapes. When dry, the work is sanded, allowing the original colours to emerge. Gail then applies images and words using gel transfer techniques. Found objects also find their way into her work.
Holding both a B.A. with fine arts minor and a B.Ed after-degree in elementary education through the arts, Gail has taken classes in watercolours, wheel throwing, linocuts and even glass blowing. But as her exhibit history attests, she especially enjoys giving new life to resources through papier mâché. It’s also a great way to dispose of secretive and sensitive documents.
Gail’s most recent work emphasizes unconventional artists’ materials. Aspiring to be the polar opposite of an iconoclast, she tries to defy the perceived needs of a consumer-based culture and instead to ensure that materials are not journeying into land-fill.
Her work reflects attitudes of creative re-use and imaginative transformation. CONTACT
ARTIST |
