Artwork – Drawings - Laurel Garcia Colvin

Glass Drawings

After my residency at the Bullseye Glass Rescource Center in the fall of 2019, I have begun to experiment incorporating fused glass into my drawing practice.

My first work in this exploration began as oval fused glass pieces with images of birds entitled "Once lost, all song and color are gone forever!" It was inspired by the shocking new study was released in September 2019 in the Science journal by researchers who brought together information collected on 529 bird species since 1970. Its findings signal a widespread ecological crisis: over the past half-century, North America has lost almost 30% of its entire bird population, or around 3 billion birds. More than 1 in 4 birds have been lost. The effect of climate change, urbanization, the use of pesticides and the loss of habitat are to blame for this devastating loss of birds in North America.

In response to this news I created twelve small drawn portraits of live and dead birds in glass as a memento mori wall piece. It is a reminder not only of the birds’ mortality, but the fragility of human and animal life as we face the results of human activity on our climate worldwide.

Each bird portrait was created with three layers of glass. The back layer of warm white, 2mm glass, a middle layer of 2mm clear glass that was sandblasted and drawn in with an Amaco black ceramic pencil, and a top layer of 2mm clear glass. All three layers were fired and fused together in a kiln, and then lightly sandblasted again to create a hazy, almost “erased” image of each bird. The twelve oval pieces were mounted on a painted wood panel with graphite rubbed edges. On a narrow light cream table below the wall panel, a powder printed fused glass tray made of warm white and clear glass with an image of an egg filled nest and birds flying in the distance in its center is intended to hold small bags of bird seed for visitors to take with them.

I also created powder printed kiln fired glass frit sheets that resemble sketch pages with an excerpt of Such Singing in the Wild Branches, a poem by Mary Olivier, that expresses my life long love of birds.

Lace + Constellations Series

The delicate threads woven together to create a lace pattern, the crisscrossing lines between a group of stars in the sky to create a mythological figure, the arrangement of sub-particles to create the molecular structures of all things in the universe, the billions of neurons interconnected by trillions of connections called synapses in the human brain sending up thousands of signals per second to produce a single thought or perception in each of us . . .

This series is about these connections and interconnections in our perceptions and in our lives from the particle level to the universal level. Our thoughts and perceptions define who we each are, and at the same time connect us to something greater than our individual selves beyond our collective humanity.

By drawing white lines between images of such things as fingerprints, crystals, shells, sea life, clouds, flowers, plants, fruits, birds, insects, mathematical and musical notations with a lace pattern and a star pattern/constellation on handmade indigo paper, these works become diagrams that are both autobiographical and universal at the same time.

Inspired by a section of Eagle Poem by Joy Harjo -

To pray you open your whole self

To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon

To one whole voice that is you.

And know there is more

That you can’t see, can’t hear;

Can’t know except in moments

Steadily growing, and in languages

That aren’t always sound but other

Circles of motion.

It is my hope these works point to a state of higher consciousness beyond our own human existence within the universe.

Andromeda, Lace + Constellations series

white conté, white pencil and acrylic paint on handmade indigo paper
approximately 22.75” x 17.5”
2016

Cassiopeia, Lace + Constellations series

white conté, white pencil and acrylic paint on handmade indigo paper
approximately 22.75” x 17.5”
2016

Antinous, Lace + Constellations series

white conté, white pencil and acrylic paint on handmade indigo paper
approximately 22.75” x 17.5”
2016

Gemini, Lace + Constellations series

white conté, white pencil and acrylic paint on handmade indigo paper
approximately 22.75” x 17.5”
2018

The Vignette Series

In the Vignette series I use printed vignettes from French 18th Toile de Jouy and early American patterns on paper and juxtapose drawn images from contemporary life and daily news stories.

Like a sound bite, tweet or brief wire news update, these vignettes show a brief incident, scene or narrative that shades off gradually into the surrounding paper. It is in our consciousness for a second until the next news flash or viral YouTube video comes into our conscious space for a nanosecond.

As in my New American Toile series and the New American Toile Remnants series, these works reconsider the relationship between what remains, what is scrapped and what is made new in society’s collective consciousness, if only for a brief moment.

Nuclear Family, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
24" x 20" [31" x 27.75" framed]
2011

Nuclear Childhood, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
24" x 20" [31" x 27.75" framed]
2011

Modern Romance #1, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
13" x 19" [21" x 27" framed]
2011

Nuclear Shock, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
19" x 13" [27” x 21” framed]
2011

Democracy Rising, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
13" x 19" [21” x 27” framed]
2011

Nuclear Decommission, Vignette series
graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
24" x 20" [31" x 27.75" framed]
2012

Citizens United, Vignette series

archival pigment print
13” x 19” [19.5" x 25.5" framed]
2012

Arrest #2, Vignette series
graphite and gouache on archival pigment ink print
19” x 13” [27” x 21” framed]
2012

Nuclear Checkup, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
24" x 20" [31" x 27.75" framed]
2011

Nuclear Meltdown, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
24" x 20" [31" x 27.75" framed]
2011

Modern Romance #2, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
13" x 19" [21" x 27" framed]
2011

Nuclear Schoolgirl, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
19" x 13" [27” x 21” framed]
2011

Nuclear Gardening, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
24" x 20" [31" x 27.75" framed]
2011

Occupy, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
19” x 13” [27” x 21” framed]
2012

Arrest, Vignette series

graphite and gouache on archival pigment print
19” x 13” [27” x 21” framed]
2012

Arrest #3, Vignette series
graphite and gouache on archival pigment ink print
19” x 13” [27” x 21” framed]
2012

New American Toile Series

This series of mixed media drawings on fabric uses the French 18th century designs of Toile de Jouy as the starting point. I juxtapose a background narrative of a pastoral past populated by idyllic figures with a foreground of contemporary situations. Homelessness, gun violence, and other current controversies are in direct contrast to the nostalgic, sanitized, leisurely decorum of the historical toile patterns. The overlay of silhouettes and detailed renderings of figures inhabiting this fragmented world create visual commentaries on the contradictions, changes, and complexities of contemporary life.

With undertones of foreboding, wanting and dismay, the works in this series delve into the world of reality and fantasy. Their visual irony compels the viewer to reflect on and reconsider the relationship between what remains, what is scrapped and what is made new in society’s collective consciousness.

The New American Toile Remnant Series

With undertones of foreboding, wanting and dismay, the works in this series delve into the world of reality and fantasy. Their visual irony compel the viewer to reflect on and reconsider the relationship between what remains, what is scrapped and what is made new in society’s collective consciousness

Adolescent Angst series Statement

Adolescent angst, an acute feeling of anxiety or apprehension that is often accompanied by depression, is a frustrating, painful, and occasionally frightening dilemma for teens (and their parents). As an artist/arts educator, I have worked with teens in both school and out of school for many years, and I also have two teenage daughters of my own. As a parent, I am stunned by the amount of stress our society places on young people at a time in their lives when their growing brains and bodies are going though so much natural change. As an observer and an artist, I have studied the moments when they do not think anyone is watching, but that express so much of what they are feeling and dealing with. This series of six graphite drawings, mounted in narrow white frames with a nail puncturing its surface, convey the unwarranted tension found in many young people’s lives today.

This series is dedicated to my two daughters.

Litany of Birds Statement

These two works are inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s poem, Litany of Breath, especially its refrain:

About this the little birds were silent in the forest.
Over all the mountains is rest:
In all the treetops you perceive
Scarcely a breath.

As described in the poem, the bleak living conditions and violent human interactions found in the urban environment are in stark contrast to the silent little birds in the countryside. The birds in these two works appear unconcerned by the conditions of the falling man and the reaching woman, and reflect the lack of concern of humans for their fellow man in today’s world, unless the situation or conditions affect them personally. The word litany has two meanings: one - a series of songs or spoken requests for the blessing of God, and two - a long list of problems or complaints. As in the refrain, the birds in these two works are silent – not singing for blessings – but also not speaking up about the long list of social and political problems that continue to plague the human realm.