Victorian and Cloud

Victorian and Cloud

Taken from 2019 exhibit Cloud & Horizon that took on a new weight when the pandemic began shortly after. That exhibit explored representations of landscape and the digital cloud using noisy hand-woven paper cutouts and cast shadows. Heavily lit, the shadows and hard-edged silhouettes took on more definition than the fragmentary interior features of the cutouts. The surface of each cutout consists of interwoven fragments of preprinted words, maps, colors, and lines shredded and combined from found materials. This installation of my submission includes a Victorian home and tree with two out of focus, woven paper digital clouds. This image and viewpoint is intended to imply a sense of isolation functioning allegorically through a narrative placed at distance.

Mike Sweeney -

Mike Sweeney's M.F.A. (1990) from the University of Connecticut began an interest in social engagement and bridges between visual and textual literacy. He has engaged dual careers in public libraries and schools as he pursued exhibition opportunities nationally. After training on the job in antique furniture restoration in 2015, Mike’s recombination and synthesis of common materials through craft technique has become more integral to his work.

His 2019 interview in LandEscape Now! 10th edition was book-ended by duo and solo exhibitions at the Hartford Public Library ArtWalk and Pegasus Gallery at MXCC. In 2020 and 2021, Mike participated in exhibitions with the National Collage Society, Marblehead Arts Association, and New Grounds Remarque Print Workshop.

This submission is part of Dr Jennifer Wong's Visiting Fellowship - A Personal History of Home