LOVE 2015
50” X 54” Mixed Media Sandy Point Beach
found objects: LOVE board, rope, marine artifacts,
shells, driftwood, stones all sculpted by our beloved
Atlantic Ocean and Penobscot Bay.
Commissioned by Greg Biddinger and Lise Leigh
The story of LOVE
Some social scientists suggest that LOVE is a social construct invented by Hollywood. Others insist that LOVE is the only experience that makes life worth living and still others point out that LOVE is what makes us human.
No matter where you land on the continuum, you will be charmed by the back story of this particular LOVE.
The Social Practice art form:
Barbara Bridges seeks to empower all people to embrace the creative process. She makes art from artist fabricated components in a variety of media and rescued power objects. She organizes the objects to create meaning and provoke discussions and reflection on a wide variety of social topics including Ode to Gluten (agricultural practices), Onion/Academia Nuts, (Hi Tech/HiTouch in academia) Found In Our Water (water quality), and Talking Chairs (recovery/worldview truths).
I attended a creativity conference at Haystack this summer where I met a Cambridge professor, Tim Ingold, who holds a unique theory on art making.
Dr. Ingold suggests that artists are simply “interveners” on the journey of the particular materials and/or objects the artist manipulates.
If you read my artist statement above you can see that theory would have a certain appeal for me.
SO…when Greg Biddinger showed me a large weathered board which had washed up in front of his cottage with the clearly visible word “LOVE” on it… I could not get it out of my mind.
Greg and Lise joined the list of LOVE board interveners and brought me other objects they had discovered on our beloved Sandy Point beach. I added my own beach discoveries and the LOVE board now has another story to tell.