karen gallup - ann arbor, michigan, usa - karengallup "at" karengallup.com
About Karen Gallup
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karen gallup - ann arbor, michigan, usa - karengallup "at" karengallup.com
About Karen Gallup
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ARTIST'S STATEMENT
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"I collect stuff: old stuff, rusted and broken stuff. I hunt for stuff in garage sales, thrift shops and flea markets. I have been known to dumpster dive and pick my neighbor's trash. My studio is floor-to-ceiling stuff waiting to be rediscovered and reinvented. It is fun taking things apart (I got into trouble in junior high when I took my clarinet apart) and reassembling the pieces into something new. My work is intuitive - the objects themselves suggest what they will be. At this juncture my motif is "people" - strange, humorous, offbeat people. I combine dissimilar objects to form a recognizable, if fictional, whimsical and sometimes outrageous sculpture. By using unrelated objects I hope to make the viewer examine and re-examine, to be surprised and amused - to have the "aha" moment as she recognizes the objects out of context. The dissimilar pieces are joined with screws, rivets, solder, welds, and rarely -- heaven forbid! -- glue, and for the most part, retain their original patina. With my collage I am playing with perspective, pushing and pulling objects forward and back out of their natural relationship to one another. I want the viewer to look twice to see the inconsistency even though the areas and colors blend seamlessly and flow into each other making a subtle whole. The collage is flat and constructed mainly of magazine papers. The larger areas are dry mounted, smaller pieces are glued. I use a protective spray or UV plexiglas as the final step. Assemblage and collage are similar in that they entail using parts of many things and rearranging them into a finished piece." Karen Gallup, 2008 |
BIOGRAPHY |
Karen Gallup's work has been shown at Flatlander Gallery, the Hudson Gallery, the Washington Street Gallery, the Ann Arbor Art Center, the Chelsea Art Center, the Midland Center for the Arts, Holland Arts Council, Art Center of Battle Creek and several venues with the Ann Arbor Women Artists. Gallup has a BFA from Michigan State University and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Metalsmithing. She taught Art Education at Delta College (University Center, MI), was a Professor of Jewelry and Metalsmithing at the College for Creative Studies (Detroit, MI), and an adjunct at Eastern Michigan University in Jewelry and Metalsmithing (Ypsilanti, MI). Over the years, she has studied papermaking, wood turning, basket making, jewelry, and metalwork at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Maine, and explored blacksmithing, welding, wood block printing, and paper lithography in other venues. She is a member of the Michigan Silversmiths Guild, and the Ann Arbor Women Artists. Born in Midland, Michigan, she lives in Ann Arbor with her husband, cat and dog. |
RESUME |
EDUCATION: PROFESSIONAL: |
karen gallup - ann arbor, michigan, usa - karengallup "at" karengallup.com
