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Ferus Gallery
Artist's Statement
Michael Wilson

Working in the Art Assemblage arena has
been due to influences and friendships with
artists who were the founders of the West
Coast art movements of the Ferus Gallery
(1957-1966) in Los Angeles. Being inspired
by the materials, (i.e. found/ discarded
objects) a construct is formed with a new life
for these discards.

The piece begins by continually moving
found objects around and abstracting them
into what ultimately may be a unified body.
No assemblage is started with a clear view
of what the finished piece will look like. After
much fussing and construct, common
objects begin to form the dynamic of a
certain cohesion. Possibly the viewer sees
familiar objects (perhaps now
unrecognizable) that have been altered with
a new take where these objects have
transformed the bounds of their original use
and taking the viewer to another place in
consciousness.

-MW 2010
Artist's Statement
Susan Spencer

Chaos to order, confusion to clarity. These
are the recurring characteristics I find in
works of assemblage.

Sitting atop a secluded hill on the Northern
Californian coast I can spend hours or
days with no human contact other than
interludes with artist/ husband Michael. We
wander down to the studio, out to the
garden, up to the house, with dogs in tow.

In the discarded remnants people cast
aside I am compelled to find my art. These
pieces are little gems that trigger, first, a
visual idea, and later, a story or impression
of some human moment glimpsed.

This art has free-flowing meaning that I am
reticent to explain away. I hope that each
piece can strike its own relationship with
the viewer who can apply his own narrative
to the work.

-SS 2010
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