June 3rd-June 23rd
Artist Reception June 3rd 6:00-9:00pm
Food and Beverages will be served
Special guest musician to be announced
Change
To make the form, nature, content, future course, etc, of something different from what it is or what it would be if left alone.
To make the form, nature, content, future course, etc, of something different from what it is or what it would be if left alone.
I copied this verbatim from somewhere into one of my sketch books about 6 years ago. I was going through a period of change and felt these words were to draw strength from. Change is also the jingly stuff I rarely carry anymore due to the hazards of scratching my Iphone. Heck, who am I kidding? I don’t carry much in the form of cash these days…
My daughters love the “jingly change”. Signe and Annikka – they pick change off of the ground and collect it, just as I use to love to do. In my childhood days my grandfather Auggie owned a particular gas station in Mesa, off Broadway and Hibbert. It was called C&A Oil (C for Corena and A for August). I’d hang out there and I would always find change on the ground. I am not certain, but perhaps my grandfather had something to do with it. I never put two and two together but these days it seems to make sense. I could get a gumball for a penny. For a nickel, I could get a handful of these fruity round and flat colored hard candies (something like a spree). Man, I loved those. You could get a pineapple Fanta or a peach Nehi in a glass bottle for twenty five cents and before long it was thirty five cents. I liked popping the caps off the top of those bottles at the machine. Today my girls have to work a little harder for their sweets. They need a quarter to even begin to think about a hard gumball that loses its flavor in about thirty seconds. That gumball is a still a symbolic goal, for anyone. A penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter – a DOLLAR! Save to get something, save to get what you want. I lost this bit of wisdom somewhere along the way. Now, I make payments on what I have or what I had, for that matter. I owe money on the money that I owe. Then, an awakening: my two girls have once again helped me to shed the light on “change”.
This body of work takes aspects of my life and questions that I have, as well as bits of pieces of my change and puts them all together into a series that is truthfully in its self a change for me. For one, I was able to actually set aside some time to create a body of work again and it feels good, a definite change! Another change – material usage – a majority of objects found and assembled is not a norm for me. I had pondered with it here and there but not to this level. Another change is me using multiple facets of my learned skills (wood finishing, car restoration, metal fabrication, casting, enameling and others) and combining them all together to create this new body of work. These pieces showcase all of these skills, not just one particular set of them.
I have a busy life. I have been able to accomplish many things and still have goals I want to attain. Making art has been a catalyst and a balance in my busy life. It helps solidify my thoughts and ideas into viewable, touchable objects. It’s a pretty good equalizer for me. It’s my passion, and I love to be able to share my work with you. I cannot say that my art answers all of my life’s questions. That’s ok, it does not need to. It does often bring a tongue and cheek platter to the table in the pot luck that is my life, and you are invited to join the feast. I need to be able to make light of some things. It is my nature to do so. If my art gives me just a little spark of gratification and interests a handful of people I am happy. It’s as simple as that and I ask nothing more from it. For me, this will never “change”.
Steven Fremel
