The Main Gallery
SILVER LININGS: PAINTINGS, PROCESS AND POETRY
April 1—May 13, 2021
PAINTINGS BY KATY SCHNEIDER
POETRY BY JIM ARMENTI
Katy Schneider and Jim Armenti began a collaboration at the beginning of the pandemic. Each day, Katy created a tiny exquisitely rendered painting of an object found in her home and emailed an image of the completed work to Jim. In return, he sent her a poem inspired by the painting. Their collaboration is still going!
Katy Schneider’s 400 and counting 3×4 inch paintings of everyday objects as well as a group of 6×6 inch paintings will be on view in the Main Galleries. A selection of Jim Armenti’s object inspired poetry will also be on display. Visitors will be invited to write poems to go with Schneider’s paintings in a Poetry Process Gallery.
Can’t write your poem in-person? Check out our virtual gallery below and send a poem to sashapacek@concordart.org!
Selection from 2020 interview with Katy Schneider and Jim Armenti
CA: how does your relationship to an object change after you’ve painted it or written a poem about it?
KS: I find new love for it after I paint it. I’m curious about people and believe everyone has something interesting to offer. I ask a lot of questions. Doing these paintings feels similar. Through the visual inquiry trying to understand its particular-ness, I find an object’s unique beauty. I love to reincarnate and repurpose. Painting something headed towards the trash makes me feel less wasteful. I extended its life. There’s something beautiful about honoring everything and everyone. In many ways these are memorial paintings.
JA: So, I never see the objects and have no relationship to it. I only see a painting, which means that at least in part, I am always thinking of Katy, the person, and also Katy the artist and the choices she has made. First, she has chosen to paint whatever object it is, but also I know she is careful about its attitude in space. My perception of the object certainly takes on some new meaning as I think, and then as a write, as it is the focus of wherever my mind has gone, I suppose, in search of whatever connection I have with the object and the way in which it has been rendered. I have been surprised to see the actual 3D object in real life and find that I have often thought about the size and demeanor in an imaginary way.