Andrea Fuhrman visual art

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Visual art by Andrea Fuhrman

"Fuhrman conveys the sense of an invented place, one that arises from recollections of environments and souvenirs that are evocative of those memories. Her primary visual experience as a child was peering through her father's microscope to view his collection of biology slides, so the small scale of her work is reminiscent of Persian miniatures. She collages images from various sources, such as biology textbooks and dictionaries. Raised in the home-as-haven 1950s she is also drawn to decorating magazines, with their seductive but unattainable tranquility, beauty and sanctuary. With pigment, tiny scissors needle and thread, Fuhrman cuts, sutures and paints wordless correspondence that document a world partly inhabited and partly remembered." - Linda Shearer, Director of the Williams College Museum of Art.

Visit her website: www.andreafuhrmanfineart.com

(The artists' own explanatory notes accompany each piece.)

VIPER

While in Tortuguero, Costa Rica on a hike in the rain forest, the guide showed us bright red poisonous frogs from the palm of his hand, magical bark from trees whose uses range from medical to utilitarian, and lifted an enormous lime green leaf the size of a huge umbrella to show us tiny furry bats hanging and asleep. We brushed by a lovely cascading bright green and red vine. The guide told us after we passed by the vine that a deadly red and green viper whose bite instantly

kills its victim usually hides in that species of vine awaiting its prey. - Andrea

POUR

This work I'm exploring the notion of dissimilar forms looking like they make sense when they are comprised of illogical images. I'd learned about sound poetry where words are used for their sound rather than their meaning, and it seemed interesting to experiment using a form that fills in a part of a composition visually, but really doesn't make sense. The root vegetable "tea" is "pouring" from a solid form into a house like structure made of design-like swatches. Or has the house captured the teapot? Abundance issues of what is full, half full, also came to mind. And the religious sacred segment of a figure in the upper left observes. Pour also could reference the homonym poor, in contrast to the fullness, or abundance of root tea. - Andrea

GENE POOL

This piece was made while an artist-in-residence in Costa Rica. Each day I would swim in a small outdoor pool with tiles this vivid blue hue. The pool was guarded by big red dragonflies. Palms and birds of paradise surrounded the path by the pool. Costa Rica is a country rich in biological diversity. I emerged, wet, shining, from this beautiful pool, in the midst of all this abundant life, daydreaming about my own origins, from where I come from, who I am and how I came to be in Costa Rica. - Andrea

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