Beacon art exhibit resinates
A handwritten sign at Super Secret Projects in Beacon advises: “Please don’t touch the art (it is as smooth as it looks).”
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said local artist Andrea Moed while browsing the gallery’s current exhibit, The Sandbox Chronicles, by Melissa Schlobohm. “It would never occur to me to encase rabbit fur in resin, but it’s fascinating.”
During a visit to her commodious Red Hook studio, Schlobohm mixed a batch of resin compound, which looks like water, and stirred in a droplet of concentrated blue dye. She poured the liquid into a mold that would harden and create colorful layers. This was her first crack at encasing tree bark, a material she adores for its rough texture and adaptability.
For the jewelry-box sized “Terrarium” and smaller format Wish We Could Go series, on display in the Beacon show, she assembled a “completely rando” hodgepodge of kitschy miniatures that includes found objects and the contents of friends’ junk drawers.
Many scenes appear to be underwater, with plastic sea creatures galore, but the mouse, butterflies and cigarette butts are real. She recently acquired a sack of dead bees.
When the latest layer of resin hardens, Schlobohm, 35, will add more until the container is filled and the project is complete. The singular approach is special because she’s creating art with a material that is typically used in a practical way to coat canvasses.
“I can get really deep colors, and it lets me play with the light underneath,” she said. But the technique requires a handheld blowtorch to remove bubbles that emerge and “things can go haywire,” she said. “I’ve learned a lot through trial and error.” She attempted to teach the method at the Garrison Art Center, “but it became a big fail.”
In the circular glassine works of Schlobohm’s more highbrow Escape series, the lush colors, which lean toward the darker end of the spectrum, change as viewers move around the room. Augmenting the specks of glitter, colored mylar strips akin to plastic wrap add extra layers of luminosity.
“Escape 5” channels a deep-space vibe with a central sun, reddish gas and elliptical orange ring. The deer and rabbit fur create a milky, feathery touch.
Other works on display showcase the artist’s range. “Golden Ratio 3” exemplifies her obsession with tree bark, which looks ossified and glistens against a sky-blue background. Accentuated with scaly clay discs, the whitewashed Locust bark of “Tabula Rasa” evokes a group of spines.
In “Bloom,” a purple resin flower that protrudes from a seashell resembles delicate glass and is speckled with glittering blue sprinkles. The reptilian bronze sculpture “Shell Home” weighs around 30 pounds.
Despite her move to Red Hook, Schlobohm maintains a close relationship with Beacon, where she lived for six years. Asked by Shoutout Miami to shout out, she praised the Garrison Art Center, BAU Gallery and Hyperbole, the boutique that hosts Super Secret Projects, for helping her develop strong ties to the community.
Super Secret Projects, at 484 Main St., is open daily from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Sandbox Chronicles will close with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m. on April 5.
Melissa’s work never fails to take my breath away.