Two years ago, Amy Bennett contsructed a 1:87 scale model neighborhood, a fictitious cluster of eleven houses depicted through model railroading miniatures, styrofoam, cardboard, and plastic, complete with string telephone wires and working lights. The process of designing and assembling the setting over several months triggered her imagination to develop characters to populate the place along with a loose timeline of events that would culminate in the neighborhood’s history. The paintings are glimpses of a scene or fragments of a narrative. Some of the images are conceived of sequentially.
The paintings portray both the magical and suffocating potential of snow, the wonder at its stark beauty and the hopelessness that spring might never come.
The first group of the neighborhood series was exhibited in January 2007 at Richard Heller Gallery in LA. The final pieces, consisting primarily of snow scenes, were shown in September, 2007 at Galleri Magnus Karlsson in Stockholm.
(excerpts from About: Amy Bennett at www.amybennett.com)
Amy will be having a show opening January 10th through February 14th, 2009 at the Richard Heller Gallery in Santa Monica, California. More images can be seen on their site: http://www.richardhellergallery.com
Amy’s site:
http://www.amybennett.com