Fine Lines · 4.6.23-5.4.23
Parachute Gallery · 1624 E 7th Ave #240, Tampa, FL 33605 · April 6 - May 4, 2023
Opening Reception · Thursday, April 6, 2023, 6-9pm
Closing Reception · Thursday, May 4, 2023, 6-9pm
Featuring work by:
Danielle Attoe (Milwaukee, WI)
Michelle Roxana Ettrick (Altoona, PA)
Caelan Jeffery (St. Petersburg, FL)
Makeda Lewis (Atlanta, GA)
Honey Pierre (Atlanta, GA)
Curated by Jessica Todd
Fine Lines features five regional and national artists who create figural work with an eye for enchanting line work. Exhibiting artists Danielle Attoe, Michelle Roxana Ettrick, Caelan Jeffery, Makeda Lewis, and Honey Pierre work in media ranging from drawing and painting to fibers to jewelry to clay. Each uses descriptive linework to tell their own story of identity, self-affirmation, and humanity.
Danielle Attoe illustrates fat bodies in sterling silver wire, immediately imbuing them with material value. She references the form of the cameo, but her figures break out of their prescribed oval frames to claim their own space. Michelle Roxana Ettrick literally makes space in the world for her figures by wheel-throwing the pottery on which they're later painted. With a delicate hand, she brings to life her textured experiences as an Afro-Latina woman.
Makeda Lewis's emotive works on paper elegantly and sensitively depict figures and spaces where the figure is implied. She introduces shadow as a metaphor for entering the unknown—an act that requires invoking trust and overcoming fear—but with the promise of discovering a deeper alignment with oneself there. Caelan Jeffery's artistic practice is, in itself, a process of self-centering. Their highly detailed paintings depict both historical events and figures, as well as private and intimate everyday moments, allowing Caelan and their audience to process the complex human experience.
Honey Pierre develops colorful and lovingly rendered portraits of black and brown people, primarily with fibers. She often uses the color blue as symbol of connection and nostalgia, while allowing her to expand the conversation around racial identity to be more nuanced and individualized.
About the Artists
Danielle Attoe · Milwaukee, WI
Danielle Attoe is a metalsmith and jeweler who currently resides in Milwaukee, WI. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in 2018 and her Master of Fine Art in 2021 from the same university. She currently has two active bodies of work. In the Flesh is a series of art jewelry pieces that focus on the representation of the fat body. Danielle also makes structural jewelry out of silver wire and gemstones in geometric shapes.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I created the In the Flesh jewelry series to focus on the representation of the fat body in the gallery and the art world. Each piece depicts a figure, rendered in silver wire, interacting with a frame usually made of patinated brass in an oval shape in reference to the cameo. The frame sometimes dissects the visibility of the form but other times the figure breaks out of the frame, allowing a moment of unrestricted visual access to the complexity of each body’s unique shape. By creating each figure out of wire the negative space in each work allows the skin and clothing of the wearer to be seen through the piece and adds an additional layer of complexity. While each of these pieces can be seen as a beautiful object, the goal is not to transform the model from abject to clean or reinforce societal expectations on the representation of the female body, but to bring a missing element into the gallery. Each piece of jewelry seeks to confer that same status of preciousness onto the body it is presenting.
Michelle Roxana Ettrick · Altoona, PA
I was a non-English speaking 13-year-old when I arrived in the United States in 1982. Life in Brooklyn, NY, was a stark contrast to my early memories of Panama and the simple joys of climbing trees and playing with my friends while my mom was nearby hanging clothes on the line.
As an Afro-Latina, I struggled to find a community that would accept me and where I felt I belonged. My own identity was regularly challenged by others who judged me by the texture of my hair or the fact that I spoke Spanish fluently and struggled to communicate in English. When judged by adults and my peers, my hair was “too good” to be considered black and the color of my skin was too dark to be speaking Spanish. In addition to the hardships, I have many fond memories of my time in New York. Brooklyn is where I learned about double-dutch and cooling off from the New York summer heat in the open fire hydrants.
I love being a maker and clay is my medium of choice. Clay is a very personal material to me. When I put my hands in the clay and my fingers get lost in the mixture, for the moment, we become one. I stretch pull, pinch, and form shapes where I leave evidence of my having been there. I follow up by drawing on my work where I embrace my natural curly hair, heritage, womanhood, and at times current worldly struggles. My artwork is a record of my experiences as an Afro-Latina American.
Caelan Jeffery · St. Petersburg, FL
Caelan Jeffery is a queer non-binary artist based out of St. Petersburg, FL. Caelan lived and learned the basis of their art form in the mountains of Western North Carolina, only relocating to St Petersburg three and a half years ago. Caelan is a self taught artist who started out as a non-traditional leather worker, then eventually incorporated paints and dyes into that art form. Now, five years later, Caelan focuses on creating highly emotional illustrations on mixed media paper and leather.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I’m an artist because art is like medicine. To be able to wake up and attempt to create images that depict vastly complex ranges of emotion means everything to me. Without art I would be lost. The ability to center into myself, into my work and my surroundings, continuously brings joy and clarity into my life. Within my works, my ideas and concerns are primarily designed to bring awareness to different social issues, to validate all emotions, and to invoke all emotions.
Watch As This Limp Wrist Turns Into a Fist is a political statement to everyone who thinks they can control queer and trans bodies. We are here, we have been here since the beginning of time and we aren’t going fucking anywhere. The painting depicts the queer Latines hardcore punk band Limp Wrist performing to a diverse crowd. In the image, “Fags Hate God” is wheat pasted throughout. This was Limp Wrists' political response to “God Hates Fags."
Red Summer depicts an instance of white violence against Black people during the hate fueled “Red Summer” of 1919. A few days prior to this image, 17-year-old Eugene Williams was lynched for swimming into the “white area” of Lake Michigan. He was pelted with rocks and drowned. In the photograph, 82 children pose in front of a black residence that was looted and sacked after the family was forced out. The children pictured either appear excited or completely dead inside. During the 3-day riots in Chicago, 38 people were killed, including 23 Black people and 15 white people, and 350 were injured. "Red Summer" did not only take place in Chicago; it took place across the U.S. and is severely under-discussed.
Makeda Lewis · Atlanta, GA
Makeda Lewis is an artist, curator, and program coordinator living and working out of Atlanta, GA. Since publishing her coloring book, Avie's Dreams, she has curated for MINT Gallery, Dashboard, and Swan Coach House Gallery. Makeda has exhibited her own work nationally and internationally, including at Good Year Arts, Charlotte, NC, and Frontviews, Berlin, Germany. Alongside her artistic practice, she is focused on engaging the public with art and art history in interesting and nuanced ways. This is the main focus of her programming work—to learn and share information and build appreciation in a way that is impactful and transcends the barriers many have to approaching art.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Makeda Lewis’ current body of work emphasizes composition, line, and value to explore the fear and trust of shadows required to release the things we are familiar with in order to gain the things that more closely align with our worth.
Honey Pierre · Atlanta, GA
Honey Pierre creates vivid textile collages that depict stories of maternal lineage, love, and communal identity. Born Cassandra Hickey to Rhonda Harris, Honey Pierre hails from Cleveland, OH, and has three siblings. As a child, fashion magazines were some of her first fixations and inspired her to illustrate dynamic silhouettes. Her high school art teacher recognized her talents and introduced her to new media, techniques, and her own confidence. Although pursuing a Fine Arts degree is a goal, Honey joined the United States Army for three years after high school. Since completing her military duties, she has been a full-time visual artist. Honey's move to Atlanta in 2020 led to her creating more collages, paintings, fiber arts installations, and public murals.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Honey Pierre reimagines photographs of loved ones and renders black and brown identity using vivid palettes featuring shades of blue. This color often signifies connection, fluidity, and nostalgia. Honey has traveled as far as Korea in search of brown shades, and found a greater range of blue instead. Shifting her perspective, blue has come to also represent freedom from censorship, accessibility despite erasure, and surpassed unrealistic expectations. Each color palette expands viewer discourse beyond racial concepts towards gender, religion, and cultural background.
Art is ritual for Honey, ceremonially weaving media with message and reinvigorating her family portraits with spirit and emotion. After moving to Atlanta, Honey continued to draw inspiration from local neighborhoods and immediate community. She chooses fiber arts to express these things because it physically represents what society demeans: manual labor, textured beauty, and art with utility. As a fiber artist, her practice involves crocheting, felting, roving, and tufting.
Honey's subject matter is rooted in relationship with loved ones: mutual aid, creating legacy, or exchanging ancestral knowledge and resources. The textile portraits capture attitude through weird lines and reflect abstraction using markings with bright color pairings. Above all, Honey uses her work to represent honesty in scenes that are often overlooked. Her work shines light on the invisible using a vibrant network of strength, love, and deeply spiritual positivity.
In the Shop
A rotating roster of regional and national artists are represented in the gallery shop.
Fairy Tale Teas, Marissa Kinsler · Odessa, FL · Marissa Kinsler is the creator, founder, and lead Fairy Godmother of Fairy Tale Teas. Forever a lover of fairytale princesses, desserts, and romantic tea parties, Kinsler knew from a young age that she would live a life that celebrated all things abundantly beautiful—a life where she would not only enjoy magic, but share it with others. Kinsler and her team of fae {fairytale creatures} scour countryside's all over the world in search of the perfect fairytale to inspire each magical tea blend.
Babette Herschberger · St. Petersburg, FL · Babette Herschberger completed an AS in graphic design with honors at the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She then developed a studio practice as a painter and collage artist. In 2015, she was an artist in residence at ArtCenter South Florida/Oolite Arts in Miami. In 2021, her work was included in the Skyway exhibition at the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum. Her work was published in New American Paintings, edition #112, and is in the collection of Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art + Design, as well as a number of corporate and private collections. Herschberger began a study in ceramics at The Morean Center for Clay after relocating to St. Petersburg from Miami in 2018.
ARTIST STATEMENT
As long as I can remember I have appreciated and collected the work of ceramic artists. After having formally studied and practiced graphic design for a decade, I began building contemporary primitive furniture which morphed into a full-time painting practice of 25 years.
Upon relocating from Miami to St. Petersburg in 2018, I discovered an extensive environment of ceramic studios and artists in the region. Just weeks after my relocation I began taking classes at the Morean Center for Clay and like many, I was smitten with the process and have earnestly continued my pursuit of this medium. It is the most challenging yet rewarding medium I have ever undertaken. I have a great love of industrial design and have focused almost entirely on functional ceramic work, making primarily drinking vessels that have a focus on form and color, each new piece or series is in itself a design challenge. They are small sculptures to me.
Working in this utilitarian direction for the last four years has afforded me the ability to teach myself how to hand build with clay and left me with the headspace I need to continue my painting process. It is my aim to bring both my painting practice and my clay practice into a more cohesive body of work.
Cindy Liebel · Fredericksburg, VA · As an artist, Cindy Liebel has been a passionate visual storyteller for as long as she can remember. Her grandfather first inspired her love for photography, a craft she explored and honed during her formative years. The opportunity to learn and develop basic metalsmithing techniques in 2007, captivated her creativity and ultimately inspired her to rebrand and launch Cindy Liebel Jewelry in 2014. Since then, she has been refining her craft and continually seeking new ways to evoke emotion and delight customers through intentional design.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Cindy Liebel Jewelry is jewelry for the individual, the ever-curious collector who actively engages with the world and thrives on exploration. For every empowered individual, each piece is made to feel effortlessly comfortable, making style easy and timeless. You'll always find a diverse assortment of styles, crafted to outlast trends, gift giving, and for regular enjoyment, from leisure to your next noteworthy event.
My unwavering commitment to ethical and sustainable sourcing pushes the limits of my creativity and invites me to explore new opportunities in design. All jewelry is mindfully crafted with sustainability in mind. I intentionally source all materials from supply chains that focus on environmental stability and that educate consumers about sustainable mining and ethical trade. To that end, I use recycled sterling silver, gold and other precious metals acquired from trusted, responsible suppliers, or I will recycle the metal myself. Whenever possible, I reuse raw materials and incorporate post-consumer materials in the packaging.
I draw inspiration from features of Scandinavian design aesthetics, contemporary architecture and Art Deco, including geometric patterns and abstract line art. My designs start with a hand-drawn sketch and are transformed into scaled paper models, allowing me to see the form and shape of the design in a more tangible way.
Exhibiting artist Caelan Jeffery also has artwork in the shop!
