I can hardly contain myself — one of my favorite contemporary artists Tara Donovan is exhibiting again. Her latest work Colony, an undulating carpet of no. 2 graphite pencils (18,000 used in all) has joined other installations at the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek, CA — revealing the artistic possibilities of the prosaic pencil. Fab Green plans on being there over Thanksgiving.
I first saw Donovan’s work three years ago at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and have been captivated and inspired ever since. Donovan’s inspiration comes from mundane, everyday materials such as scotch tape, drinking straws, paper plates, and fishing wire, from which she molds and teases out sensual, abstracted landscapes and forms: be it pencils forming a haunting terrain of golden majesty or styrofoam cups congealing to create billowy, luminescent “clouds” overhead.
