My House
White Water Gallery
North Bay, Ontario
1993
solo exhibition
sculpture

Happy
mixed media
4" x 7" x 6"
1992
Brenna George

My House
wood pencil, paint
27" x 9 1/2" x 3/4"
1991
Brenna George

My House

With this body of work I explore people's desires to be liked and to fit into their communities. This need motivates one to achieve more, yet disturbs one's self image and feeling of worth.

My art reflects personal issues as I go through them. I am inspired by focusing on the intimate. At the time I started this work, I had moved from a large city (Vancouver, B.C.) to a small rural Mennonite community (Osler, Saskatchewan) where I lived unmarried with my partner, I began to wonder "What do others think?" and "Do I care to be respected by others?"

Worry and stress caused by pressures on women to fit into their communities is manifested in eating disorders. The pear sculptures work with this issue. The pears suggest food, luscious and tempting. The prize ribbons dangling off the stems are labeled with text, naming anxieties. I was interested in the contrast of repulsion and desire. These objects are at once desirable - you want to hold them - and yet are also repulsive, they make you hesitate.

The subject matter of the scroll paintings is bits of natural history, plants and insects from the location I worked in. I wanted a feeling of suspendedness or disorientation. I also worked with the image of the laurel crown.

July 1993
Brenna George