The Basin Artists Refuge, from a log cabin kitty-corner to its gallery space in Basin, has, as of this summer, reignited its residency program. Artists from across the country are again welcome to Basin, where they are given the opportunity to explore their artistic passions and collaborate with fellow artists.
The most recent artist to participate in the program, Jane Waggoner Deschner, hosted a community gathering on Sept. 27 where she presented a collection of her recent work.
Deshner, among other things, works with collections of “found photographs,” which are vintage photographs and simple images no longer connected to a known person or an immediate relationship. There are, she says, significant collections of such images that Deshner combs through to find suitable images for her work.
“There are lots of people who collect these images because they’re unique, or artistic, or there’s just something about them,” said Deshner. “People take photographs out of love; it’s an intimate thing. I’m making an effort to take these lost images and ask the viewer to look at their own family photos with a different eye.”
Once she has assembled a series of photographs, she uses a meticulous stitching process to overlay her own selected images, often sourced from the covers of romance novels or other trifles she enjoys, over scans of the originals in an attempt to invoke new feeling and consideration. Her recent “Memento Mori” series, displayed at the Basin gathering, includes stitches of posed, skeletal hands atop the vintage images.
“I’m sort of into hands,” said Deshner. “And skeletons! I don’t think of them as morbid, but, rather, a part of life. The ‘Memento Mori’ hands are sort of loosely inspired from how we use emojis now; they’re really simple but visceral ways of communicating, and I thought to invite them into my work.”
Deschner, in her search for suitable images, also rummages, pilfers, and bargains her way to unique objects, which she assembles into sculptural collage (or “assemblage,” as she puts it). Her first of a collection of “small houses,” which are doll houses poignantly staged with photographs and trinkets, was designed using the family photos of a colleague and objects she found in local thrift stores.
“People have a connotation with doll houses that doesn’t necessarily fit with what I’m trying to accomplish,” said Deschner. “It was really interesting to work on something, for someone, with photos I know they already have a connection with. Visual things poke your brain differently than words, but I hope this connects with other people, too.”
“All of these stories, all of this humanity she gathers! That’s what kills me,” said Deschner’s partner and local musician Jon Lodge during an exhibition lecture. “Someone created all of these unbelievable photographs, and now they’ve all been scattered. There’s a spiritual connection, a connection to the flow of the universe, in her work. It’s a really beautiful form of harvesting, and remembering.”
