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Making Sense of the Storm
Published September 23, 2009
A little less than a year ago, Dickinson artist Georganna Tapley and her design students at Brazosport College invited people to share their best and worst memories of Hurricane Ike. Those memories, preserved on 4- by 4-inch squares of fabric, were among many Tapley collected in the communities affected by Ike.
“I canvassed the streets,” Tapley said. She talked to people of all ages, from elementary school children to nursing home residents and everyone in between.
Now, those squares have been worked into three pieces of art which Tapley was invited to include in “Flotsam and Jetsam: Artists Respond to Ike,” which is on display till Oct. 8 at the Arts Alliance Center in Nassau Bay.
“It’s kind of phases of Ike,” Tapley said of her work. “They’re as a result of that exhibition (at Brazosport College). At that time, they were more interactive. Now they’re as a result of that interaction. They’re more contemplative pieces.”
“She’s conceptualized the whole storm, from start to finish, and brought it together in a very personal way,” said Debra Kendrick, curator of the Arts Alliance Center.
One piece, called “Underwater,” is a transparent umbrella made of vinyl.
“These squares are sewn into it so it looks like the comments became the shelter themselves,” Kendrick said. “The way the plastic hangs on the spine and ribs of the umbrella looks like sheets of water.”
A second piece, called “On The Beach,” features a number of squares sewn together, on the floor.
“There’s an eye in the middle, and they fan out, sort of in the form of a hurricane,” Kendrick said.
The third piece is called “Restoration.”
“She sewed some of the squares to an old armchair, creating a new cover for it, to give order and a restfulness to the situation” Kendrick said. “She’s got a basket of the ‘best and worst’ of Ike squares that haven’t been sewn into the cover of the chair yet, almost like an old lady would have quilting squares by her easy chair. It sort of runs the gamut, between a shelter from the storm, the storm itself and finally this very organized, orderly piece.”
“The forms of the three creations are a collaboration of people’s thoughts and responses, like a portrait of humanity as they respond to forces greater than ourselves,” Tapley said. “At the end of each day we are only in control of our responses, not the forces.”
Tapley’s works are among roughly 140 total works in the show, Kendrick said. Response to the show has tended to be colored by people’s own best and worst of Ike, so to speak.
“We’ve heard some people say, ‘That’s hard to look at,’ and others who say ‘That’s so much fun,’” Kendrick said. “I think it partly relates to their experience in the storm.”
The exhibit in Nassau Bay isn’t the only one Tapley has going now.
“I’ve got three shows up, and it really feels kind of nice,” she said. “I was wondering at one point in time if I was going to be able to get all three up. Three bodies of work, concurrent and each very distinct.”
One at Lee College in Baytown, where Tapley also teaches, is called “In the Company of Strangers.”
“It transpired out of some of my students saying to me, ‘You carry those sketches around and if they were ours we’d frame them and hang them.’ I think, as a viewer, I would like to see (these kind of works) from other artists, but you don’t often get to,” Tapley said. “It’s quite diverse.”
Finally, she’s got an exhibit opening Tuesday afternoon at Brazosport College.
“It’s called White Lace, Ghosts and Promises,” Tapley said. “It sort of transpired as a result of taking artifacts I found in yard sales and thrift stores from other people’s lives and then incorporating and merging them.”
MORE ART
Georganna Tapley’s exhibit, “White Lace, Ghosts and Promises,” will debut from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday at Brazosport College. Visit Tapley’s Web site georganna tapley.com.
CHECK IT OUT
“Flotsam & Jetsam: Artists Respond to Ike,” will be on display until Oct. 8. at the Arts Alliance Center. The center is at 2000 NASA Parkway in Nassau Bay. They are open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. For information, call 281-335-7777.
Mary Openshaw is a features writer for The Facts. Contact her at (979) 237-0155.
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