THE PASSION FOR FOUND OBJECTS | FAY WOOD

FAY WOOD
THE PASSION FOR FOUND OBJECTS

“It’s like going into a room of work by Rose Sselavy, Marcel Duchamp’s alter-ego – the readymade made playfully, yet with intelligence and meaning. This smiling Wood has assured me that making art can be fun and viewing art can be joyful.”
– Review of Fay Wood’s solo show in Woodstock, N.Y by Art Critic Pat Horner.

Art using found objects had attracted me since 1965 when I was living in the San Francisco Bay area and saw the large sculptures made by local artists from found objects lying on the edges of San Francisco Bay. They were fantastic, noisy, beautiful works with a great sense of humor and form. I’ve never forgotten them.
I began making a few of my own pieces in the 1970s, and in 1992, when I had a permanent studio in Saugerties, I started combining objects with the cherry wood carvings I had been doing – and I’ve never stopped.

“Beginning as a painter in oils and having always loved drawing, in my travels, I met a sculptor (Jasmine Saunders) who invited me to join her life drawing group in her studio. I began to carve wood from her influence and have never looked back!”– Fay Wood

I use mostly wood objects, but I have made a series using metal, and have found pleasure in layering found rag paper over metal and wire armatures and adding exciting bits and pieces to the mix, and using paint and beeswax to finish. I am a traditionalist because I like to create works that have permanence and are unique. I follow a quote by Virginia Woolf ”Arrange whatever pieces come your way.”

“The collages have been created because I moved to a new house & studio in 2014 and had difficulty getting used to the space I wanted to use for drawing. I had a collection of found materials, so I began to make collages, and found the space I was working in much more comfortable, so I continued to see where it would lead.” – Fay Wood

I was born in Egremont, Massachusetts, located in the Berkshires, and presently live and have a studio in the Catskill Mountains Region of New York’s Hudson Valley. I have participated in many groups, and invitational shows, had several solo exhibitions in the United States, and showed my work in both Cologne, Germany & Florence, Italy, at the Biennale Internazionale Dell’Arte Contemporanea.
Since 1970, the materials used for my sculpture have been found objects, often combined with hand-carving. The Proskauer Prize was awarded to my sculpture “Chanticleer” at the National Sculpture Society’s Annual Awards Exhibition in NYC., 2004. In addition, many of my sculptures, paintings, and drawings are in private collections in this country and Germany.

See the article in Art Market Magazine Issue #78