Constellations, butterflies, and bold checkered prints overlay the animalistic forms by Anne Lemanski. Beginning with a copper armature, the North Carolina-based artist stretches vintage paper or patterns of scanned objects across a minimal metal form and stitches the edges together into a geometric patchwork.
Ranging from abstract shapes to illustrations and photos, the printed motifs evoke each character’s temperament, presence, and overall essence. “Stella Terra,” for example, is sheathed in white paper, and images of animals and objects speckle the ephemeral material similar to the spotted coat of the live Appaloosa counterpart. “My interest as of late has been pattern and color and the way it juxtaposes with the form when I take a three-dimensional object (like matches, toothpicks, or straws), make a new two-dimensional pattern with that object, then compose the two-dimensional pattern onto the three-dimensional form,” Lemanski says.
Some of the artist’s animals are on view in a group exhibition at Penland Gallery through September 17, and others are included in a forthcoming book devoted to North Carolina’s art culture.
