Press release: 

It’s a commonly accepted and often romanticized notion that artists look at the world a little differently. When confronted with the natural beauty of a coastal vista or the play of late afternoon sunlight across a humble façade, the artist consciously or subconsciously filters that scene through their personal aesthetic, simultaneously considering how to best translate said scene into their chosen medium and format. Less well-known (and certainly not romanticized) is the fact that artists also look at piles of discarded junk with a similarly discerning eye. It was with this kind of seeing that PLAY, a barn-filling art installation by Becky Evans and Lori Goodman, got its start.

When local artist Becky Evans spied pallet-sized cardboard boxes marked free outside a local garden supply store back in 2022, her creative curiosity was piqued. The boxes were filled with mysteriously pristine shaved ribbons of blond wood. “I immediately called Lori and asked her if she wanted it for her paper,” Evans recalled. Goodman, an artist herself and Evans’ longtime friend, makes her own handmade paper and uses it to create ethereal sculptures and installations. Goodman told Evans she was interested in the material and within minutes two giant boxes were fork-lifted into Evans’ truck and on their way to Goodman’s Humboldt Hill studio.

“When we arrived with the boxes, Lori took one look and said, “It’s too much,take it back!'” Evans laughed.The material is commercially known as excelsior, also known as wood-wool. It’s used for everything from lining gift baskets to bio-degradable packing material. Unfortunately, the pale ribbons of wood shavings weren’t suited for Goodman’s paper making. And the sheer quantity Evans delivered was overwhelming. “We kept saying someday we’ll do something with it,” Evans said.

Time passed. Then, about a year ago, something happened. “I have no idea why I started dyeing it,” Goodman recalled. But she soon discovered that the wood-wool took the dye used for coloring her handmade paper very well and looked interesting in colorful clumps. When Goodman invited Evans over to do more dyeing of the long-abandoned material, the creative juices started flowing. “It was like, let’s see what we can do with all this vivid color,” Evans said.

Both artists had long wanted to work on something together and decided to move forward on a collaborative project using the material albeit with only a vague notion of where they were headed. All they knew for sure was that they wanted to do something without the deadlines and seriousness of their individual work. They wanted the project to be fun. The goal was to be at play with the material rather than to be working with it. “It was totally spontaneous,” Goodman said, “we didn’t analyze anything – just pure creativity.”

After a great deal of dyeing, the artists began a process of trial and error. Eventually, they ended up hanging colorful clumps of wood-wool from constellations of small finishing nails hammered across the barn’s four interior walls. They discovered that once the dyed bunches were stuck to the nails, they would cling Velcro-like to neighboring clumps. Evans and Goodman began arranging clusters spontaneously, making aesthetic choices and resolving formal issues as they experimented and played with the material.

The resulting installation, fittingly titled PLAY, feels something like walking into an abstract painting. The viewer is immersed in color, shape, texture, and movement. The playfulness with which Evans and Goodman approached the project sings in the finished work. Depending upon proximity, the Excelsior can read as soft and wool-like or as an accumulation of coarser, individual strands. The palette was determined primarily by what dye Goodman had on hand. The vibrant front and side walls, undulations of reds, oranges, yellows, greens, and blues, and the brightly colored hanging forms, become even richer and more affecting against the blacks, subdued greens, dark blues, and purples of the barns back wall. “We wanted the installation to be a kind antidote for all the darkness and negativity in the world these days,” Evans explained. Mission accomplished.

PLAY will be on display for the first weekend of Open Studios, June 1-2 and after by appointment. The artists can be reached through their websites: loribgoodman.com, beckyevansart.com