Skyler Lovelace | Boardroom Gallery
I was born in Wichita, Kansas, at St. Francis Hospital, three miles west of the house, a few decades after it was built. I spend my time making art and writing poetry. I’m a visual artist who combines paints, pixels, and words so they work and play together.
The House Party project began two years ago, when many of us were self-isolating and spending more time at home and interacting with the objects in our homes. My home, built in 1914, exemplifies solid American Four Square design: Think four big boxy rooms stacked on four big boxy rooms, with a nice big front porch. Some people call this style the "Prairie Box." It was a good place to weather the pandemic storm, in part because the art of local artists decorates my home.
In a Seattle poetics class I was taking during this time (over Zoom, of course!), we read articles that discussed how the brain responds to art; it seems that looking at art light ups the same areas of the brain that light up when we’re looking at people. So: Spending time with my small collection of art was like a house party, at least as far as my brain was concerned.
If the pandemic permitted, I might have had everyone over for a party. Instead, I began making paintings that responded to what their work said to me. I started painting portraits of my house inspired by the styles of a dozen local artists. That's what you see in this show.
The works in this show are not attempted forgeries or copies; they are my attempt, within the limits of my skills & materials, to truly engage with and respond to the work I’ve collected. In some cases, I attempted to recreate a visual technique; in others, my work represents the emotion the artist’s work prompted.
House Party invites you to take a closer look at where you live, and the art and artists unique to this place.
