PEARLE: It all started w/ a card...♥

Pearle Northrop

Artist Statement

It wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I started taking what I do seriously and it took even longer to consider myself an artist. I love to paint whatever I can get my hands on from things as small as a Scrabble® piece to as big as a dresser and hopefully even bigger someday. Whatever it is I will paint it. I love transforming trash into treasure literally. Imagine that a chair that came from a dumpster (2006) made it into a museum (2009). It blows me away to think that something I did creates a sense of awe in a viewer’s eye.

I was talking to a friend a few years back about my love for furniture, my relationship with chairs in particular. There was a chair that I found discarded and ultimately forgotten. I came upon this chair accidentally. I wasn't looking for a relationship. Anyway, the chair was a very handsome chair with so many things to look at. His back was decorative; his arms were long and lean. His legs...I have never seen such beautiful legs. But he was beaten down. His self-esteem had long been worn out. His seat, which was repeatedly upholstered over years, was torn and faded. His stuffing was busting out revealing his age and loss of pride. Me, being a care taker and rescuer of sorts....picked up the chair and brought it home. He sat at the top of the stairs for a few weeks in a corner. My friends however saw this chair and commented on how ugly he was. They wondered why I had him in my home commenting on how dirty he was and how unattractive he was due to the years of neglect. I ignored them and kept him around. Finally one day I decided to put him on my coffee table and take the layers of cloth and wool stuffing off of his seat. Then I cleaned him, primed him and painted him black. Three months later I sat back and looked at him and this is what I saw.....A chair, a man restored...but not only restored but given a whole new purpose. He was beautiful again. He was unique and wonderful....The same chair that my friends were grossed out by....is now a chair that they ask permission to touch. Amazing.....One thing is for certain...NOTHING STAYS THE SAME! Change is inevitable and what is ugly or dirty or discarded as trash can be saved, can be rescued and can be made shinier than new!

Taking discarded forgotten pieces and giving them their self-esteem back is a passion for me. Living in a world where we discard things so easily I’d like to think I am making an itty bitty difference.

Pearle Northrop

Sunday, August 14, 2011

It all started w/ a card...♥

I love just filling entire spaces w/ my nonsense. I doodled this card with white gel pen over the course two days...it was just lines at first and then there were little splashes (sort of) and then a pink heart...one pink heart. What does it all mean? One pink heart and several scattered white hearts all tangled up in white lines and splashes...
It could mean very little or it could mean everything.
Recently....I have felt so all alone.
It could be so many things but I feel like I am dissolving and soon I will just fade away and be nothing. (made me think of an Emily Dickenson Poem)
Perhaps it is me...that Pink heart floating around in the colorless world of limbo...just waiting for something amazing to happen.
Just my thought for this evening.
Up or down or all around...I am human first and w/ that come a condition that is incurable...The HUMAN condition~ A need to be Loved and appreciated.
Be Groovy to each other...
One of my favorite speakers to listen to is Leo Buscaglia. He speaks of Love...

Please listen to at least the first video on Youtube of Leo speaking on the subject of Love♥