CONVERGENCE for MPLS Mutual Aid. ———-
If you know me well enough you may know how much my time in Minneapolis meant to me as an artist and a person. Without the community of artists, teachers, colleagues, and friends I would not be where I am today.
From 2006-2008 during my MFA at MCAD I made a body of work called Convergence that was about bringing together parts of a fractured self—child, adolescent, and adult woman.
I am releasing three unpublished photographs as part of an open edition from this series to raise as much money as possible to donate to @communityaidnetworkmn a Minneapolis Mutal Aid Organization.
Each print is 8.5x11, hand printed, signed and shipped to you for 50 dollars. If you are interested in a larger print for a larger donation feel free to contact me.
Visit my website in my bio and click on Prints if you are interested in my very weird art to help the people and community I love very much. —
Noelle
Thinking of my community and small things to be thankful for this year.
This beautiful book and project from Meg Griffiths and Frances Jakubek: A Yellow Rose Project: Responses, Reflections, and Reactions to the Nineteenth Amendment, Texas A&M University Press, and New South Vol. 2: Double Vision from Atlanta Center for Photography.
Image Captions:
1) Altar for Marie Louise Botteanu Baldwin, from Altars for Suffragettes.
2) Mother, Mirror, from Mother, Mirror, Muse, 2017.
3) Sky Flower (74 years), from Mother, Mirror, Muse, 2024.
Very thankful to see Mother, Mirror, Muse selected for @photolucida ‘s Critical Mass. Thank you to all of the phenomenal jurors and congratulations to my amazing colleagues.
Mother, Mirror, Muse reflects on fifteen with my mother as an active and engaged part of my artistic practice. See more at Noellemccleaf.com
Mother, Mirror, Muse marks a fifteen-year collaboration with my mother as an active and engaged part of my artistic practice.
An avid storyteller of family mythologies, my mother followed me around with a camera earlier than I can remember. She was an outdoors-woman and a fisher-woman with a reverence for the natural world. My upbringing was mostly matriarchal, as my father left when I was too young to remember. I was the only child of a single mother; a latchkey kid raised with a village of neighbors and babysitters.
In my late twenties, we created our first long-term collaborative body of work together. We made work inspired by our grandmothers and great aunts—rebellious, spinster women who came of age in the early 20th century. Into my thirties and forties, we continued to collaborate inside and outside of long-term projects.
In her retirement, she spent her time volunteering for a wildlife center where she rehabilitated injured and orphaned rabbits and squirrels. She had a lot of success with squirrels, but the rabbits were harder to care for. Only 10% of orphaned rabbits can survive without their mothers.
Into her 60s and 70s, I photographed her and the animals she tended to, living and dead, as a reminder of the sacredness of life.
In the Summer of 2024, we made our last picture together. She felt seen in front of my lens, and was made still, eternal, and safe, in my frame. The more time passes, I see myself reflected in her, in our shared stories, photographs, memories, and histories.
1. Earth as Eden, 2017.
2. Rabbit Memorial, 2017.
3. Mom, Boo, and I, on the Lanai, 2009.
See more from this project at Noellemccleaf.com (link in bio).
New creature compositions from Bloom, new work reflecting on algae blooms in Florida. These photograms resonate with such sadness for me. Recently, after hurricane Debby 17 million gallons of sewage and wastewater was spilled into the bay. Who will mourn for the smallest ones?
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#noellemccleaf #photogram #photographicprocesses #darkroom #algaebloom #florida
Bloom is a series of photograms made from plants, fish, and other sea-life collected from an algae bloom or “red tide” off of the gulf coast of Florida. Creating these feels like a ritual and a memorial, and I feel both awe and melancholy when I see their traces appear in the developer.
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#noellemccleaf #darkroom #photogram #photogramphotography #darkroomphotography #southernart #southernartist #floridaart #floridaartist
Bloom is a series of silver gelatin photograms made in the darkroom. Fish bones, horseshoe crabs, corals, and other delicate sea creatures were placed on to light sensitive paper and exposed to light. Collected on the Gulf Coast of Florida during a devastating algae bloom in 2018, I pay homage to these fragile creatures, illuminating them with light in a dark bath of water and silver. You can see and purchase these at @502.gallery ‘s upcoming exhibition Shopliftable opening in August!
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#502gallery #noellemccleaf #photogram #darkroomphotography #analoguephotography #cameralessphotography #photogramphotography #wetdarkroom #floridaartist #southernart #southernartist
On Thursday, September 7, 2023 from 6:00 PM 8:00 PM at The Hand Art Center at 139 E. Michigan Ave. Deland, FL,
A Yellow Rose Project (co-founded by Meg Griffiths and Frances Jakubek), will with open with Cuerpo-territorio: Reverberations of Belonging, curated by Dr. Natália Marques da Silva.
Artists Include: Noelle McCleaf, Sharene Ashley, Bryan Carson, Eve Payor, Nathan Wolek, Terri Witek, Rajni Shankar-Brown, Justin Quaid Grubb, Leah Sandler, Martha Underriner, Matt Roberts, Dylaney R. Sabino and Dominic Addonizio.
I am excited to be showing work from one of my most recent projects, Erma and Milly (2019-present).
I will be doing an artist lecture on Saturday September 23rd at 2:00 PM, if you are a near Deland, Florida, I'd love to see you!
Images:
1) Stella, Erma and Milly (Paper Doll Collection), from Erma and Milly
2) Altar for Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, from A Yellow Rose Project
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#noellemccleaf #thehandartcenter #ayellowroseproject #cuerpoterritorio
