Walnut Gallery presents “Under the Bindings”, a collection of imagery and sculptural works by artists Pinky Bass and Doug Baulos. The exhibit opens on February 8 with an opening reception and gallery talk and will remain on display until March 29. Admission is free and open to the public. This exhibit is made possible by support from our community partners: Holiday Inn Express & Suites, The Mary G. Hardin Center for Cultural Arts, Downtown Gadsden Inc., and the Etowah County Board of Tourism.
Pinky Bass
Bass received her MFA in photography from Georgia State University in 1988 at age 52. Her grants include SAF/NEA, RAP and an Alabama State Arts Council Fellowship. Bass’ work is represented in the Polaroid Collection as well as in numerous museums including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the High in Atlanta and several Alabama Museums. She has had residencies in Headlands Center for the Arts, Macedonia, Italy and Mexico. Publications include The Pinhole Journal, The Polaroid Book, and The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes. She has had over 40 solo exhibitions.
Doug Baulos
Douglas Pierre Baulos was born in Springfield, Illinois. In 1990, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 1993, he received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of New Orleans. His drawings, poems, and books have been exhibited/published both nationally and internationally. His current books are explorations (visual) and meditations (poetry) centering on his ideas of spirituality, love, death, shelter, and hope. Books, because of their exterior/interior format, as well as their sequential ordering, have been of particular interest lately. The book as an object allows the viewer to be guided through a thought process as well as evoking time and journey/text and image in an intimate fashion.
Artist Statement by Pinky Bass
My work in photography, whether pinhole or standard, has always aimed at revealing edges of the mystery of life, aging, death and transformation. Often surreal, the images that I prefer seem to exist on the edge of the dream world, of one’s internal landscape.
My recent work began during my sister’s battle with cancer. I became obsessed with what was going on inside her body and began the series of internal organs sewn onto photographs of the human figure. In addition to my sister, my oldest son, both my parents and two close artist/collaborator friends died over the next few years. I have done hand work all my life and the comfort of doing that on my photographs has helped me through a long grieving period in addition to adding dimension to the scope and impact of my ideas.
I later began wondering about the musical sounds created by the shapes of people and visual ideas and this led to a series of Photographic Musical Instruments, activated by the participation of viewers. Going deeper I am now exploring images of cells, images of which are made visible by use of florescent staining and viewed microscopy.