Joy Bertinuson
Untitled
“The meaning that I ascribe my own work is an important element, but it is also unstable and occasionally transient. Sometimes I am only able to articulate my feelings and ideas about something I’ve made, long after it’s been created. And of course, once out in the world, the work is subject to interpretation by anyone who comes into contact with it.” — Joy Bertinuson
THE ARTISTS: Joy Bertinuson began to draw at an early age and continued through childhood. It wasn’t until several floundering attempts to pass her community college classes that she ook an oil painting class one summer at someone’s suggestion. That singular class prompted her career in art. Holding a BA in Art from CSU Sacramento and an MFA in Art from Claremont Graduate University, Bertinuson teaches studio and art appreciation courses at American River College and CSU Sacramento. The major themes in her work include the complexities, contradictions and absurdities of the human condition. Specifically, the work is informed by the way she looks at, experiences, and thinks about her own environment, and that of the people around her.
THE ART: Due to the size of the utility box being that of a small building, such as a storage shed, I wanted to create the illusion that the metal surface was instead composed of building materials such as wood, stone, and brick. I was inspired by looking at images of various wineries in the area, and of old train depots. The exploded view, seen on one side of the box, is in reference to the earthquakes of the past and the “melted” view, on another side, refers to the more recent devastating fires. I was also thinking of tipsy wine-train travelers questioning their sobriety upon viewing the distorted melting architecture. The interior of the box remained somewhat of a mystery, so I used images of the insides of electrical boxes, and train-terminal boxes, as points of reference all found online. The faux textures of woodgrain etc., provided a chance to camouflage imagery relating to the railroad and the wine country region, so that viewers might make those discoveries while biking or walking along the bike path.
THE STORY:
THE PLACE: Main St. South
