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ART ON THE EDGE
DAWN STETZEL DERIVES HER ARTWORK AND INSPIRATION FROM HER ENVIRONMENT
By DWIGHT CASWELL
“There can be a grace to
living on the edge, teetering on
the brink, standing on shifting
ground,” says artist Dawn Stetzel.
“This place of unease is a place
of change, and its discomfort can
spur innovation.”
Stetzel was one of two artists
selected by a jury of arts and en-
vironmental experts to participate
in the inaugural Coastal Oregon
Artist Residency, a program de-
veloped jointly by Astoria Visual
Artists and Recology Western Or-
egon, the local trash and recycling
company. Her task: to wander
the Astoria Transfer Station and
Recycling Area in search of mate-
rials with which to create sculp-
ture in a studio space provided
by Recology. The results, shown
last month at a temporary Un-
derground Gallery in downtown
Astoria, included a “fl oathouse,”
a survival suit with backpack
ladder, and the high point of the
show, her “Wind Assisted Chair.”
She is currently working on a life
raft made entirely of discarded
coolers.
Stetzel is an anomaly in her
family. Her mother was “very
creative and super supportive,”
she says, “but I had no example or
role model for what I was doing.”
She graduated from the Universi-
ty of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
with a Master of Fine Art, but how
did she get from there to a pile of
trash in Clatsop County? There
were a lot of stops along the way,
including shows and residencies
in North Carolina, Texas, Brazil,
Australia, China, the Sou’wester
Lodge in Seaview, Washington,
and points between.
“I was looking for my connec-
tion between art and science,”
Stetzel says. “I was connected
“
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT DAWN STETZEL AT
WWW.DAWNSTETZEL.COM
PHOTO BY DWIGHT CASWELL
PHOTO BY DWIGHT CASWELL
Artist Dawn Stetzel installs her survival suit in a temporary gallery space in downtown Astoria in early Oc-
tober. The survival suit included a backpack with a ladder.
to ethnobotony” — the study of
the relationship between humans
and plants.“I’ve always looked at
plants and the natural world for
my work, and I’ve found materials
for my work in the natural world.”
In an odd way the, let’s be
frank, the dump was a logical
extension of this.
“In a general way,” she says,
“I was looking for a connection
to my environment, and to live
lightly in a place. It makes sense
to use things that have been left
behind.”
As for her work in the AVA
show, “I had no grand vision for
the show. I was just trying to do
the best work I could do at the
time,” she says.
Stetzel’s work, derived from
her environment, changes as the
environment does. “What comes
out is what I care about at the
‘I WAS LOOKING FOR A CONNECTION TO
MY ENVIRONMENT, AND TO LIVE LIGHTLY
IN A PLACE. IT MAKES SENSE TO USE THINGS
THAT HAVE BEEN LEFT BEHIND.’
Dawn Stetzel sits in her “Wind Assisted Chair”
functional sculpture, which features an old
school desk and an umbrella.
time,” she says. Today she is
living in a place that expects a
tsunami and her work reflects,
“what it’s like to live here, where
there’s always a threat, a sense of
danger.”
Stetzel’s work is a kind of
conversation she is having with
herself, her environment, and
the people who see her work.
She says, “I’m most interested
in hearing visceral responses or
stories that come from seeing
my work. The input of viewers
about how it reads helps me
to grow as an artist and as a
human.”
“The relationships we have
with each other and our environ-
ment are not perfect. This is a
point of sadness,” the artist says,
“but I have a hopeful accep-
tance of this tenuousness.” Her
creations are both whimsical
comments on society and serious
observations about humanity
and both natural and manmade
worlds: She wishes for “a re-
connect with each other and the
environment that we desperately
need in order to survive.”
“I hope that there is univer-
sality in the work,” Dawn Stetzel
says. “I can sense it, and I hope
that viewers will show that uni-
versality in how they respond.”