COLLECTING MYSELF
The works in Wendy Small’s Collecting Myself are pulled from a series of photographs in which she documented the comfort and container of her own home. These domestic vignettes were composed in her everyday life and without pretense, except that each would contain at least one work of her own.
In the process of recording and editing these works, Small ruminated on a statement made by another artist at a lecture she attended; “I know this might not be enough for everybody, but it is enough for me.” She then titled the series Collecting Myself, a cheeky reference to the timeless struggle of an artist’s viability, and simultaneously a self-declared endorsement of her own work.
The works in this show are intimate portraits of an artist’s inner world. Her drawings, paintings, and photographs are tucked in corners, resting on tables, leaning atop a stack of books. They illustrate the vulnerability, doubt, and pride in the contemplative gaze every artist takes with his or her own work.
-Jess Frost, 2020
