The landscape of my immediate environment provides the raw material and inspiration in my mixed media works. I use a wide range of artistic methods combined with carefully selected discarded elements or imagery taken from nature and industry.  The structure and residual color of the discarded material is allowed to influence the formal and conceptual approach. This process of reusing or recycling in my work becomes a symbolic act of preservation.  I use drawing and painting as a visual glue to integrate unexpected and common materials such as cardboard, discarded wood or newspaper into a familiar landscape. 

RE•CY•CULLED is an exhibition of 19 works made within the last 15 years based upon 3 themes.  The tree, fish and smoke stack have evolved as symbols for larger ideas about concerns for the environment.  In these Mixed Media works, many  include discarded materials which are re-used and placed back into their environments, whereby recycling becomes an actual and conceptual act. 

This exhibition spotlights the similarities and differences between work from within this time frame.  The earliest work "Paper Birch" from 1994, illustrates the connection between the image and material.  In this Mixed Media painting, the idea of making trees out of newspaper began a new direction toward environmental issues.  In the most recent work "White Columns"

finished late 2009, refers visually to "Paper Birch", but emphasizes the typeface of the newspaper and the abstract quality of the birch trees within the landscape.  The collaged "eyes" on the painting are actual tree rubbings of real birch eyes adding another layer of "realness" to the painting.  Prior to the time frame of this exhibition the work was sculptural and often abstract with an emphasis on pattern and form.  There are many paintings in the exhibition that refer to this earlier consideration, but they also channel the new sensibility of re-using found objects and their sources.

I would like to thank NCCC, Kathy Sherin, and the generous lenders to the exhibition. 

            -Christopher Stangler 

Story Telling 

"East Meets West", 2004

I came across this image while traveling to Lake Ontario.  I had seen the power plant many times and often would observe the smoke blowing, telling the direction of the wind.  The prevailing wind is West, but that day it was decidedly East, so I took a picture.  In the studio, I noticed the road sign which pointed in both direction. I used that as a visual metaphor, nature deads one way and industry's pollution the other.

"Saving Shavings" 2005

I Typically make my own stretchers and was planning on creating a painting using multiple view points of a tree along with some found wood that I liked.  Since I was re-using/recycling material, I noticed the shavings on the floor left over from the stretcher making.  This element symbolizes the fact that even the process of making work about the environment creates a waste product that can be used or discarded.  

Other Art Work in the Exhibition 

"Blue Plate Special"

"Plastered"

"Pine Sky" Handmade paper with mixed media

stanglerstudio@hotmail.com