Visiting Artist

Visiting Artist Lecture Series

Io Palmer

 Io Palmer is the first visiting artist for the MCA visiting artist lecture series this spring.  Io flew in from Washington state and I met him at the airport.  She was really a neat woman.  I enjoyed hearing her speak about her teaching position in Spokane and her engagement in meeting one of my favorite guys, artist Nick Cave, the sound suit guy from Chicago.  I met  him at a visiting artist lecture that he gave in Nashville.  I had also seen and shot pics of his work when I was in New York.    

Io (pronounced ee-oh) has had an interesting childhood.  She was born and grew up on a small island in the Peleponesse.  This island was strange because there were actually no motor vehicles except for a motorcycle that ran once a week collecting garbage.  Both of her parents were artist,  and somewhat new age, it sounded.   She talked about many different things in the “dialogues” that she engages in her work.  What seemed to inspire her most related to her identity as a woman and also being half black.  

Io also likes to talk about hair a lot in her work.  It seems to be a metaphor for being black.  There is the idea, and forgive me if you think I am being stereotypical, but, there is the idea that black people have hair that is different than white people.  It is true.  Io likes to refer to hair using “bobby pins” and she also likes to incorporate the use of wigs to convey the ideas.   She often will use household objects, especially janitorial mops, mop buckets, and cleaning items to get the idea of a lower class or lower class treatment.  She uses words like cotton, bobby pins, hair, and janitorial A LOT.  She does mostly installation and assemblage type work, but also does some drawings, which are these intently swirly patterns that represent, you guessed it “HAIR!”  She sews a lot of the stuff.  It’s very intensely crafted.  I would never have the patience for it.

Io came by my studio and talked with me about my work.  She enjoyed the painting that I showed her, but she also felt that I really needed to come back from the experimentations and add some context back into the work.  I really enjoyed Io.  She was so nice.  I hope to meet her again someday.