Transience: Imperfect, Impermanent, Incomplete, an exhibition of work by Marilyn Jolly, Melba Northum and Susan Sitzes, exemplifies each artist’s close affinity for found and collected materials that reflect a sense of time. The mixed media of two-dimensional and sculptural works directly reflects the artists’ alignment with the Japanese worldview and aesthetic of Wabi-sabi.
Wabi-sabi is a complicated sensibility that is often centered on the acceptance of transience and appreciation of beauty that is imperfect, impermanent or incomplete.
The materials employed in Transience: Imperfect, Impermanent, Incomplete range from discovered objects in nature to industrial castoffs and the general detritus of daily living. Whether using the materials as found or more intentionally manipulated, there is a poetic editing and re-arranging, with the goal of getting to the true essence of the object or thought.