Before the pandemic struck in March, our daughter, Daisy Braun, was living in Pittsburgh, working at the Children’s Museum in the Art Studio. She’d been invited by SPACE Gallery in Portland, Maine to be part of an event on First Friday in April. But Covid-19 had other plans.
Fast forward to June, when Daisy returned to Peaks Island after being furloughed for three months. Her proposal to install sculptures in SPACE’S window gallery on Congress Street was approved! She visited the gallery in late July to check out the space, where posters by Martha Rich were on display.
She met with SPACE’s stellar Exhibitions Coordinator, Carolyn Wachniki, to go over details and get a tour of the Artist in Residency studio. In mid-August, Daisy moved in with her materials: reed, string, and silk.
With wood scavenged from an island neighbor, she began pounding nails around which wet reed is shaped.
Once the reed dries again, she untapes the pieces and reties them into new forms.
How cool to have studio space to make her largest work so far! The first piece grew so long, she needed to take it out to the rooftop terrace for assemblage.
Daisy began this body of work, inspired by plankton, a year ago for her thesis in Interdisciplinary Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art.
In her artist statement, Daisy wrote:
For millennia, plankton have floated through the world’s oceans, carried by the current. They inhabited the sea before the continents held life, when the winds blew over bare rock. They endured as the world developed language, myth, agriculture, machinery, and mass culture. They continue to drift today – outside our awareness, despite the vital bond we share. Plankton produce over half of earth’s oxygen; every other breath we take is credited to plankton. They are essential to the food chain, and other elemental cycles. All life depends on plankton to survive.
As plankton affect us, we affect them. Human greenhouse gas emissions are changing ocean temperatures globally, and altering plankton’s life cycles. These changes ripple throughout the world’s ecosystems. By fabricating plankton at human-scale, this installation reflects our bodily link to earth’s past, present, and future.
Between painting houses on Peaks Island and going back and forth on Casco Bay Lines ferries among throngs of tourists, she relished working in the studio.
She began a second sculpture in late August.
The pandemic isolation was not that fun. Daisy wished for more human activity in the studio, but a curious gull bore witness for awhile.
Carolyn shot process photos of Daisy for the website’s announcement of her show, titled Drift.
On September 1, we rented a U-Haul truck in Portland to collect more of Daisy’s sculptures which have been stored in our barn on Peaks Island. Here’s Marty reading the shipping news while crossing the bay.
The car ferry lines this summer have been epic, but we made it to SPACE by mid-afternoon.
We unloaded the work and left Daisy to finish her last sculpture.
On September 2, Carolyn helped Daisy begin installing.
Marty helped Daisy finish the following day before Sean Mewshaw arrived to install the lighting, which really brings the work alive.
The changing colors make shadows morph. So beautiful, it makes me cry.
First Friday on September 4 was not much hoopla, since the gallery is closed because of Covid. But we gathered anyway to celebrate the completion of her work!
Daisy is thrilled to be in the company of Ryan Adam’s mural next door, You Can’t Unsee.
This past week she interviewed plankton research scientist, Maria Grigoratou, from the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, who filled Daisy with more insights about plankton to inspire new work.
Congratulations to Daisy for a fantastic exhibit and many thanks to SPACE Gallery for the opportunity! Drift will be on display for one more week, through October 2. Go see!
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Such an amazing journey, Daisy Braun. Your vision, hard work and humanity were pre-ordained (given the parents!) but how you expanded into your world and experienced it with such wonder. Thank you for your showing me something new in the world. Giving me new eyes. Sincerely, with love, K. Mahoney
thanks Kathy for reading and being part of Daisy’s world! We look forward to seeing you tomorrow,
xo Jamie
Congratulations Daisy on finding your voice. The work is so relevant and beautiful. Such a lovely and important distraction from the miseries we are all involved with right now.
Thanks, Jeanne. You know how important art and beauty are!
I hope everyone takes the opportunity to see this exhibit. If you do, you will experience the hidden world of plankton made stunningly visible–a wonder in itself. And there are other lessons here in these startling forms as they move by shadow and light–we as a species are connected to this drift and held together by this drift. The very oxygen we breathe is dependent on this drift. In our untethered world today, I think young artists such as Daisy Braun with fresh and bold imagery have important and life saving lessons to teach us about respecting and protecting our deep connections to the natural world.
Here, here! Thanks for being a tremendous support for Daisy, and being there at the opening!
xo Jamie
Congratulations, Daisy! I might have liked science if it had been linked to such stunning art! It’s thrilling that your talent is now in the public art.
Thanks for reading, Cheryl! It takes an island.
best, Jamie
I love following Daisy’s process. A great exhibit!
You did the heavy lifting, Dad!
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Thank you, dear Jamie, for once again taking us along as you explain Daisy’s fabulous 3 dimensional works of captivating sculptures, including her connection with nature.
You have every reason to be proud of your daughter while you at the same time deserve to receive accolades for being such wonderful and inspiring parents.!
(Yes, I’m afraid I’m known for my ability to write the world’s longest run-on sentences !)
More when I see you ❣️
Already looking forward to her next design, with best wishes from
Gunnel
Your work makes people stop and think, while incredibly beautiful it also asks the question what if? It is such a big question and you make people stop! And think!…thank you Daisy, I hope we meet someday
Comment A beautiful POST about a talented young woman! Love Daisy’s work and of course this wonderful BLOG of yours, Jamie Hogan. You open up the Art World for so many. Thank you!