By A Thread: The Artists’ Mindscape Made Real
Chicago, 2022
Archival pigment print
This work is part of a limited edition set
This work includes a Certificate of Authenticity READ MORE ABOUT THIS WORK
The Linda Matney Gallery in Williamsburg’s current gallery exhibition on display is a vivid and vibrant collaboration. The By A Thread exhibition contains artwork created by the artists Ryan Lytle and Kristin Skees. Photographs of colorful knitted structures covering the bodies of the humans and fluffy bank safes hanging precariously from the ceiling greet the viewer as they enter the gallery. The space is like a wonderland of color and fibers with peeks into scenes from diverse environments. Wandering around the gallery is like taking a stroll through the mindscapes of the artists.
Ryan Lytle and Kristin Skees are both professors at Christopher Newport University with extensive backgrounds in the arts. Both of their artworks are somewhat unusual and certainly unique, but that is exactly what makes these artists so compelling. The following explores how each artist came to develop their artistic techniques and philosophies.
Kristin Skees is not only a photographer but a sculptural artist as well, creating what are called “cozies” which can be seen in all of her photographs. She was inspired to make these after she started knitting cozies for her sculpture tools during graduate school. She loved the idea of tea cozies and creating sweaters for inanimate objects. She eventually moved on to people, knitting the cozies featured in by photos. She stated that a cozy is like a,”handmade sweater gone awry.” She has expressed that fiber art and photography are her first loves and while she has experimented with other media, she continues to come back to the artistic media that speak to her the most, even calling them her native tongue.
Pink Phink, 2022
Wool, PLA Plastic, Faux Fur
46 × 24 × 9 in | 116.8 × 61 × 22.9 cm
This is a unique work
Ryan Lytle draws his inspiration from his childhood, stating that he “has always been drawn to animals” and as a child “had an extensive stuffed animal collection.” The work he creates today are massive needle felted creatures and sometimes objects as well. The artist works in armature making, needle felting, and even 3D printing. He often weaves the three mediums together to create his works. Throughout his career as a student and an artist, Ryan found animal archetypes and his love for stuffed animals resurfacing in his work. This realization gave birth to the sculptures he makes today.
The creation of these works by Kristin and Ryan are large undertakings for the artists. Their pieces take time and preparation to make as their processes are incredibly complicated. Kristin Skees’ photographs are set up to highlight the sitter and others are set up to highlight the landscape. This creates an interesting contrast and diversity in all of her pieces. The cozies are based on the personality of the person that she is photographing. The artist said,” Many are true "portraits" in that I strive to communicate the personality or something specific about the subject through the cozy and setting.” Some of her pieces require an understanding of the person sitting for her photographs so she can make the piece, while others focus more on the surroundings. The process of finding a sitter, making the cozies, setting up to photoshoot and even traveling to photoshoot locations can’t take as little time as a week to as long a few months or even a year.
Ryan Lytle’s pieces are equally as intensive. His process requires building the armature which is “the longest part of the process” and then needle felting the entire area. Needle felting itself can be a very tedious task given that the area of the armature is stabbed with the needle repeatedly hundreds of times until the desired density of material is reached. He expressed,” The needle felting part, although repetitive and tedious, more or less follows the design of the structure.” His smaller pieces can take a few weeks whereas his larger pieces take months to complete.
Although both of these artists create work that takes an extensive amount of time to create, they have also expressed how meditative their processes are. The beauty of the time and effort they put into their pieces is admirable. The symbolism behind their pieces should certainly be taken into account when viewing the art. Both artists lean into questioning the idea of comfort. Kristin Skees plays with the idea of “evoking feelings of security and claustrophobia.” She has stated,” The line between those contrasting feelings is often fuzzy and present in our most intimate relationships. I enjoy the tension it creates between the piece and viewer.” While the subject is wrapped in warmth by the cozy, their movements are also hindered without armholes and lack a way to see. This dynamic is questioned when the viewer imagines what it must be like to be the subject within the cozy, a point of view that is often pondered when gazing upon these works.
Ryan Lytle’s pieces contrast the comforting appearance of stuffed animals and the nostalgia they hold with their looming and imposing presence. His works are large and can oftentimes take up an entire room. The artist is drawn to certain forms which have ties to folklore and mythology, especially rabbits and foxes. Lytle stated,” Foxes are known for their meddling in the human, animal, and spiritual world. As tricksters they manipulate the normal order of the world and create strange and unusual situations.” He said that they, “Exist to question, to cause us to question and not accept things blindly.” These motifs challenge the way that we as humans view the world and express our own opinions. Some of his other works exist to challenge realism and the perception of art. Working with bright and vivid colors, the artist opens up the arts to the “creativity of the interpretation.” Some of these works are based on cartoons from his childhood like the large bright fluffy bank safes that dangle from ceilings making light of something incredibly heavy and even dangerous.
Both artists create work that is not only whimsical with its use of color and material, but that also exists to question. Kristin Skees and Ryan Lytle created works for their collaborative exhibition that inspire and challenge, bringing nostalgia and warmth as well as constriction and looming presence to center stage. The artists are not only colleagues, but long time friends and hope to create another collaboration at some point in the future.