Karen Bell's "Flotsam and Jetsam"

Karen Bell’s photographs will be the subject of a show, “Flotsam & Jetsam” at the Delaware Arts Center’s Alliance Gallery in Narrowsburg, NY, August 15 through September 6.

“For several years I have been exploring natural curiosities—dead birds, feathers, insects, reeds, twisted vines, shards of ice—as discovered and photographed during my many wanderings, or gathered and brought back to my studio where they get incorporated into my life and sometimes into images,” explains Bell.

Bell lives in New York City, but spends a good deal of time exploring nature both in the Upper Delaware River region and at VCCA which is nestled in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. 

“Through my collections of feathers, leaves, insects, seed hulls, and other biological curiosities, I aspire to freeze the lens of time as objects reveal themselves in their (frequently) decaying splendor,” she says. “Often, these objects are suspended in water. Chance and design converge in the creation of these portraits of our natural world.”
  
Bell photographs what she encounters in the natural world and also creates still-lifes in the studio. “Being a constant collector of flotsam and jetsam, I now find myself able to utilize the varied objects I collect into my image making, whether photographing in situ, on a surface, or using a scanner as a recording device.” www.karenbellphoto2.blogspot.com

The exhibit is sponsored by the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, the Arts Council for Sullivan County, NY, and is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. There will be a reception on Friday, August 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. www.delawarevalleyartsalliance.org.


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