MAIN GALLERY: “Blue Whispers” by Erica Podwoiski, Summer Artist in Residence

The Firehouse Art Center invites you to Erica Podwoiski’s Residency culminating exhibition, “Blue Whispers”. Podwoiski was selected as the 2024 Summer Artist in Residence for the Firehouse Artist Occupied Series. This program invites emerging and established artists working in all media to explore their practice while engaging with the community. In “Blue Whispers”, Podwoiski focuses on capturing the ephemerous nature of moths through the visual vocabulary of cyanotype.

Invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842, cyanotypes are photographs with a distinctive blue tonality produced by treating paper with an iron-salt solution. The treated paper is then developed using only the sun. What is created is a one-to-one scale documentation of the printed object. Podwoiski takes the ability of the medium to mark a moment in time and connects it to a moth’s fleeting life cycle. Rather than creating a visual document, her images are abstracted and multilayered. Gone are the stark white silhouettes, and what remains is an allegorical narrative of life, death and decay.

“A group of moths is called a universe, an eclipse, or a whisper. After dusk, whispers of moths quietly dodge and dart predators as they seek out mates, lay their eggs, pollinate plants, and try to survive the night. These works are inspired by the poetic nature of the moth’s short and wild life,” shares Podwoiski.

Podwoiski combines the cyanotype method with traditional drawing as well as found and donated objects from Longmont. This oasis of biodiversity includes local plants and insects, pressed flowers, and human detritus. Blue Whispers also showcases drawings and ceramic moths created by members of the Longmont community.

“Moths teach us that time is cyclical, and existence is fleeting; the sun prints capture the ephemeral moment when the moths were here.”

During her two-month residency, Podwoiski worked in the Firehouse Art Center’s South Gallery. “A wise person told me that these projects are all about “broad strokes and little details.” As a detail-oriented person, this residency pushed me to focus on the broad strokes and relinquish some perfectionist tendencies. It also taught me that art making doesn’t happen in a vacuum. My work has been made so much richer as a result of the many conversations, studio visits, and interactions with visitors during my stay. I received such generous and valuable feedback from the community during this residency, along with many wonderful donations that are featured in the cyanotypes. This residency also inspired me to tap into the skills of other creatives, which resulted in several collaborative pieces that I can’t wait to share.”Firehouse Artists in Residences also have the opportunity to curate the South Gallery during their culminating exhibit. Podwoiski selected artist Samara Johnson to show her series titled “Somatic Alchemy”

“Like an alchemist, Johnson transforms elements ranging from horse hair to acrylic polymers into new ambiguous forms. I’m thrilled to spotlight Johnson’s raw materiality at the Firehouse Art Center,” states Podwoiski

In Somatic Alchemy, Johnson incorporates amorphous shapes representing fascia, capturing the visceral reality of both human and non-human bodies. “Incorporating organic materials from prey and herd animal , such as sheep’s wool and horsehair from equine therapy sessions, alongside inorganic elements that abstractly mimic bodily tissues, the network of pieces symbolizes the interplay between vulnerability and danger.” Johnson shares. “The work embodies a psychological topography, evoking both the ancient and contemporary understandings of trauma and survival. It navigates the beauty and horror found in exploring the unknown, from the depths of our own bodies to the mysteries surrounding our mortality.”

Artist Bios

Erica Podwoiski:
Erica Podwoiski is a visual artist whose work explores intimate encounters with the natural world. Born and raised in Metro Detroit, Erica received her BFA from the Columbus College of Art & Design in 2010 and her MFA from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2017. She has exhibited at the Gallery of Contemporary Art (GOCA) in Colorado Springs, inside the Denver-based pop-up art truck Hey Hue, at the Galerie im Körnerpark in Berlin, and with the artist-founded Buckham Gallery in Flint, MI. When not teaching adult classes in the 2D arts, Erica can be found pressing flowers, appreciating moths, and collecting dead bugs for inspiration.