'vortex plastica' Spaceworks Tacoma

'vortex plastica'       Barbara De Pirro

Pulled from a vast resource of materials this sculptural installation was created using ‘hundreds’ of reclaimed plastic bags, bottles and caps,

tirelessly crocheted, woven, wired and tied

to form a series of metaphorical vortexes.

'vortex plastica'       Barbara De Pirro

'...With its expert use of garden-fresh color (the expanse of recycled bottlecaps is mindful of a field of blooming flowers), the art piece has the power to attract, delight, surprise and repel (when it is discovered what the material is), in short order. No wonder – like a figment from a nightmare, vortex plastica was inspired by the North Pacific Gyre, which carries an enormous and deadly “garbage patch” of plastics and refuse that is perpetually locked in its ocean currents....'

Lisa Kinoshita, Spaceworks Tacoma

Installation runs through February 28, 2011

Spaceworks Tacoma

912 Broadway

(directly across from the Pantages Theatre)

more about this project here: http://www.depirro.com/installation.html

and here: http://www.depirro.com/press.html

'vortex plastica'       Barbara De Pirro

Spaceworks Tacoma is a joint initiative of the City of Tacoma, Shunpike

and Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce

Funding for this project was made possible in part by Spaceworks Tacoma

and Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects (GAP).

'sprout plastica' - CoCA Seattle

'sprout plastica'      Barbara De Pirro

(plastic fiber, petals, twigs & steel)

‘sprout’

Unassumingly,

from beneath the rubble,

what appears to be….a barren landscape,

a seed trembles on the wind,

landing lightly on the moist surface.

Encouraged and nourished by rain,

its hard shell releases, attaching roots,

tenderly a shoot forms,

slowly reaching upwards

towards the radiant sky.

At first a single sprout

standing alone

and then another,

multiplying into a series of spires,

new life begins again.

'sprout plastica'       Barbara De Pirro

(plastic fiber, petals, twigs & steel)

'sprout' details      Barbara De Pirro

(plastic fiber, petals, twigs & steel)

'Overgrowth & Understory'

Sculpture Exhibit

Cougar Mountain Wilderness Park

Issaquah, WA

July 10 - October 2

Curated by David Frances, CoCA Seattle

For more information & images:

http://www.depirro.com/

http://depirro.blogspot.com/2010/07/overgrowth-and-understory.html

Funding for this project was made possible in part by Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects (GAP).

Special thanks to Antonia Xavie De Pirro for her assistance!

'roots & vines: plastica' - CoCA Seattle

.....taking inspiration from natures invasive ivy vines strangling and rooting into this grand old tree, I've recreated this in my recent sculpture 'roots & vines: plastica'.

'roots & vines: plastica'     Barbara De Pirro

(plastic fiber, cable & steel)

A mysterious unexpected form,

distant imagery,

familiar in an intimate way.

A web of fiber,

a tangle of forest vine,

exposed and twisted roots,

fibrous tendrils clinging to the surface,

enveloping the decaying wood,

humbly feeding off the unforgotten.

Natures cycle of decay and rebirth,

regeneration, renewal….life.

'roots & vines: plastica'       Barbara De Pirro
(plastic fiber, cable & steel)

'heaven and earth II'
Carkeek Park
Seattle, WA

June-September 2010

Curated by David Frances, CoCA Seattle


For more information & images:

http://www.depirro.com/installation.html
http://www.depirro.com/press.html

Funding for this project was made possible in part by CoCA Seattle and Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects (GAP).

'fungo plastica' - Port Angeles Fine Art Center

'fungo plastica'       Barbara De Pirro

(plastic fiber & steel)

'...Petroleum-based nature blossoms in a grand old tree nearby in the form of Barbara De Pirro’s (Shelton) Fungo Plastica. Made from recycled plastic grocery bags, stretched into beige yarns then crocheted into spheres of many sizes, ranging from a marble to a softball, they are arranged in cloned progressions and clusters like a parasitic invading life form, nestled into cavities and fissures in the gnarled and ruptured bark....' *

Art Outside IX
Webster’s Woods Art Park

at

Port Angeles Fine Arts Center

1203 E. Lauridsen Blvd.

Port Angeles, WA

(360) 457-3532

Curated by Jake Senuik *

For more information & images:
http://www.depirro.com/installation.html

 Funding for this project was made possible in part by Port Angeles Fine Art Center

‘in the garden’

‘iris, rhododendron, lilac & dandelion’            Barbara De Pirro

sifting through my small collection of books,

searching for the subject of flowers....here is what I found.

'A Flower Fairy Alphabet by Cicely Mary Barker'

a gift from my mother in 1968, a little girls dreams....

'Karl Blossfeldt by Rolf Sachsse'

he photographed plants by the thousands, awe-inspiring...

'Fairie-ality, the fashion collection from the House of Ellwand'

flower fairy fashions, magical.....

and of course,

'Georgia O'Keefe'

....sensually brilliant!

'the ocean'

‘It’s not the wave with its salty weight

that grinds against the coasts and manufactures

the peaceful bands of sand that ring the world:

it is the central volume of your strength,

the ever-extending power of your waters,

the still solitude brimming with lives.

Time, perhaps, or overflowing cup

of all known motion, a pure oneness

that death has never sealed, green viscera

of blazing absolute totality.

Of the sunken arm that throws up a drop of water

nothing remains but a kiss of salt. Of the bodies

of mankind along your shores a misty scent

of wet flowers is all that lasts. Your energy

seems to slip away without ever being exhausted,

it seems to circle back into the calm.’

by Pablo Neruda (passage from The Ocean)

'bloom' - Museum of Glass

'bloom'    Barbara De Pirro

a space to float, to daydream

an umbrella of whimsy

radiating light & a flush of color

pollinating creativity and ingenuity

awakening a childlike sense

of wonder, awareness and awe

Museum of Glass

Art Studio

Tacoma, WA

This sculptural installation and its companion window pieces are created using recycled & re-imagined plastics.

'bloom'      Barbara De Pirro

Individual petals created using recycled plastic bags & milk jugs cut into form then wired to armature. Spirals & tendrils created from recycled plastic lids, place mats & file folders.

'bloom'       Barbara De Pirro

Color sheets created by splicing together recycled plastic product packaging & labels. The individual dotz were then cut from these and adhered to individual petals.

For more information & images:
http://www.depirro.com/installation.html

ode to hope

'cloudscape'   Barbara De Pirro

Oceanic dawn

at the center

of my life,

waves like grapes,

the skies solitude,

you fill me

and flood

the complete sea,

the undiminished sky,

tempo

and space,

seafoam’s white

battalions,

the orange earth,

the sun’s

fiery waist

in agony,

so many

gifts and talents,

birds soaring into their dreams,

and the sea, the sea

suspended

aroma,

chorus of rich, resonant salt,

and meanwhile,

we ‘humans’,

touch the water,

struggling,

and hoping,

we touch the sea,

hoping.

and the waves tell the firm coast:

‘everything will be fulfilled.’

Pablo Neruda

my winter garden

Barbara De Pirro

I sat in the garden, spattered

by the great drops of winter,

and it seemed to me impossible

that beneath all that sadness,

that crumbled solitude,
the roots were still at work

with no one to encourage them.

Pablo Neruda (absence and presence)