Monday, November 1, 2010

'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


'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).

Sunday, August 1, 2010

'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://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!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

'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).

Thursday, June 3, 2010

'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

Sunday, May 9, 2010

‘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!

Thursday, April 8, 2010

'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)





Friday, March 5, 2010

'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

Saturday, February 6, 2010

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


Friday, January 29, 2010

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)