Almost a year after her stairway display, an Emerging Artist Award winner creates a new world with her unique recycled paint method
By SAVANNAH ANNO — arts@theaggie.org
On March 1, 2024, San Francisco-based artist Bussie Parker Kehoe displayed her work in Davis for the first time. Her small but captivating stairway exhibit at the Pence Gallery, “Lucky Seven,” won her the gallery’s annual Emerging Artist Award, which serves to support Californian creatives with limited solo exhibit history in furthering their work.
In just under a year, Kehoe has been upgraded from the stairway of the Pence to the first floor, filling a large gallery space with over 10 different pieces all ranging in size and color. Open from Jan. 10 to Feb. 28, “A Curious Garden” is just as it sounds: a bright mixture of colors and artistic experimentation resulting from Kehoe’s unique artistic method.
A mixed-media artist, noted by the Pence to “walk the line between painting and sculpture,” Kehoe dries and layers discarded house paint to then cut and mold the material into various organic shapes. Glued onto wooden panels, some are covered in geometric stacks and cubes of color while others are arranged in circular shapes to resemble flowing waves or fish scales.
“The short story is that I discovered my process by accident,” Kehoe said in a past interview with The California Aggie. “I had errant paint drops that landed on the plastic sheeting covering the floor. Once they dried, I could peel them off the plastic and play with them. That’s when I started to work entirely with poured paint skins.”
In an effort to make her process sustainable, and also save her own money on paint, Kehoe found that she could utilize already-bought house paint that had gone unused.
“I saw an unlimited supply that I could use and keep out of landfills,” Kehoe said. “I also have a soft spot for things that are unwanted. Strangely, I felt sorry for those dusty old cans.”
Unlike “Lucky Seven,” in which Kehoe limited herself to only use seven different colors, “A Curious Garden,” widely varies in color schemes and hues. “Happy Accidents,” the only differing piece as it was completed on paper, actually includes dried drops of every single paint color used throughout the entire exhibit.
With some pieces made entirely of different blues or greens, Kehoe layers shades to create abstract depictions of various feelings, places and things. “Superbloom,” for example, featured blocks and swirls of oranges, pinks and yellows to resemble an infinite field of poppies. “Low Tide” is a mix of earthy seaweed tones, deep blues and sparing splashes of red.
“Even when she’s focusing on one color, like in one piece based off of malachite [a green crystal], she didn’t just stick to greens,” Madeline Furtado, a fourth-year design and art history double major, said. “She also includes blues, reds, aquamarine and other colors that allow the green to pop out even more.”
Visiting the gallery during its opening reception on Jan. 10, Furtado and others reflected not only on what Kehoe might have been trying to translate through her pieces but also on their own interpretations of the various colors and shapes.
Josue Toribo, a second-year English and design double major, found new ways to look at Kehoe’s three-dimensional works.
“If you look at this one from the side [“Verdant”], it almost looks like a chart of data, like it’s a record of population density or some sort of map,” Toribo said. “It’s so catching, and you’re able to see the visual movement. The art really pops out at you.”
Open until Feb. 28 and free for everyone to view, the intricacies of Kehoe’s designs are too singular to go unseen. Returning to Davis for an artist talk at the Pence Gallery on Feb. 22, visitors can also hear about the methods and meanings behind the exhibit from the artist herself, in conversation with Pence Gallery Director Natalie Nelson.
Kehoe’s “A Curious Garden” is also currently showing alongside a handful of other talented artists. Be sure not to miss Stephen Giannetti’s “All In” poker chip sculptures and canvases, Jordan Hayes’ incredibly realistic figure paintings in her new exhibit, “The Little Things,” or Kathy Canfield Shepard’s stairway display of dreamy, quilled paper art, all open through the end of January.
Written by: Savannah Anno — arts@theaggie.org