all material copyright © Linda Ford 2022 unless otherwise noted
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
Installation with ‘Mating Mayflies’ Wallpaper
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
“The Pleasant Tail Nymph”, graphite on paper, framed 10” x 13”
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
“The Hatch”, 2015, watercolor on paper, diptych - each panel 36” x 140”.
Drawing made by casting with a fly rod and a variety of flys as brushes, dipped in watercolor.
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
“Fly Box”, 2016, 19” x 24” x 3”
Experimental flies tied with unconventional materials such as animal teeth, hog gut, human hair and plants
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
“Mating Mayflies Wallpaper” Detail. Design created from graphite drawings of Mayflies.
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
“Wunderkammer” Detail, 2016, Flys, Drawings, Personal collection of dead insects and animals
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
“Wunderkammer” Detail, 2016, Dead Birds in Bell Jar
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
“Line as Line as Form”, 2014, Single-Channel Video, 1:44 minutes
Video of spey casting that focuses on the casting line - as line and form.
In this body of work I reacquainted myself with traditional fly-tying and casting techniques that I’d watched my father and brothers engaged in when I was a child. I researched the history of the practice and the naturalist's documentation of it in illustrations and journals and began to tie hybrid flies and keep my own sketchbooks. Historically, the act of "fly dressing" has gone hand-in-hand with closely observing the natural world and interpreting it visually, via sketches. I became curious about the metaphors of "baiting", “luring”, "hooking" and the often glossy and sexualized imagery and jargon used in fishing journals like “Field & Stream”. My fly patterns, like much of my past sculptural work, morphed into monstrous hybrids with disproportionate sexual organs protruding from their underbellies; while the graphite drawings use naming conventions that address gender, sexuality and attraction issues. This series of work is inspired by Darwin’s theories of natural vs. sexual selection and excess, and poses questions about attraction, beauty and visual display in the world, as well as in art.
In the video and performance work, casting stands as a metaphor for drawing, as the casting line functions both as mark-making tool and linear element. I made a series of “drawings” on paper, as well as site-specific locations (like culverts) using flies tied with traditional feathers and animal hair and dipped in paint or ink. I am interested in the romantic tropes of both the fly fisherman and the artist, and where solitude, metaphysical connection to nature and inspiration meet. This work takes up the metaphor of the flowing river as fecundity (female) and considers the role of bodily knowledge (muscle memory, hand-eye coordination etc.), sensation and chaos in the creative process. The “Drawing Water” series visually manifests flowing water and questions its future.
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
Graphite Drawings of ‘Experimental Flies’
Solo Exhibition “Territorialize”, 2016, Sarah Doyle Gallery, Brown University
Bell Jar with Flies