Bank RI Gallery to Feature Providence Artist Mitchel
GoLocalProv Lifestyle Team
Bank RI Gallery to Feature Providence Artist Mitchel
The gallery will run from November 1 through December 5, 2018.
About Mitchel
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTPetite, energetic and outgoing, Providence artist and illustrator Mitchel is the single artist in her family of engineers and scientists.
“I never saw myself as anything other than an artist. Art was always so much more tangible than anything else I learned or did. There is a certain magic in creating something from nothing, in creating a universe of your own making,” said Mitchel.
Arriving in Providence via New Jersey, she set out to earn a degree in illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design, graduating in 2015. Currently, at age 25 she works at the RISD Store while pursuing a full-time career of making, exhibiting and selling her own artwork.
Mitchel lives at AS220 as an artist-in-residence and is active in the AS220 community. She has a studio on Acorn Street in the former administrative offices of the Nicholson File Factory. Artists Michael Townsend (of Tape Art fame) and Leah Smith (also of Tape Art) rented and refurbished a large section of the building that they then set out to fashion into a serious-minded and diverse art community.
They interviewed Mitchel and accepted her into their group.
A particular inspiration was a book by Lynda Barry entitled Picture This. “Dense, collagy and beautiful” the book inspired her to draw something simple and not worry about perfection. Holding on to this idea, Mitchel came up with a character she drew over and over in different circumstances – Ms. Proboscis.
Ms. Proboscis (pronounced pro-bah-sis), so named because of her pronounced nose, became something of an avatar for Mitchel. A little like an elephant or a polar bear, or even an anteater, she is oddly endearing, clumsy and wise. This simple line drawing became the basis for many of Mitchel’s sketches. When Mitchel was at a loss for an idea, Ms. Proboscis would make an appearance. When Mitchel found herself tired of juggling both job and career, Ms. Proboscis helped her through the exhaustion. More than a doodle and less than a portrait, Ms. Proboscis exists in an existential universe of Mitchel’s making.
“I’ve drawn her hundreds of times,” says Mitchel, “but always in a sketchbook or on a scrap of paper or in the corner of a page. This is the first time I’ve done framed pieces of her in a gallery setting.”
The drawings all feature Ms. Proboscis in different kinds of abstract and patterned settings. Mitchel uses the term “fractals” to describe her use of patterning. Sometimes the character is the fractal, repeated several times within the frame. At other times the patterns are inside and/or outside a single rendering of the character.
The drawings are colorful, thoughtful and experienced all together have a psychedelic effect on the viewer. The use of glitter pens enhances this effect.
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