The Questionnaire: Milisa Galazzi

Misa, as she is called, leads off in the first post of a recurring feature of Art in the Studio. The Questionnaire is meant to be a lighter version of a bio, a little more revealing in some respects and personal without all the facts bogging it down. I supply the questions and the respondents supply the answers. Either one or both of us supply the images.



TheQuestionnaire: Milisa Galazzi

Misa in her favorite color in her alternative occupation

of Camp Director at Brewster Day Camp

What is your favorite color? 

PMS 266C

What is your favorite word? 

Stupendous!

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? 

Sleep.

What turns you off? 

Rude behavior

What profession other than artist would you most like to be? 

A Camp Director (and I am!) 

What is your favorite book or movie? 

Broadcast News – I guess that dates me…

Who is your favorite musician, musical group or style of music? 

Patsy Cline or anything classical.

What do you most value in your friends? 

Their love, support, and honest feedback.

Name three artists whose work has influenced your own or whose work you most relate to. 

Mary Cassatt, Kiki Smith, Antonia Contro

Mary Cassatt, "The Boating Party," 1893-94.

Kiki Smith, "Sojourn" at The Brooklyn Museum.
February 12 - September 12, 2010
Brooklyn Museumhttp://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibit...

Antonia Contro, Installation at Newberry Library, 2008.
Image courtesy of Carrie Secrist Gallery (see more of Antonia Contro's work here)

Name an artist whose work you admire but which may be unlike yours. 

Jim Dine or Chuck Close

Jim Dine: "Two Big Black Hearts", bronze, 1985, 12'x12'x33", installed in the sculpture park at the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Mass. 

Self portrait by Chuck Close

What is your idea of earthly happiness? 

Swimming in Pleasant Bay on a hot Sunday afternoon on Cape Cod in mid July! 

Work by Misa Galazzi 
(from my post about her show at Springfield College)

Misa giving a gallery talk at Springfield College, work in foreground is "The Bitter End"

"Layers of Time", encaustic and dress patterns

"Hatching", encaustic and oilstick on panel

Check out Misa's website: www.milisagalazzi.com

Thread/Text/Time - an exhibition by Milisa Galazzi

Milisa (called Misa) Galazzi, a member of New England Wax, is exhibiting her work at Springfield College in Springfield, MA.. I was pleased to attend the opening reception and to hear Misa give a gallery talk. The show includes encaustic but is much more about the use of thread and other fibers in the traditionally female pursuits of making clothing, stitching embroidery and sewing lace. The "thread" of the exhibition title also refers to invisible threads tying together human communication and relationships that connect women to their families, friends and to each other over the long course of time.

Misa giving a gallery talk. Foreground: "The Bitter End" (rope piece), left wall: "She Called Me Every Sunday", right wall: "Hand Sewn Doodle Lace."

"Hatching", encaustic and oilstick on panel

Misa's Statement about the work
“In my paintings, I explored the fine line between traditional craft -- mending, fixing, sewing -- and fine art, while simultaneously making a conceptual commentary about human relationships. In these pieces, bits of old lace, thread, or rope are pressed into a bed of warm encaustic wax and delicately pulled out leaving a powerful impression symbolic of the detritus of generations of women's domestic chores long ignored as valuable work. To emphasize the texture of the missing lace, oil stick is rubbed into the ‘valleys’ and more encaustic wax is gingerly brushed onto the ‘hills’ creating a build-up of wax-like snow falling on tree limbs in winter. Delicate lines are then drawn into the wax and filled with oil stick for emphasis. These lines act as a visual metaphor which harkens back to the silk threads used to create the original lace as well as conceptually speak to the power of human interconnections.”




The show provides evidence of Misa's strong connection to family in her use of sewing patterns inherited from her aunt, embroidery hoops with embroidered and waxed text messages that recap childhood conversations with her grandmother about handwork and women's duties, a long wall full of early 20th century postcards from her grandmother's collection that document written communication and connections between children and their relatives. The postcards and embroidery hoops reminded Misa of the ongoing texting communication between herself and her teen-aged son.

"Texting Through Time". Misa has sewn antique postcards together with old bone buttons and left threads dangling where the cards are joined.

"Texting Through Time" closeup

An embroidery hoop from "She Called Me Every Sunday" with the question her grandmother asked her each week when they spoke on the phone. The question is "translated" into text-speak. The text is embroidered on an antique handkerchief and then waxed.

Larger view of the embroidery hoop piece

An encaustic dipytych titled "Nonna and Nonno" (Grandmother and Grandfather).

"Visual Poems" A wall of framed button cards and buttons with a nostalgic look. Misa finds the buttons at yard sales or antique stores and many of them are sent to her by her collectors of this work.

Closeup of an individual work in "Visual Poems" - shirt buttons on a card showing the well-dressed man of the time.




In a smaller gallery, Misa installed an airy forest of dress patterns, hung from the ceiling on fishing line, that moved in the air currents as viewers walked through them. The idea was to take viewers through the layers of patterns used in creating the encaustic painting below.

"Layers of Time", encaustic and dress patterns.

The dress pattern installation, "Layers of Time."

"Protecting," bound dress patterns with roll of crochet thread at the entry to the larger gallery.

This was a unified and well-considered exhibition that poetically brought together many aspects of work traditionally performed by women, including that of holding families and society together. Misa's gallery talk explained her work in clear language that touched on her inspiration for the work and methods of carrying it out. The exhibition continues until April 2nd.

Thread/Text/Time

March 1 - April 2, 2010

Blizard Gallery, Blake Hall

Springfield College

Springfield, MA