Loop de Loop

The new series ‘Loop de Loop’ is a sequel to my former series ‘roller coaster’. With its layers of materials my new art collection shows the complexity of my artistic life in the United States influenced by a never ending visa bureaucracy. Unbeknown to most Americans, the process of obtaining a work permit for the US can be rather challenging. While highlighting associated emotions in my former series ‘roller coaster’ in bright colors, contrasts and bold brushstrokes, my series ‘Loop de Loop’ appears more subtle yet shiny. The use of self made wood boards, stain, paint, silver leaf and shellac gave me the freedom to create a distressed yet polished look. This enabled me to express the contradiction of rationality and creativity of my life dealing with endless visa paperwork to its extreme while following my creative profession as an artist.

The visa forms with numeric codes present a seemingly never ending potential of combinations. This process is cold, confusing and stressful. Ironically, after all the work was done, and the last of six petitions was filed into a four inch and six pound stack of multicolored papers, it presented itself in some comforting beauty.

I have translated my emotions associated with those layers of recurring visa applications and stacks of papers into my paintings by repeatedly adding material, sanding some of it away, then fixing it with shellac just to scratch some of it off again only to add new material and sand it again, repeating the cycle.

My tumultuous emotions of the ‘roller coaster’ grew into a sense of accomplishment and almost acceptance, which is expressed in the more subtle tones of my ‘Loop de Loop’ and the object of choice – beautiful roses. At the same time, the color selection of red, yellow and green, represent the continuous cycle of stop, wait and go that is so typically determined by the rules of visa application.

Heike Seefeldt
September 2010