Cheryl Lee, “Collectors”
February 22md – March 23rd, 2025
Haven Gallery is honored to present Florida based artist, Cheryl Lee, for her second show, entitled “ Collectors”, at the gallery. “ Collectors” features eighteen handmade sculptures of octopi, dragons, bats, snakes and snails as they travel to find and share unique treasures. One finds antiques and natural findings strapped and carried by each collector as they share the beauty and purpose of various objects and sources of life. A nostalgic memoir to our own connections with both inanimate and animate objects and the stories they hold for each of us.
Artist Statement
Medium- clay, textiles, parchment, natural dyes, glass and metal findings.
From a young age, nature has coursed through my veins with an undying passion to create art. Countless hours spent in secret spots behind trees and Jungle leaves creating mud animals and twig furniture with leaf blankets inevitably lead me to clay.
This body of work I have named, ‘Collectors’ has long been a whimsical thought of mine. I loved collecting nature items as a child, and to be honest, I still do! Most of my findings are used in my artwork these days, but I still keep small treasures the earth places at my feet from time to time. Whether it is picking up a bluejay feather from the ground or finding a shell in a tidepool, it almost takes me back to my childhood… and I get to relive it through my children’s eyes as they fill their own collections. I question the viewer this…what collections of things did you have growing up? Did you collect marbles, buttons, or beads? Rocks, shells, and arrowheads? Figurines, bugs, and bottles? Do you still have those collections today? Maybe there are special little things that make you happy that are stowed away in a box, or placed jar to see as you walk by.
This collection of work makes me smile as I think of all the things that are being collected in the small corners of the world.
