Winter to Spring | Seasonal Transition

Walking Libraries | print series 2016 - 2018 | photo: Abigail Doan (NYC)

Seasonal news – from my Brooklyn studio to upcoming events in NYC and beyond. 

I am excited to share that I am currently working from a new space in Bushwick where I can finally delve back into work that has been in storage and will be re-visited as part of ongoing materials research and textiles experimentation. I will share more images of work-in-progress, but the excavation of these layers has been energizing as March concludes.

Walking Libraries (2016-2018) artifacts + materials photo: Abigail Doan (NYC)

During the month of April, I will be finalizing the edits for a print folio featuring select images from Walking Libraries (2016-2018). It is wonderful to review this work in great detail as I transition to creating hand-formed clay 'traces' of some of the artifacts and found forms.

May is design month in NYC, and I am thrilled to share that last year's, In The Steps of Folly Cove at Russell Janis Gallery, will take on new life in the showing of Folly Cove Follow Up, a textile print and design upholstery exhibition co-curated by Annie Coggan and Janis Stemmermann. There will be an opening and auctioning of the final pieces on Saturday, May 12, 2018. Previews to come.

Notes from Season 01 + Season 02 | an olfactory art project with Atelier de Geste

I am also finally closing in on the final details for a commissioned scent created by Beau Rhee of Atelier de Geste. June 2018 is our goal for releasing this olfactory art edition of atmospheric tools inspired by two seasons. The project has evolved slowly, mirroring both Walking Libraries (2016-2018), as well as conversations regarding sustainable bodies and movement. I look forward to sharing this new initiative embedded within my evolving studio practice and the subsequent feedback from my community.

Spring still life vignette in my NYC home studio

And lastly, I am working diligently to update my artist website as well as Lost in Fiber | agency's archive and news, as the second half of 2018 will be focused on outreach initiatives in NYC as well as pockets of rural Europe. 

Day to day updates on projects and process/materials investigations are always viewable on Instagram via Abigail Doan Studio and Lost in Fiber | agency. 

Sending fresh spring wishes and trails of inspiration to all.

Anatomy Series | New Works on Paper

Anatomy 01 | Abigail Doan [ 2017 ]

I am pleased to announce that two works on paper from my Anatomy Series [ 01 + 02 ] are currently available at Russell Janis Gallery in Brooklyn. These collage drawings are made from recycled scientific prints with graphite and soft pigment on Japanese paper.

This work is from the Potters and Printmakers exhibition at Russell Janis in December 2017.

Please contact the gallery for further information and to learn more about future projects.

2017 to 2018 | Shedding Light

Traces of an Imaginary Walk | Abigail Doan (2017)

Today, on the Winter Solstice, there is a transition both celestially as well as practically, regarding our outlook and vision for the days to come. In this spirit, I am sharing several highlights from the past year as I look ahead to an even more resolved understanding of the placement (role) of objects and materials in my creative practice.

This past year found me experimenting with new materials: clay, print, scent (essences), as well as revisiting fiber as more of a connective tool rather than a sculptural endpoint.

I was also fortunate to collaborate with creatives like Beau Rhee of Atelier de Geste, Brece Honeycutt of On a Colonial Farm, Elizabeth Hohimer of APYNB, Elizabeth Brunner of Piece x Piece, Janis Stemmerman of Russell Janis, and Katrina Rodabaugh (during her residency at Instar Lodge) as well as examining my studio process more closely with a Succurro fellowship, An Artist Residency in Motherhood, and a Spring 2017 community gathering for environmental activism and movement practice at MoMA PS1.

Pioneer | Scent Exploration + Activism

PIONEER worktable documentation | photo: Abigail Doan, 2017

I am excited to share news of an olfactory art | scent project that I have had in the works since 2016. PIONEER was conceived as a sensory-based tool that would re-invigorate my artistic practice by aiding excursions for Walking Libraries 2016/17 as well my own dis-ease in the current environmental and political climate. 

I commissioned studio Atelier de Geste, to design a two part scent kit that could be utilized in both urban and open rural spaces as well as interior zones to help prompt a feeling of centeredness as well as clarity regarding environmental (art) activist strategies. PIONEER will be released during the late winter of 2018, paired with images from Walking Libraries and the atmospheric observations that surfaced.
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'This scent commission, PIONEER, is designed for both personal use (for an artist) and to be nestled within an artist’s creative practice. Responding to Abigail Doan’s personal history and her involvement in environmental activism, the scent is created in two seasons (winter / summer) or iterations. Due to her extensive practice of walking as an art form, the key notes in both scents evoke ecological cues of particular spaces that inform her future strategies of interfacing with the environment. They are two very distinct scents in dialogue, attributes of the seasons, that also propel the audience into a type of motion forward, echoing the artist’s practice.' – Beau Rhee, artist/designer and director of Atelier de Geste

[ The above excerpt is from Atelier de Geste's project archives, with mood boards created by Beau Rhee during our 2016/17 dialogues.]

Materials research for PIONEER @abigaildoanstudio

More news to come, but you can also follow along via #ProjectPioneerScent on Instagram.

The Longing for 'Environmental Togetherness'

'Cure for Nostalgia 01' with a home remedy, black walnut, and field linen

It is officially autumn now. 

Autumn always makes me nostalgic, perhaps more so than spring or summer. It might be the waning atmospheric light or the poignant scents that are associated with a composting harvest on the now fallow fields of our own fecundity. Everything begins to feel more internalized and the land knows this, too.

Wetland vegetation near our former family farm in the Hudson Valley

With every passing season, I am making a practice of returning to the familiar plots and fence lines of my childhood farm in the Hudson Valley. We no longer own this land, but because I still long for its atmosphere and sustaining climate of layered memories, I continue to check in seasonally to survey any changes. 

The plantings and fence lines of childhood wanderings | Hudson Valley (2017)

My senses feel both deadened and heightened during these visits. Sometimes the links seem broken, and often one has to listen more intently to connect through the fog. Why is it that the entire world feels so different from last season? How quickly are the crops rotating? In what manner is the earth's rich soil continually revealing what we need to see but still cannot grasp?

Catskills | Summer Sanctuary

The flowing Esopus Creek with Queen Anne's Lace in the Catskills Mountains

August is typically the quiet month. The one when folks either decide to go off-grid or when wanderlust travelers opt to share the beauty and nuances of every exquisite detail of their findings on the road.

I have been fortunate to spend the first portion of my August in the Catskill Park of New York State, not far from the farmland where I grew up and became sensitive to the atmospheric details of local seasons and the terrain of rural landscapes.

The porch at Cedar Grove | Thomas Cole Site in Catskill, New York,

a viewing portal to the mountains and Hudson River

Both the Catskill Mountains and the Hudson River Valley have a shared tradition of regional landscape painting, seasonal travel, as well as serene moments for deep reflection in nature. Every time I visit, I learn more about how attuned painters of the Hudson River School were to the specifics of botanical species as well as geological formations. It is always so inspirational to decode their layered drawings and paintings. 

Early morning at Scribner's Lodge, like gentle fog rolling through the mountains

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Please enjoy more photos and discoveries from the Catskills, here.

Also of note, the arts/events programming at the Thomas Cole Site in Catskill, New York.

Follow my new Instagram as well for upcoming news and future travel.