Migration - Carol Gove

Gove’s July 27th Show

Our Song - Carol Gove

We are already preparing for our next exhibit here at Mill Fine Art! Showing work with Argentine-American artist Sebastian Spreng on July 27 will be Boston-based mixed media collagist Carol Gove. Inspired by household memorabilia familiar to all of us, Gove delves into a personal “sea of memories” when creating her nostalgic collages.

Most of the materials she uses––old handwritten letters, sheet music, sewing patterns, sketches, receipts, and other memorabilia from antique stores or flea markets––speak to a sense of “home” and the importance of knowing one’s roots. It is grounding for Gove to explore these relics and objects that hold such an abundance of past emotion and personal significance. Though these objects are from a different time period, they still speak of common ideas that unite us all. Freedom, expression, celebration, reflection, sadness, and loss are experiences unbound by time, though they can be stored in something as simple as a torn love letter.

Assistance - Carol Gove

In the studio, Gove begins a painting by searching through the pieces she has collected. Soon, a dialogue between the paint and the collage begins. She spontaneously adheres collage pieces to the panel she is working on, and whatever decision she makes quickly leads to another one.

Saturated Pigment-Hands

Growth - Carol Gove

“I am most happy,” she says, “when I am covered in paint, my hands saturated with pigment, and my eyes searching for the “right” piece of collage to complete a composition and expression.”

Gove seems inspired both by memories of home, and by the act of creation itself. The “search” compels her, and the physicality of painting energizes her. That artistic process of “exploration, debate, and despair” is what moves her to create art.

The body of work chosen for this exhibition is influenced by abstract expressionism, and attempts to strike a balance between fluid, painterly gesture and the linear elements in each composition. In trying to embrace her “own personal mark-making,” Gove has purposely held back from “cleaning up” the canvases, instead allowing the more liberal, free strokes to appear in the finished products. She has also continued to use a personal and aesthetic history for source material––including scraps of old handwritten letters, yellowing labels, sheet music from the 40s and 50s, and sewing patterns.

Catalyst - Carol Gove

Don’t be surprised if pieces of the same song or letter seem to reappear in many of her paintings. Gove recycles old material to create a relationship between each collage, and a sense that they are all part of the same family.

“My choice of source materials in this body of work has resulted in recognizable imagery appearing in certain instances throughout the work,” she says. “This is something new for me, and an exciting step forward.”

We hope you can join us for the July 27 opening of this wonderful exhibit showcasing the spacious, minimalist paintings of Sebastian Spreng and the mixed media collages of Carol Gove.