resource_ID:
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2016jmiddleton_010
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artist_name:
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Middleton, John
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artist_variant_name:
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John Middleton
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artist_nationality:
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United States
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artist_vital_dates:
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1942
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UMassD_CVPA_degree:
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MFA - Artisanry
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graduation_year:
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2016
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area_of_study:
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Wood
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additional_acad_degrees:
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PhD Indiana University
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medium:
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found objects, paint
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work_title:
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Roller/Pier
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technique:
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assemblage from found objects
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work_date:
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2015
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dimensions:
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48" x 84" x 5"
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description:
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Time, tides, wind, storms, marine organisms, and the sun transform objects that are lost or discarded in the water in ways that can render them strange and beautiful. Accidents and hurricanes break up boats and their parts, once clean and functional, are scraped and scoured into new forms that obscure their original history. Paint weathers and fades, leaving behind only hints at what it used to be. Metals rust and develop patinas. Glass shatters; sharp corners are smoothed away; surfaces cloud. Worms drill and colonize wood and bone. Things change and change again. My work is to collect these objects along the shoreline and to bring them together in works that call attention to the dignity, beauty, and uniqueness of their transformations, and offer them the opportunity to tell their stories. In a larger sense, these stories serve as a metaphor for the transformations effected in human beings by the forces of time and weather. Like my found objects, we can be transformed in dignified, beautiful, and unique ways, and our faces tell our stories.
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