Fern Apfel, "Nine Patch"

Artist Statement

My pictures are about tracking our days. What we did when, who we saw, wrote to, thought about. Especially this year, during this enormous pause in our lives, we stopped to count and consider each day. Years back, wandering through a flea market, my eye caught a set of children’s playing blocks. Their painted colors were partially worn off, yet still vivid. The four pictures I am submitting were inspired by these blocks and a love of quilts. In “One Warm Day” each block is collaged with words. The collaged text can be read as a narrative, an account of events, or a provocation. In “A Friday in May” one square is collaged with an entry from a day journal. Remnants of the past: old stamps, pages of diaries, pieces from well-thumbed books are my subjects. They remind us about the symbiotic relationship between our past and our present.

Artist Bio

Fern Apfel has exhibited widely in the Hudson Valley & Capital Region of New York where she lives.

In 2020, Apfel’s work was included in A Fresh Take on Still Life curated by Jason Andrew at the Woodstock Art Association & Museum, First Street Gallery’s National Juried Exhibitionjuried by Andrew Arnot of Tibor de Nagy Gallery, the National Prize Show at the Cambridge Art Association, juried by Sharon Butler of Two Coats of Paint and Making a Way at the South Bend Museum of Art in South Bend, Indiana.

Apfel is a two-time recipient of the Individual Artists Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts and a four-time recipient of a Mohawk Hudson Regional Purchase Award.

Apfel won Best in Show at The Art Center for the Capital Region juried by Ian Berry, Director of the Tang Teaching Museum.

Nine Patch with diagonal red, Acrylic on museum board, 11 ¾” x 11 ¾” / Board size: 14 ½” x 15 ½” x ⅛”, about 2013, $200.00