{"id":11522,"date":"2016-04-28T19:07:59","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T23:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=11522"},"modified":"2016-05-02T16:28:04","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T20:28:04","slug":"taking-flight-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/taking-flight-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 2016 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

Artist Christopher Patch describes his migratory path from, and return to, Portland.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Story & photos by Diane Hudson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"TakingMeeting Christopher Patch at his brightly lit studio in the State Theatre building in Portland is not your typical artist encounter. First, it\u2019s immediately apparent he\u2019s averse to me aiming my camera at him. \u201cHere,\u201d he says, pointing to a pile of work in progress. \u201cMore of myself is here than here.\u201d He waves his hand over his body.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, my first recognition of Patch was through his work, so he has a point. At Portland Museum of Art recently while photographing an event, I met an engaging cou<\/span>ple who asked if I\u2019d seen their son\u2019s birds on the fourth floor. I had not, but went up to have a look.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Am I glad I did. Migration<\/em>, the title of the installation, consists of 37 intricate, lively, imaginative bird sculptures magically in flight over the stairs from the third to the fourth floor of the museum.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe birds are from my \u2018life list,\u2019\u201d says Patch, who has documented his avian sightings since 2005. \u201cIt all started when I was living in New York, working in museums and doing installations. My friend working in the Brooklyn Museum was from Minnesota. I\u2019m from Maine. We\u2019d go birding on Staten Island and all around the five boroughs. There\u2019s a lot to see in New York, as it\u2019s right on a migratory pathway. There are tons and tons of birds in Central Park in a concentrated area. It\u2019s funny. Much of my work was inspired by birds in an urban area.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2008, Patch did a residency in Florida at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, where he studied with Mark Dion and others whose work has been enchanted by the natural world. \u201cDion and I would go to Cape Canaveral, where there are lots of birds to be seen right around the launch pad, including\u00a0 <\/span>storks, flamingos, cranes, blue bills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Migration<\/em> was created originally for an installation at Mayo Street Arts (MSA) in Portland. Then it took off.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was in a show there called \u201cKnock Knock,\u201d based on Norse mythology, and the director, Blainor McGough, asked me if I\u2019d do a solo exhibit subsequent to that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>I was first attracted to the \u201cmaritime motif of his work, his aesthetic and color,\u201d McGough said. \u201cWhen he first told me about his plans for Migration<\/em>, he caught me by surprise. I didn\u2019t know he did sculpture. I thought we\u2019d be hanging more prints, paintings. I loved the idea because I love puppets and papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 and I always wanted to do something with that space, the high ceilings.\u201d People had floated the idea of addressing the vertical dimension before, \u201cbut it\u2019s never happened. I knew he\u2019d put a lot of thought into the project, so I said, \u201cWell, let\u2019s do it.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At Mayo Street\u2013which Patch describes as \u201can old church with stained-glass windows, a funky space with walls that have their own limitations\u201d\u2013his plan was to \u201coccupy the central space that hadn\u2019t been utilized with the vaulted ceilings.\u201d The choir loft was under renovation, so there was a cut-out\u00a0 <\/span>where he \u201cenvisioned a piece that would circumnavigate and weave through the space and the cut-out.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At last, the perfect venue. He\u2019d dreamed of making as many sculptures as possible from his list, but with only six weeks to show time, McGough came up with an idea for a more profound experience. She invited Patch to engage in a Mayo Street Community Arts Residency, where he\u2019d work in an after-school program with children from East Bayside and other parts of Maine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d never collaborated before,\u201d Patch says, \u201cand couldn\u2019t figure out how that would work.\u201d But it did. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe really dug in and took time to work with the kids, teaching them his style and the way he was painting the papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9, and exploring with them ideas about birds and natural history,\u201d McGough says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom pitched in, too,\u201d Patch says. \u201cIt was nice, because everyone had his or her own bird story. The kids learned about the birds as we went along.\u201d More secretly, \u201c I was learning from them and the way they looked at the birds.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn hindsight,\u201d McGough says, \u201cwe should have put it off for a year and applied for grants, but we didn\u2019t. With herculean effort this great thing happened. It brought the space to life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Patch\u2019s birds, on exhibit at MSA from June through September 2015, were offered for sale, from $250 to $1,200 per sculpture. Among the interested collectors was the Portland Museum of Art. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mayo Street\u2019s Larry Hayden, a board member, was thrilled with PMA\u2019s purchase of 37 Migration<\/em> birds. \u201cMy first response when I saw the installation was that it should go into a public collection, like Alison Hildreth\u2019s sculptural piece at the Portland Public Library\u2013it just animates the space.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

McGough adds, \u201cWhile I loved the birds at MSA, I am pleased they migrated.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Migration<\/em> is now in the PMA\u2019s permanent collection. It will remain as part of the fourth-floor \u201cModern Menagerie\u201d exhibit, further animated with work by Dahlov Ipcar and Bernard Langlais, for five years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sculpted, papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9d, and collaged, the birds wear Patch\u2019s signature style in their windless motion swooping with serendipity. Their distinctive colors and markings were created with discarded pieces from his studio of woodblock prints, gravestone rubbings, and hand-painted papers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Patch\u2019s earliest roots started with drawings under the guidance of his grandfather, James Guy, a WPA artist and social surrealist. His grandmother, Clara Skinner, created woodblock prints and illustrations for the New Yorker<\/em> and later turned to Op Art, showing at MoMA in the acclaimed 1965 exhibit, The Responsive Eye. Going to Guy\u2019s shows in New York as a child was an electric inspiration for Patch, now 41. While still in middle school, he began his studies at Portland School of Art.<\/span><\/p>\n

He went on to complete his BFA in 1997 at MECA and his MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2000. In 2002, he won a Northern Arts Residency at Atlin Centre for the Arts in British Columbia, Canada. He was awarded a Skowhegan School Residency (as recipient of the William Zorach grant) in 2004, with further residencies at Hewnoaks Artist Colony in Lovell, Maine, in 2013 and 2014.<\/span><\/p>\n

These years reflect the somewhat migratory nature in Patch himself. Following the studies at the Art Institute of Chicago, he spent two years in the Second City finding inspiration from artists like Jim Nutt, who was \u201cpart of the collaborative called \u2018Hairy Who,\u2019 a group that works with images from popular culture like comics.\u201d Patch was also inspired during this time by Nutt\u2019s renowned collection of folk art: \u201cHis house was full of it, fascinating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another influence at the Art Institute was Arturo Herrera, an advisor in grad school. \u201cAt the time,\u201d Patch says, \u201cI was focusing more on painting and drawing, but Herrera\u2019s work in collage started seeping in. It continues to play in my work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It was also in Chicago that he started making landscape paintings, the beginnings of a yearning for more rural inspiration. \u201cI found living in an urban place without a car meant I couldn\u2019t get away from people. I dreamt of taking a simple walk in the woods. I missed the ocean, my family and friends. I wanted to return to the East Coast.\u201d In the end, \u201cthe Midwest just didn\u2019t cut it for me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Returning to Maine for two years, Patch landed his coveted Skowhegan School residency. There he met some New York-based artists who lured him to big shows and crowds for the next 10 years. And again the homing instinct loomed: \u201cThere was a lot of excitement and stimulation, but to be truly inspired I need a less urban environment. A natural setting informs my work. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn New York City, even if you have a car, you have to sit in it for at least an hour before you come near anything like a natural setting. Birding was a way of getting at that, but when you find you know every single lamp post in Central Park by heart, you know it\u2019s time to leave.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Making Maine once again his perch, working as an instructor and exhibitions coordinator at Maine College of Art, Patch is grateful for his studio in the State Theatre building (homing back to his studio of 14 years prior), although \u201cI have to work full time in order to pay for it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, \u201cI have a lot of things going on,\u201d including recent shows at Lewis Gallery in Portland Public Library and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art; at Evans Contemporary in Ontario, Canada; The Parlour Gallery in Brooklyn; the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the Chicago Cultural Center and Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; and more. <\/span><\/p>\n

This very second, Patch is working with fellow artists Hillary Irons, Stephen Benenson, and Michael Hickey on developing an artist-run gallery, \u201cAble Baker Contemporary,\u201d opening soon in the former A Fine Thing: Edward T. Pollack Fine Arts gallery space on Forest Avenue next to Portland Stage.<\/span><\/p>\n

And he\u2019s considering an expansion on Migration<\/em>: \u201cI have 150-plus birds on my list, and there are only 37 in the flock at PMA. I\u2019d do another installation, separate from that one.\u201d Patch is pleased with the museum\u2019s acquiring the first flock, as he wanted the piece to \u201cremain intact.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also enjoys the way it\u2019s exhibited. The best part? \u201cYou can\u2019t see it all at once. You see it gradually and have to physically move through it to see it in its entirety.\u201d The spatial play \u201creminds me of an installation at the Guggenheim in the 1990s by Ellsworth Kelly, another artist to whom I respond strongly\u2013his patterns, colors, collage studies, and color combinations. It was a great installation of paintings really activating the space<\/em> in a way\u2013less about the physicality of it all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Activating the space captures what the Migration<\/em> flock is doing to the stairwell at the museum.<\/span><\/p>\n

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