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Darlene Nguyen-Ely is a woman-sculptor from Monroe, USA.
Darlene's Style :
( As described by Berin Golonu , Editor in Chief - Artweek, San
Jose, CA )
"Each of my sculptural works represent another step in my journey,"
says Darlene Nguyen-Ely. The artist's journey started at an early
age, and it has been an eventful one indeed.
In1975, when she was seven years old, Nguyen-Ely fled her birthplace
of Saigon, undertaking a long and arduous boat voyage to a refugee
camp in Hong Kong. She spent a year in this camp before immigrating
to the United States with her uncle and two siblings.
Even after many years, this memorable boat voyage still pervades
Nguyen-Ely''s consciousness and impacts her artwork. Forms that
connote movement and travel predominate the artist's imagery.
Many of the earlier pieces in her Journey series consist of smooth,
streamlined shapes that are reminiscent of boats or airplanes.
A smoothly sanded wooden vessel might bear a resemblance to the
hull of a ship, giving the impression that it might glide gracefully
on water. Long, arching forms covered with a thin sheet of fiberglass
might bring to mind a set of wings, looking as though they could
easily ascend into the air.
While Nguyen-Ely was mainly inspired by mechanical, aerodynamic
forms in these earlier pieces of the Journey series, her most
recent work shows an increasing interest in approximating organic-looking
shapes and textures.
The artist lives in Monroe, Washington, in a lush area that is
surrounded by nature. She admits that she is influenced by the
animal and plant life that she encounters on a daily basis. These
works, resembling cell-like structures, double helixes and other
simple organisms, look like they could be diagrams in a biochemistry
lesson. Yet through her painstaking
craftsmanship, Nguyen-Ely continues to fashion her sculptures
with smooth, sleek
surfaces that embody sense of dynamism and speed. These works
can be seen as
metaphors for movement and traversal, both in regards to the artist's
prolific career as well as the continuation of her life journey.
Artist Statement:
While working on earlier pieces that dealt with images of movement,
I became interested in the structure of the ships and airplanes
that symbolize travel.
After breaking down these machines to their basic components, I
noticed a similarity to the basic building block of animal and plant
life, the cell.The simple elegant forms of multi-cell plants and
animals seem a natural extension of earlier transportation forms.
This combination of machine and biologically inspired forms opens
a greater freedom to explore shapes since nature seems to always
be more imaginative in its choice of forms, connecting cells together
in playful spirals, rings and zig-zags.
The new organic forms retain the original streamlined feel through
the use of smooth sleek surfaces and geometrically precise details.
The journey can now measured in terms of scale and evolution as
well as distance.
Email: pely@earthlink.net
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Journey#88: Pupa
2001
30" h x 17" w x 13" d
wall mounted sculpture
wood/bamboo/acrylic
$2,000 (retail price)
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Journey#87: Papillon
2001
48" h x 18" w x 16" d
suspended from ceiling, kinetic (will sway in lite breeze)
wood/bamboo/acrylic/photo collage
$2,500 (retail price)
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Journey#86: Wasp
2001
17" h x 13" w x 28" d
suspended from ceiling, kinetic (will sway in lite breeze)
wood/bamboo/acrylic/copper leaf
$2,000 (retail price)
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Journey#85: Dragonfly
2001
20" h x 24" w x 12" d
suspended from ceiling, kinetic (will sway in lite breeze)
wood/bamboo/acrylic
$1,200 (retail price) |
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Journey#84: Wikiwiki
2001
12" h x 48" w x 4" d
wall mounted sculpture
wood/bamboo/acrylic
$1,800 (retail price)
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Journey#82: Untitled
2000
21" h x 24" w x 14" d
wood/collage/acrylic
wall mounted sculpture
$1,500 (retail price)
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