A Cheshire artist with a studio in New Haven has been selected as a winner of the 2020 Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Awards.
Kathryn Frund will receive a $1,000 award to create works conveying messages about human connections to the sea and the threats it faces. A second artist, Felicia Cooper of Stafford Springs, who is studying for a Master Of Fine Arts degree in Puppetry Arts at the University of Connecticut, was this year’s other award winner.
The awards are funded by Connecticut Sea Grant, which located at UConn’s Avery Point campus in Groton. The Connecticut Sea Grant program is part of a national network of 34 university-based and consortium programs focused on making the United States a world leader in ocean research and development of sustainable marine resources.
The goal of the Connecticut Sea Grant Arts Support Awards program, now in its 11th year, is to expand the reach and awareness of the school’s work to non-traditonal audiences, according to Judy Benson, a spokeswoman for the school.
The artistic work Frund will create is a large contour map installation of Long Island Sound, using striped fabric culled from thrift stores. The fabric will be laid out with curves and folds atop panels to convey the movement and dimensions of the marine waters in the estuary.
Frund said she has an affinity for doing artwork related to the ocean.
“I think a lot of it has to do with growing up in Connecticut and going to the ocean,” said Frund, who grew up in West Hartford before moving to Ohio to get her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Art. “Those initial expereinces we have when we are young are crucial to our development.”
Frund said the fabric used to depict the shape of the Sound will come from discarded clothing. The goal of doing that, she said, is to raise awareness about excess consumption as well as the effects of climate change.
Frund, who started her art career as a painter, said she is passionate about the ocean environment and concerned about the accumulation of plastic pollution from synthetic fibers and other sources. Frund did an earlier project titled “Contours and Rising Tides,” in which she depicted the five sections of the world ocean in fabric as limited ecosystems at risk.
“The ocean is a very symbolic, spiritual space,” she said.
The Long Island Sound project, Frund said, is a continuation of that idea, focusing on a water body located just a couple of blocks from her New Haven studio.
“I really want the piece to focus on the finite reality we have in the Sound,” she said. “It can look like a vast expanse from shore, but it’s not an endless thing we can just continue dumping in.”
When she worked as a painter, Frund became concerned about the use of synthetic materials and waste she was generating. Now her art is created using repurposed post-consumer waste, especially plastic and other synthetic materials.
In addition to the room-sized installation of the Long Island Sound map, Frund also will create smaller, watercolor studies using vintage nautical charts of the Sound. These will express “fragility, beauty and resilience” through sustainable practices, she said.
“Plastic in our waterways and oceans will continue to increase as these petrochemical complexes proliferate,” Frund said. “Consumer awareness and sustainable environmental practices are links to enabling and empowering citizens to restore their world.”
Frund plans to show the works she will be developing at the Chase Young Gallery in Boston as well as at New Haven Open Studios. She is also hoping to exhibit at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery at UConn Avery Point.
Cooper, for her part, will create a one-hour children’s puppet musical, “Ish,” based loosely on Herman Melville’s classic novel “Moby Dick.”
Originally planned for live performances, Cooper has agreed to adapt her project into a solo performance that can be livestreamed on YouTube, Facebook and possibly shown on large, open-area movie screens. Cooper said she also is considering offering a series of outdoor shows with limited seating.
luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com
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July 30, 2020 at 05:00PM
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Award-winning CT artist sees ocean as 'symbolic, spiritual space' - CT Insider
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