Natalie Petrosky

Lives and works in Cleveland, OH

Artist statement

My paintings are made with cut fabric from old pillowcases, sheets,scarves, and tablecloths. I was drawn to these fabrics because they represent the intimacy and comfort of interior life, which contrasts greatly with the wild outside where I spend my days as a gardener. Each meandering collage, and its natural desire to overtake like ivy crawling up a chain-link fence, is constricted by a visual boundary. The images should slow their growth when confronted by the physical barrier — the glass, metal, and stone constraining the strangers’ garden — but instead mingle and settle together to form a complete picture. But it’s not all harmonious bliss. I hope for the viewer to peer, and to acknowledge the unsettled feeling of their own voyeurism, whether they’re looking inward or outward through the glass. Do you see a pile of clothes on the closet floor or a gargoyle lunging from a cathedral wall? Is it looking back at you? Frayed edges, unevenness, and imperfect symmetry are meant to give the pieces a crudeness that blurs reality. Like an ink blot test or a face emerging in a thicket of trees, there’s no clear shape that emerges.

Artwork