Bianca Nemelc - Winter Camp 2024
approx. 27.5"h x 19.75"w unframed
Silkscreen print, edition of 50, signed and numbered by the artist
Destination: Shelton, Washington, USA
Jaunt #104
"I went into the Winter Camp without any expectations, I really just wanted to take a break from my daily routine and get out of my comfort zone. I had spend a lot of time in the studio before taking off, so it was a welcome switch of pace. My biggest hope was to maybe leave the Winter Camp with a good story and some new friendships.
I was surprised by how well we all connected. In our time there I think we only stopped talking with each other to go to sleep and eat bites of food. The surrounding nature, and especially the lush forests were stunning! You could feel the earth breathing and the trees glowing. It looked almost surreal but it was very real. I left camp and showed numerous videos I took to my friends while saying "Looking how green it is!”. And still, as much as I was inspired by nature, the time I spent with the other inspiring women left a lasting impression!
The focal point in the work I created is two circular shapes which call back to the breasts you see in a lot of my work. I visualised the areolas, which are usually shades of brown, into five colors that stand out in my memory of Winter Camp. To me, the work is reminiscent of a topographic map or those diagrams in school of the layers under the earth's crust. The color brown is for the soil and my skin. Blue reflects the open sky, the lake and the frigid creeks in the Olympic National Park. The white represents the blankets of heavy fog and the snowy hikes we took. Green stands for the lush glowing trees and mossy rocks which we found in every direction we went. The final color is red, because I kept coming back to these little red plants that dotted the forest floor in the midst of all the green. There five small plants are symbolic of the five of us who came together for the week, coincidentally the number of traditional elements of nature is also five." –Bianca Nemelc