Join the Bainbridge Public Library for the December 2021 First Friday Art Walk, featuring artist Mandi May
The Bainbridge Public Library is dedicated to spreading the joy of reading and the discovery of ideas with not just our local community, but with visitors from near and afar. In addition, the library is fortunate to house beautiful local works of art both inside and outside the building. Each month the library celebrates a local artist (or artists) with an exhibit, which opens monthly on the Island’s First Friday Art Walk tour, and includes a reception hosted by the featured artist.
The Bainbridge Public Library is proud to present an exhibit by artist Mandi May
Mandi will host a “meet and greet” from 5pm-7pm on Friday, December 3rd to open her new exhibit, “Destination Unknown” for First Friday Art Walk
After receiving her BFA in Photography from Long Island University (LIU) Southampton in 2004, Long Islander, Mandi May decided that a change of scenery was in order, and she relocated across the country to Arizona in 2005. While there, she enjoyed working for a small company in Scottsdale, photographing and printing giclées of local artists’ work. In 2007, she took a job in Seattle creating and managing in-house printing for an art publishing company. She met her husband in Seattle and in 2012 they moved to Bainbridge Island to raise their young family.
Mandi was originally taught analog photography while attending LIU, where she was loaned a 4×5 film view camera. She lugged the heavy camera and bulky tripod in its trunk around eastern Long Island and quickly fell in love with the camera’s tilts and swings, which allowed her to distort the subjects she photographed and create dreamlike images. Later, she combined tilt lenses with her dslr camera to continue working on her creative vision.
Mandi’s images are created “in-camera”, which is a method that doesn’t rely on post-process effects and distortion through digital manipulation of the images. Her photographs are created through the lens, sometimes using multiple exposure settings, which allow her to combine frames in the camera itself. In addition, she uses pieces of glass and plastic, which she places in front of the lens to create certain effects.
For her monotypes, Mandi uses a gelatin printing plate (gelli plate). For this process, she rolls acrylic paint and ink on in thin layers, then applies pressure to the paper before hand-pulling each print. She often uses found objects, such as fabric, paper, string, shells, etc. to create interesting textures and imprints on the “wet” plates. As she described it, “Printing with the gelatin plate gives me the freedom to work quickly without waiting for the ink to dry. It also gives me the freedom and control I couldn’t harness with the mechanics of a modern printing press.”
Tapping into the beautiful PNW landscapes, Mandi finds that nature is the predominant theme in most of her photography and printmaking. Using her creative lens tools, she produces unique photographs that often have an impressionistic and otherworldly quality.
Mandi’s exhibit is available for viewing and sale at the Bainbridge Public Library throughout the month of December in the meeting room during regular library hours and on the library website, www.bainbridgepubliclibrary.org.
To view more of Mandi’s work, visit her website: www.mandimay.com
As always, thank you for supporting your Bainbridge Public Library and local artists. If you have interest in exhibiting your work, feel free to contact Linda Meier, art coordinator, at lindameier2000@gmail.com
***Library content and images provided by Linda Meier, Bainbridge Public Library
