Peggy Washburn
Memory Fragments, 2025
Mixed media on paper
30 x 24"

Artist Statement
When I was a child, I thought an artist was someone who could draw representationally. Whereas I myself, could not. I did however, have an artist studio - my childhood closet. Drawing on memory and relevant happenings, I would paste items I collected into old books, to create a newer version of an older story. They pieced together narratives that address aspects of disorder, time and their inseparability. They honored my many irrational superstitions, weaving past with present to construct an imagined world inside of a perceived reality. I still paste things together. The act of doing so helps me to see and create an illusory order. Through layers of acrylic, graphite, ink, pigment and wax, I strive to convert a familiar chaos into something relatively tidy. The elements are fused together in a nonlinear progression, until the process takes on a life of its own, often divergent from my original plan.

This work is about the inner conflict that comes with embracing imperfection, while simultaneously resisting what I cannot accept. It's a means of navigating a relevant and seemingly shared uncertainty, while separating my own perceptions from a collective disquiet. It allows me to rewrite the language of time, replacing disorder with snippets of thought, memory and intentional ambiguity. Through it, I'm able to reach into a blurry yet calculated void, and make tangible what I'm otherwise unable to control.

Artist Bio
Peggy Washburn is an interdisciplinary artist, photographer and educator whose work has been acquired by permanent collections, including the Bibliothéque Nationale de France, The Harry Ransom Center, Museo Nazionale della Fotografia and The Ralph Lauren Collection. In addition to numerous gallery shows, her work has been exhibited at The Woodmere Art Museum, The Rose Lehrman Art Center, The Frye Art Museum, The Seattle Art Museum Gallery, The Whatcom Museum of History and Art, and Aperture NYC. Her work has been published in Frames Magazine, Lenscratch, Od Review, One Twelve, BETA Developments In Photography, Musée Magazine and Art New York. She works on both East and West coasts, and currently lives in Philadelphia.

peggywashburn.com

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