Back Gallery To Feature the Work of Colleen LaBrosse

To Colleen LaBrosse it's all about shapes – well, shapes and creepy stuff. Random found objects juxtaposed with no underlying secret message. The shock value alone draws the viewer to search for hidden meaning behind the bizarre combination of items within each assemblage piece.

LaBrosse, a self-taught artist, was raised surrounded by traditional art methods. Colleen, Coolie to most, thought art was confining to strict rules within painting and sculpture. Then she discovered the assemblage work of Missoula, Montana artist, Micheal deMeng and all those rules flew out the window and art made sense to her.

Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects. Most often, the process is traced back to the early 1950's when Jean Dubuffet created a series of collages of butterfly wings, which he titled assemblages d'empreintes, but actually, well known artists Pable Picasso and Marcel Duchamp began working with found objects many years prior to Dubuffet.

LaBrosse attended a few workshops with Michael deMeng and was hooked...this being exactly the type of art she wanted to create. Already a fan of rusty things, found objects and recycling, assemblage was a natural process to make her collection of stuff into art.

“I like making things...assembling, gluing, drilling, painting, texturing...building with my own two hands a beautifully shaped shrine to display a treasure...the juxtaposition of new with old, funny with scary, good with bad, creepy with sweet. Sometimes when people ask me why I make what I make...I just tap the side of my head with a finger and say, the voices. But seriously, I just have fun making creepy things...trying to out-creep myself with the next one...I always get a chuckle.”

LaBrosse creates her artwork on a part-time basis. When not at home in her living room/studio creating, or on-line looking at art, she works at St. Vincent Hospital making it squeaky clean. She is an avid bicycle commuter, giving her the opportunity to find junk on her rides through city streets...”finding cool stuff, cleaning up the city and getting a bike ride in.....how much better could it get?”

LaBrosse has exhibited throughout Northeast Wisconsin with representation at The Flying Pig. She lives happily alone in Green Bay, WI with her cat Eddie. Her work will be on exhibit in the Back Gallery at The Flying Pig Gallery and Greenspace through the month of September.