Hand-Painted Home Furnishings
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email: dguilfoyle@earthlink.net
Artist Statement:On Saturday morning you’ll find me scouring the Garage/ Estate Sales section of the Classifieds. On trash pick-up night I’m the one driving very slowly through the neighborhood eyeing piles of possibilities. I gather unwanted furniture from my friends and family as if I were a Salvation Army of One. I do all of these things because, as an artist, I rejoice in reviving something that might otherwise end up in a landfill.
I am drawn to the power, beauty and mystery of transformation. In my designs I blend ideas, unify fragments, to produce a new whole with a unique identity greater than the sum of its parts. Quilting and collage appeal to me for this reason, but I am a painter so I paint the pieces together.
I love to work with paint because of its fluidity—viscous and forgiving in its nature. Intuitively I design pieces as I work, playing with color, contrast and patterns. Rarely do I finalize a design before beginning a new piece. The paint is worked, reworked, wiped off, and painted over while the piece itself participates in its evolution.
Many of my designs are inspired by the folk art of Mexico and India. The results are both simple and complex. Bright colors collide. It is the art of common people mirroring the beauty of the natural world. Inanimate objects come alive. A wooden chair becomes a living story.
While formally trained in studio painting in San Francisco, I often struggled with meaning in my subject matter. We were taught that our art needed to “say something.” I now feel that the process itself does the talking, resulting in unique conversation pieces. Each piece of furniture I salvage, repair, sand, design and paint tells a story.
