“I want to do that” is a continuing thread in the 30 year practice of artist Brantner DeAtley. Whether he is searching to infuse a lump of clay with animal spirit or untangling the emotion of an imaginary landscape there is no part of art history that can’t be filtered through his process and explored.
“Working with clay in those formative grade school years, taught me to lose time. I learned to focus, to melt into the material and the process. Clay was my gateway to creation, a lifetime of making paintings and objects. This body of ceramic work is my first in 25 years. It’s still influenced by the funk ceramics, Bob Arneson David Gillhooly, I had loved in college. But I have accumulated so many more obsessions from George Ohr, Staffordshire figurines, Magdalena Suarez Frimkess, Alice Mackler, Mississipian effigy jars, southern face jugs, the list is long. These influences are entry points or launching pads that inspire me to begin. I am bringing the investigation of the immediate surroundings that I share with my family and the wildlife that pass through it out from within this material. Working quickly to capture the idea of a moment.
“ From these paintings I am looking to coax the image from within the canvas to evoke the feeling of a moment. The elements are re-imagined from my daily walks through the woods where I concentrate on looking and being present with the rocks and trees, mosses and water. We have lived on the same hill for quite a while now, watching the small changes from year to year. Birds, Bears and Bobcats returning to their familiar territories. My creative life ebbs and flows with these changes.”
“The beginning intention for the sculptural animals was to find a use for all of the leftover house paint and other miscellaneous materials that tend to accumulate around my home and studio, most of the materials used would otherwise end up in a landfill. For many of these creatures I have used old stuffed animals that were my son’s and then were passed onto the dogs to play with. This handling has imbued the objects ,used as armatures, with energy, tying them to the original influences, folk animal craft and weathered antique objects.”
“As I am writing and thinking of these marred surfaces I can’t help but think of the devastation our human impact is having on our world. A mindset that equates monetary gain with progress has no understanding of the importance of a symbiotic relationship with the natural world. We live in a world where the trees are talking to each other through the mycelium that surrounds their roots. To me that is a magic I would like to celebrate, not pave over.”
Brantner has shown at The Geoffrey Young Gallery, LABspace, Ober Gallery, Exit Art, The Oresman Gallery at Smith College, The Ely Center for the Arts and Carroll and Sons.
His work is in the collection of the Danforth Museum in Framingham, MA. As well as many private collections across the country.
A graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University he now lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife, son and many animals.