BY CHANCE

Mariel Pitti in collaboration with Kaitlyn Carr

811 Stark Vitrine

February - June 2024

Site-Specific Installation at 811 SE Stark St. (Portland, OR)

Hand printed iridescent medium on cut Dupont Tyvek ®, wheatpaste

Understanding the complexity of human creative instinct is a delicate dance between mind and material.

Mariel Pitti and Kaitlyn Carr met at Stumptown Coffee by chance and discovered their fluid studio processes were very similar. Neither artist shows up to the studio with a plan, instead working with the movement of tools and the availability of surfaces - interested in the motions that their process allows for.

Pitti’s art practice has always involved an intuitive approach. This body of work explores small, intimate paper cuts existing at a huge scale. In her most recent work at Laura Vincent Design and Gallery, “Cut it Out” and current show at Stumptown Coffee, “Cut it Out and Draw” she uses packaging and cartons from grocery shopping. Pitti disassembles the cartons then cuts, folds, collages and draws. This process is not planned or worked out ahead of time - allowing her to be inventive and enjoy making the material come to life.

Carr’s work is an experiment with light and the absence of color. An iridescent transparent medium is printed on Tyvek. Upon first glance there’s nothing there. As the viewer moves and the light changes, the medium glimmers to reveal the hidden pattern. This process is incredibly laborious, and she is interested in unseen efforts only noticed by those willing to look close enough. Carr’s recent body of work combines printmaking and paper cutting. She prints over a series of physical periods using a limited palette of shape and color. Then she cuts up the prints for collaging later. Pieces are arranged onsite in reaction to each unique environment to become expansive, abstract gestures.