August Featured Artists: Spencer Brewer & Esther Siegel

Their work will be on display at Edgewater Gallery beginning August 5th until the end of the month. 

Please note our current hours of operation:  Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 11-5.

Spencer Brewer & Esther Siegel have a passion for creating quirky and fantastical pieces of art out of re-purposed, or ‘found art’ materials. From the whimsical and humorous to the punk and dark, they inspire viewers with a sense of delight, surprise and sometimes awe.

Working both separately and as a team, Spencer & Esther confer regularly on their artwork. “We don’t always have the same vision, but we always listen, and that feedback can open new doors.” Their studio is a wonderland of eccentric odds and ends and then some. Nicknamed the “Barn of Curiosities, Oddities and Light” or “Art Barn”, one discovers a much-venerated collection of eccentric obsolete ephemera & vintage electromechanical obscura giving these artists endless options for their transformative art.

Esther Siegel
Esther’s “late in life artist” emerged from the scrapbooking world. She expanded her art to unique one of a kind greeting cards working often reusing paper materials. Eventually a natural progression occurred into using 3-dimensional l objects creating ‘found art’ or assemblage. Her pieces are a mixture of whimsical and dark humor. Anything goes as themes such as Altered Barbies, Twisted Toasters, Horse People, Mandalas, and Book art to name just a few. The objects collected come from garage sales, thrift stores, and “gifts” from friends. The fun of recreating their purpose provides enjoyment and satisfaction for both this artist as well as her viewer.

Spencer Brewer
Spencer Brewer creates ‘High Whimsey’ – fantastical pieces of sculptures out of vintage or unusual objects inspiring viewers with a sense of delight, surprise and many times awe. The studio, the “Barn of Curiosities, Oddities and Light”, is a wonderland of eccentric odds and obscure ephemera where magic happens. “For most of my life my passion has been the piano – creating, recording and producing music as well as working on over 20,000 pianos, crank phonographs, players and pump organs. Restoring and working on thousands of pianos made over the centuries has been an inspiring lense into how well-crafted and executed mechanisms were made, all for the enjoyment of the players & listeners.”

Vintage parts, machines, drawings or industrial era ephemera are inspirations for his sculptures. “I don’t make things look old; they are old.” Analogue relics from the early 19th century through the 1920’s were envisioned, graphically drawn and physically manufactured to last lifetimes out of the best materials available from those eras. From these historical materials, Spencer creates sculptures in a way that begs the viewer to wonder – ‘was this real?’ Whimsy, wonder, curiosity and humor are essential in the work while staying true to the original part’s intended design. Spencer’s hope is the sculptures inspire others to think out outside the box and find their own muse.