Ghost Elms (Installation), 2000

* A number of Ghost Elms are available for donation but some of those pictured may not be available.

Artist quote:
“I feel very strongly that what an artist makes should be accessible to the viewer without a long written description of what it means. With making an installation, I have found that as I work, the piece begins to relate to something from my life… the last group of trees… I realized that they reminded me of the elm trees that lined the brick paved streets of Urbana, Illinois.

I grew up in Urbana in a house across the street from a cornfield. The street was sheltered by the Elm trees that are now gone forever. A lot of that time and place has stayed with me and somehow affects my work. A lot of what is happening now in your world will stay with you and affect your work.”

Bio:
Marcia Widenor has been working as a full time artist since the 1980s, focusing her practice around handmade paper constructions and experiential installations. While she has lived and worked in Sea Cliff on New York’s Long Island for decades, her upbringing in the Midwest continuously influences her work. Cloth collages evoke small towns in Illinois and Ohio, knitted trees of handmade paper pay homage to the great Elm trees that once lined her childhood street, and themes of safety and refuge recur throughout her portfolio.

Widenor departed the Midwest as a young woman to study art history at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, ultimately marrying and settling in Sea Cliff where she would raise her family. As her children grew up and left home, she went back to school to earn a degree in social work, which she put to use working with children in hospitals. Widenor had been making art casually since childhood, but after retiring from her social work career in the ’80s, put her efforts into becoming a full time artist. She studied under important Long Island artists to progress her technical knowledge, and went on to produce an intricate body of work that communicates tranquility, sanctuary, community, and a respect for nature. Through her work, Widenor invites viewers to exhale and let their guard down, encouraging a childlike vulnerability by creating welcoming, safe spaces.

Widenor has been the subject of multiple solo exhibitions in the United States and exhibited internationally in France, South Korea, and Iceland. She has likewise been featured in numerous group shows, many of which took place on Long Island alongside fellow local artists. Collaboration with the Long Island arts community, particularly in regards to handmade paper, became an influential component of Widenor’s practice, as she frequently exhibited with other artists, curators, and institutions on multiple occasions. She has been commissioned to create stage designs for theatrical dance performances at institutions that include Stony Brook University, and invited to curate nearly a dozen exhibitions at spaces like the Hillwood Art Museum in Brookville, NY, and Gallery North in Setauket, NY. Her work is included in the collections of the Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME; American Paper Company, Pound Ridge, NJ; Queensborough Community College Museum, Bayside, NY; Islip Museum of Art, East Islip, NY; Clinton White House, Washington, D.C.; Godrej and Boyce, Bombay, India; and more.