Monica DeSalvo’s “A Bus Tour in the Woods” Exhibition

A Bus Tour in the Woods: Visual Duets with Her Father

Monica DeSalvo’s series “A Bus Tour in the Woods” was influenced by a recent trip to Greece for an art-making workshop on the island of Skopelos. There she found a path toward creating works inspired by one of the hallucinations her late father, Sal, had during his waning health and waxing dementia. Caring for Sal at the end of his life had already prompted DeSalvo to explore dementia by using mixed media and collage to illustrate his perspectives and visually preserve their shared experiences. His recounting of this tale had filled her head with enchanting images for some time.

DeSalvo’s often-segmented or diptych compositions are a natural device for expressing the caregiving dyad and the dueling realities of a mind fragmented by dementia, or a mind straddling this physical world and what lies ahead at the end of life. Her experience on Skopelos, engulfed by fruit trees with both intact and fallen foliage, sparked a feeling that DeSalvo wanted to capture in the series. The fallen leaves took on new meaning and became stencils for printing with a Gelli plate, reflecting the preciousness and continued value of living things at the end of their life cycle.

Using a Gelli plate to print onto her father’s paper memorabilia is an important step in creating the imagery that becomes the base and/or collage elements for DeSalvo’s work. This memorabilia centers around his aeronautical engineering education and profession and includes handwritten college notes, lists of numbers, typewritten reports, and pages from technical textbooks. DeSalvo’s multi-step, layered creations result in “visual duets” with her father.

DeSalvo was also moved by Greece’s proudly preserved ancient structures—often damaged and asymmetrical—which still stood boldly despite their missing parts. These structures manifest human effort and creation, which also have their life cycles, just like the wafting, irregular natural forms of the foliage. In spite of their age, these forms still have so much to offer the world.

Artist's Reception: September 21 | 6:30 p.m. | Lotvin Family Gallery