Mitchell Gaudet, Myth of Romance (2006)

Grand Hall Installation
February - September 9, 2007

The Artist In His Own Words…

This piece is entitled Myth of Romance; in fact I have called most of my artwork and exhibitions over the last two years by this same name. It is made with hot glass that is cast into a sand mold. The mold making and glass casting is fun and even very easy, quite embarrassingly so. I just dig a hole into some sand, press in some toys and letters I have collected, and then pour hot glass into it.

I call pieces like this “books,” because they hinge together like those old hinged storybooks. People always ask me if I sell the piece as a whole or sell each “page” individually. I do both. Ideally, someone will buy the entire book, but I allow people to buy pages and tell their own story. I intended for this book, however, to be sold as a single piece.

The travails of romance have long been utilized by all people throughout history as a source spring. I am one of them, preferring to focus on the most often landed-upon space on the wheel of love and fortune, “disaster.” This space occupies about ninety-eight percent of the wheel, leaving one percent devoted to people who actually abstain and/or have no desire to have sex, and the last one percent to those who find eternal happiness and bliss. (Though I think all of these people died out in 1959.)

Hell, we all have been through this, every man, woman, and eventually child. And if not, just wait your turn. Sure, not in this order, perhaps skipping a few pages, or having some added, but the result is the same. Some might say, “Not me, I am happy now, and have been for a long time.” Well, it will happen, and the fall will be even greater. And remember, I told you so!