By DARLA MCCAMMON
Lakeland Art Association

We sometimes feel a touch of envy and disappointment at how easily the children of celebrities make their way into the limelight while others struggle through a far more difficult path to achieve fame and fortune.

Cady Noland is such an offspring. She was born in Washington, D.C., in 1956. Her father was the painter Kenneth Noland, thus many doors were open to her that may not have been available to other artists.

Cady Noland graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in New York and began earning her own stripes in art after she settled in Manhattan. In 1983, she began to create three-dimensional works using found objects. She created collages, sculptures and other works of art using mixed-media sources.

Some will find her work abstract and of questionable taste. Others have appreciated her work and it is highly collectible. In 1989, she created a piece titled “Oozewald.” This art was put up at a Sotheby’s New York auction in 2011 and sold for the highest price ever paid for a living female artist. Her prior high sale was $1.8 million. This piece astounded everyone when the final gavel closed. It went for $6.6 million.

The work, like many of her later pieces was created on aluminum plate. Noland then uses a silkscreen process to adhere a two dimensional scene to the aluminum. In this case, the scene she applied was an image of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. It is an action scene that shows Oswald, his mouth stuffed with an American flag and his body full of gunshot holes.

Cady Noland has been absorbed with creating pieces that show American Society as dysfunctional. She depicts scenes of torture and violence. One hopes she is decrying these things rather than adding to the titillation of the American public.

She highlighted the Patty Hearst kidnapping, conversion, and subsequent changes in Hearst. She called it “Untitled Patty Hearst.” Other titles will give an inkling of the general themes of her work: “Guns”(1986), “Cowboys Milking”(1990), “Saw Action/Duty”(1986), “Cowboy Blank With Showboat Costume” (1990), “Crate of Beer” (1989), “Beltway Terror” (1993–94) and “Gibbet” (1993–94).

Cady Noland is still alive today and has many exhibitions to her credit. Her work has also been purchased by many museums around the world. She continues to create from her studio in New York.

Upcoming and Current Events:

• The Kim Rieff exhibit is up and hanging at Warsaw City Hall. Rieff is an excellent artist and directs and teaches art at Grace College. Come see her vivid and beautiful work. You can visit this gallery from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. Main floor.

Lakeland Art Gallery is closed for the season. Watch for the grand opening at the new location. Members’ Art Show and competition will be first big event. Stay tuned at Facebook or online.

Contact your author/artist Darla McCammon at email [email protected] or her website or you can Facebook a connection at darmccammon.