MIPCES Exhibition: Margaret Regan

INSOMNIA BOWL, Undreamt Dreams
12¾” x 11¾” x 3¼”

For the MIPCES catalog, Margaret Regan wrote:

“I like images that float, and my work is characterized by a high degree of drift and space. There’s a dream state where you recognize an object, but not it’s surroundings. I love the interaction of control with happenstance, and the blend it produces seems true to how we live our lives.”

Recently, Margaret reflected:

I had been thrilled to be invited to submit a piece for MIPCES, but the timing was atrocious. I was in the depths of a very hard winter, about 3 months into a period of depression and sleepless. Every time I tried to sit at my table and create, I couldn’t do it. In fact, my reaction against creation was so marked, it seemed as though I was repelled from the table. It was like the opposite of magnetic attraction, the version in which magnets spring back from each other when the polarities don’t match. I’d sprong away from the table, thinking, “This is crazy. I’m going crazy. I can’t make something beautiful,” and another day would slip away, with the project still untouched.

Then one day, I realized that I didn’t have to create something beautiful; I only had to create something true. If I could create a piece that was on the subject of my current situation, I wouldn’t be avoiding my life when I tackled the polymer piece but working through it. I thought of my missing nights, and my missing dreams, and the piece flew together. No prototype, no hesitation. It was as easy as plunging into water, a deep smooth submersion, and I put it together in a single breath.