Recent Acquisitions: Jeffry Mitchell

Describing himself as a “gay folk artist,” Jeffry Mitchell (b. 1958, Seattle; lives and works in Olympia, Washington) rejects the irony and elitism often associated with the art world. Instead, he works from a philosophy of acceptance and constructs his art in vulnerable, deeply human terms. Mitchell is primarily a ceramicist, but drawings and other works on paper are foundational to his artistic practice.

Recalling childhood craft projects that use folded paper to form intricate, symmetrical designs, Snowflake Drawing #5 (Double Lotus Pod) exhibits the artist’s highly personal visual language. Situated alongside bears, bunnies, and “elefants” (the artist’s spelling) that often serve as self-portraits, the flowers that frequently appear across Mitchell’s work contribute to his unique aesthetic of exuberant decorative flourishes. He attributes his long-term interest in flowers to their global appeal as a “ubiquitous, time-honored motif used in many cultures.” The bulbous lotus pods in this work straddle the complex binaries—beauty and the grotesque, ephemerality and immortality, sex and death—characteristic of his creations.