We love to feature artists on our blog each month. Why do we do this? Because there are so many interesting people out there doing incredible work across a spectrum of mediums. Pam Chipman is one of those artists. I met Pam in a Business of Art Workshop. Yep! It’s true…Art is business and as much as we would like to just show up in the studio each week and make beautiful things…we also have to understand the business aspect of what we are doing.

Our workshop was held in a historic old cabin in Vancouver, WA over a 6 week period and that is how I learned about Pam’s fascinating work in film and photography. You can experience her immersive sensory film work at Art at the Cave starting on October 1st. Pop in and take a look.

Please welcome Pam Chipman to Made on 23rd.

I am Pamela Chipman. I work with photography and video, creating fine art photography prints, gilded prints, films and multi-channel video installations. 

My fine art photography explores botanical subjects, abandoned landscapes, portraiture and a recent series of vintage children’s clothing and toys. Through these images, I explore the themes of identity and the temporal quality of memory.  I am very interested in how everyday objects like clothes and toys are saturated with emotions and how they carry meaning, as well as our personal stories. The golden quality in my gilded images contributes to their being read as venerate objects, both personal and cultural.

I will be exhibiting at Art at the Cave Gallery in Vancouver Washington in October.  In addition to my print work I will be debuting two multi-channel video installations: Inner Voices and Loose Threads.

Inner Voices creates an immersive intellectual and sensory experience. Upon entering the installation space the viewers location will determine when and where the video elements play. The images of women photographed in silhouette are projected on black walls creating haunting two-dimensional figures that visually speak to issues of domesticity, sexuality, and independence. While the animations move through space and time - using props to represent identity, power, and grace.

 The audio portion, reveals intertwining narratives that remind us how we navigate forward through time and backward through memory. These elements trigger recollections, emotions, and the mundane thoughts that occupy our everyday minds. I hope the audience is reminded of our shared humanity, our often-unconscious motivations, and the outer manifestations of our inner state.

 Loose Threads chronicles how easy a life can become unraveled. It reveals a raw, true story of a young woman emotionally scarred by the psychological oppression of a masculine dominant culture. The story takes place in New York City in the late 1970s, but through this video Chipman illustrates how vulnerable women can be - we’re reminded of the far reaching Me Too Movement - and how little has changed culturally for women who are often left to deal with the results of trauma by themselves, struggling to find their own way forward.

As an interdisciplinary artist, I draw on the present day cultural experiences of women grappling with sexism and gender inequality.  I studied video and photography at UCLA and moved to Portland, Oregon in the late 1980s. My work has screened across the country in film festivals, galleries, on community television, and is held in private collections. I enjoy exploring the potential of the video medium through a variety of projects ranging from video-poetry and live television to installations and documentary projects while continuing to explore new methods of integrating media into our visual world using installation, video books, and public art as tools to reach a broader artistic audience and to activate a sense of fellowship and community.

Visit my website to learn more about my workshops in gilded photography, see more of my work, and sign up for my mailing list to be informed of upcoming exhibits, screenings, and workshops. 

Website: www.pamelachipman.com

Instagram: @pamellapdx