Artist’s Statement  Nicholas Patterson
Installation - Hanging On

My installations are about telling stories. I consider the way the pieces interact, how they change over time, and how the viewer will engage the components. For me, art is an activity of movement and tactility. I build installations using materials from my own environment, and from the events of my past and present. This includes junk items such as discarded cans, but also cars. It is interesting to me how memories can be made from mass produced and disposable materials, and how they are not dissimilar from the other objects I craft which are assumed to be more personal, like faces and bodies. Holding onto an object makes its connection to a personal history become tangible. There are edges to all of these objects, and many spaces in between. In these spaces, narratives can take shape. We are made up of too many pieces for a single coherent narrative to encompass us all. My work offers up multiple ways that a life can be understood. I strive to make this process accessible to my audience, so they can be agents in constructing the story.

Installation lends itself to a sharing of experience and story, because it sets a stage into which anyone can enter, and begin a dialogue. It is a still point but it does not have to remain so. It can engage us while allowing us the space to contemplate our lives and actions. It offers a clue to a past or a present, and leads us to the next part.
I want to offer a way through installations to explore different versions of what could be called a self, and the possibility of future identities.

Nick Patterson was born and raised in Mars Hill, Maine.  He is a graduate of the University of Southern Maine, where he was awarded two degrees, one a B.S. in Fine Arts and the second, a B.S. in Art Education.  Nick recently graduated from the Vermont College of Fine Arts with a Master of Fine Arts degree.  He lives in Bangor with his wonderful wife Ann and enjoys skiing, hiking and camping in his spare time with his wife and their best friend Decoy.

Hanging On Installation Detail - Nick Patterson