Remnants of the past: old stamps, pages of diaries, pieces from well-thumbed books are my subjects. Rummaged from flea markets, garage sales, and used book stores, the collaged text in my pictures can be read as a narrative, an account of events, or a provocation.

The structure in these pictures – words strung together to tell a story and as a textured visual component – are the essence of these readable pictures. As I rearrange words from another time and place, my mixed media collages remind us about the symbiotic relationship between our past and our present. Urging us to consider what lies below the surface, these collages speak to our present yearning for simplicity and authenticity.

I have pictures in the permanent collections of The Hyde Collection, The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College, The University Art Museum at SUNY Albany, The Albany Institute of History & Art, The Shaker Museum Mount Lebanon, The Columbia County Museum & Library, and The Art Students League of New York.

I am a two-time recipient of the Individual Artists Grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts and Twin Counties Cultural Fund Decentralization Program. I have exhibited in several Artists of the Mohawk Hudson Region exhibits, winning a purchase prize in 2015 from The Hyde Collection. My work has been included in exhibitions at the Samuel Dorsky Museum at SUNY New Paltz, The Arkell Museum in Canajoharie, NY, and the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio. I have also had the honor of exhibiting alongside Ellsworth Kelly and John Ashbery in The Collage Show at the Spencertown Academy in Spencertown, NY.

I have a BS in Art Education from SUNY New Paltz and studied at the Art Students League of New York with Joseph Hirsch, Julian Levy and Robert Beverly Hale.

Fern T. Apfel
fernapfel@gmail.com