Exhibit title: "The Bird Show"

Artist statement: The Bird Show is a body of work representing my larger interest in the tangible/intangible qualities of birds. Birds have interested me since I was a kid – their shapes, movements, feathers, behaviors, adaptations and delicate bones all fascinate me.

To explore birds' intangible qualities, I've been using wire as a 3-dimensional line to 'draw' their outlines, then displaying the pieces in a way that the wire drawing casts several more 'shadow lines' on the wall. These pieces capture the birds in a clear, quiet way, describing their shapes, while remaining vulnerable to air movement and directional light.

I've also been exploring the idea of flying and the freedom and maneuverability that affords birds with pieces like 'Cloud with Birds' and 'Bird Rain'. These specific pieces couple that freedom with a connection or a tether – not quite all the way free, dependent on their environments.

I make most of my work with re-purposed materials. This body of work is no exception. I've worked in this way long before it was cool. (I attribute this to the farm life, as well, because we always saved things in case we needed to patch something in the future.) It has, however, always been important to me that the previous life of the material isn't necessarily evident – craftsmanship and design take priority in the pieces. The materials transcend their previous lives.

Working with re-purposed materials like this requires a lot of problem solving – my favorite part of making art. Practicing problem solving in art pieces gets the mind working, thinking and open to solutions not before considered. If I can think about an 'art problem' in new ways, then I not only build skills for the art studio, but I train my mind to think in a problem solving mode. 'Practicing problem solving' is the key phrase for my art making.

Biographical statement: Valerie Mann is a professional artist, living, working and teaching in Michigan.  She earned a BFA in painting from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and an MFA in sculpture from Michigan State University .  After Michigan State, she married and settled in the Ann Arbor area. She has been making art, exhibiting and selling her work in the U.S. and abroad for over 20 years. She has taught students in pre-school age programs, through all levels of K-12, including at-risk and alternative high school programs, as an adjunct college professor on through to multi-age adult classes in various media.  She is an evangelist for the use of hand tools and power tools at a young age.

Having grown up on a family farm in Indiana, she spent many an hour outdoors, paying attention to her environment, the animals and plants surrounding her.  "Humbling" is the word to describe the relationship she cultivated with nature.  Her understanding of the interconnectedness of plant and animal life was informed by her experiences outdoors on the farm.

Mann says, "Growing up on a farm, being involved in the whole farming process gave me the humbling understanding that farmers are completely at the mercy of weather patterns and the whims of Mother Nature. I developed an intuitive sense of the rhythm of the seasons and the changes in the sunlight throughout those seasons. Hours spent taking care of livestock and 4-H animals gave me an extra appreciation for the animals that weren't in my care – birds especially."

During the 2009-10 school year, Mann home-schooled her (then) 14 and 10 year-olds by driving across the U.S., camping, hiking, biking and visiting 9 National Parks. They went from Maine, to the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf, and through Colorado and Utah and points in between. The changes in geography, in the details of nature, and the human effort to make the landscape accessible had a profound effect on her and her art. She says, “One of the many perks of visiting such varied landscapes throughout the year was being able to step into a bird's habitat in Fall, in, say, Utah and see a bird I'd never experienced before (Pinyon Jay) and then visit the Dry Tortugas in Spring as the Sooty Terns and (7 foot wingspan) Frigate Birds were migrating and nesting. A humbling experience, indeed."