Factory: Reconsidered

LeiSanne Doo

 
Lei-Sanne Doo, After Hurricane Bob, 1992, 22

Lei-Sanne Doo, After Hurricane Bob
1992, 22" x 24"

   
It's creative fun making things from what you have on hand; a lot like making dinner from what you find in the refrigerator or cooking up a new taste because you just had to use up those cranberries tucked way back in the freezer. I recycle materials, gathering and assembling objects, because I enjoy the challenge of an unknown path. Sometimes, an object inspires the art. I like to play the shaman, the head chef, the soul gardener. Someone who can make you pause over a sensual moment.

The baby clothes I use are from my children's first months of life when everything was new and miraculous. My children now are way bigger than these miniature garments. Yet whenever I look at those tiny pieces, there it is-the magic of motherhood.

The branches are from my garden where natural forces are guided by bigger creative hands. What stories can they tell?

"Mango Hook" is my version of the long pole my family used to pick mangoes in Hawaii. We had banana trees, papaya trees, a breadfruit tree, tangerine and lime trees, a lung-an tree, and two mango trees in our garden in Honolulu. The mango trees were the tallest ones. I loved mango season when my chore was to climb onto our rooftop and pick the ripe fruit with our mango hook. Every family had their own mango hook. It was fashioned out of a length of strong bamboo. On the end, a cloth sack made from an old rice bag was stitched onto wire shaped from an old coat hanger. My version doesn't look exactly like a real one, but the long curved branch from my New England garden gives the feeling of an endlessly long pole and the bag with wire lip to pull at the mango stem. I can almost feel the thunk of a ripe mango dropping into the bag.



Education: Stanford University, A.B. Drawing and Painting, 1978. Collections: I.B.M. Corporation, NYC & Milford, CT; American International Group, NYC; Citibank, NYC; Sun Chemical Corp., Fort Lee, NJ; Mony Financial Services, Teaneck, NJ; TRW Inc., Lyndhurst, OH; Pittston Collection; British Airways, Boston, MA; University of Vermont, Burlington, VT; City & County of Honolulu; Honolulu Academy of Arts; The Queen's Medical Ctr., Honolulu; Mr. & Mrs. Jack Canfield, Santa Barbara, CA; Mr. John Young, Honolulu; Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Honolulu; Halekoa Hotel, Honolulu; Sheraton Kaanapali Resort, Maui, HI; Bank of Hawaii, Saipan; Toyota Corporation. Solo Exhibitions: Queen Emma Gallery, Honolulu; Huron Gallery, Cambridge, MA; Habitat, Belmont, MA; Children's Museum, Boston, MA; Art Loft Gallery, Honolulu. Selected Group Exhibitions: New Art Center, Newton, MA; Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA; Yamawaki Art Center, Newton, MA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge, MA; Jefferson Cutter House, Arlington, MA; Chinese Cultural Institute, Boston; Mona Bismark Foundation, Paris; Wits End, Dobbs Ferry, NY; Allegheny College, Meadville, PA,; Charles Cowles Annex, NYC; Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY; Fervor Gallery, NYC; Queen Emma Gallery, Honolulu; Smalley Gallery, NYC; Lincoln Center Cork Gallery, NYC; Bronx Museum of the Arts, Bronx, NY; Amfac Gallery, Honolulu, Patterson Sims, curator; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Wayne Thiebaud, curator.