Blog / 2022 / Winifriend the Inspirer
December 12, 2022
A new body of work doesn’t usually have just one starting place. It’s not like I get an idea and then—poof!—paintings happen. There tends to be more to it, and often that “more” is a tortuous process of weighing out what exactly I’m trying to communicate and the best way to do it.
But, with my most recent body of work, the process went a little differently. Friend Request is a series of portraits of the people and pets of Lambertville, New Jersey, who’ve made me feel most welcome since I moved here, so, as the title indicates, the portraits are a commentary on social media. For two years now, I’ve successfully managed to keep on being a full-time artist (as well as a full-fledged human) without Instagram or Facebook, and it seemed like making art about that might be a good idea.
At the beginning though, Friend Request was about just one person. This one!
Winifred Weiss is a sculptor who works down the street from where I live, and her studio windows have, for years, been filled with her delightfully strange ceramic figures. Every time I visited Lambertville, before I even moved here at the beginning of 2022, I wondered about the person who made these little people. Once I’d settled here, it was one of my first orders of business to introduce myself to her.
![acrylic painting of ceramic artist Winifred Weiss, painted by Lambertville artist Gwenn Seemel](/images/2022/2022LBVwinifred.jpg)
Winifred
2022
acrylic on paper
7 x 5 inches
From there, it wasn’t long before I was plotting how I might get Winifred to let me paint her. I thought it might be sort of a lot to meet a person and, seemingly moments later, be asking to do her portrait. It occurred to me that painting other Lambertville people as well would be a good cover. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that my so-called “cover” was actually sounding like a real series, with a highly relevant theme. I was excited to paint all the lovely people who were making me feel at home even though I’d only just arrived.
![Lambertville art by Gwenn Seemel](/images/blog22/FriendRequestDisplayClose.jpg)
I’m forever grateful to Winifred for sparking a whole new body of work and also for lending me the studio-window-that-started-it-all for the show.
![ceramacist at work](/images/blog22/WinifredWindowStudio.jpg)
In this photo, you can see Winifred through the side window, working in the half-dark because the Friend Request display has basically eclipsed the light from the front window. Winifriendship is a one-of-a-kind gift!
You can catch Friend Request in person for one more day.
Winifred Weiss’ studio window
17 Church Street
(at the intersection with George)
Lambertville, NJ 08530
Open: through the end of today
Hours: whenever (you can look in from the street)
Maybe this post made you think of something you want to share with me? Or perhaps you have a question about my art? I’d love to hear from you!
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