Artist Jessica Yager Takes Her Art Into the World of Crowd Funding

The granddaughter of a past Springfield High School art teacher seeks to shape an installation on Colony Collapse Disorder with community involvement through crowd funding.



Springfield, VT, May 05, 2013 --(PR.com)-- Vermont artist Jesi Yager, granddaughter of former Springfield High School Art teacher John Bateman, has taken her art into the world of crowd-funding. She recently launched a Kickstarter project to invite the community to help shape an installation piece that will be the focal point of her first solo show.

“Most of my recent work addresses Colony Collapse Disorder. The honeybee’s have stolen my attention and devotion both on their own merit and because I feel like they are a great symbol for collaborative effort,” says Yager. “In my work the hive is both literal and a metaphor. We are like the bees—alone we seem small and feel insignificant, together we are powerful and united. We can accomplish great things. The ‘Join the Hive’ installation is an invitation to be a part of something larger than one person or one bee. I will be documenting this project on video, in photos, and through writing to create a lasting record of art that exists as an installation only for a short time.”

For each Kickstarter pledge Yager will include a small square painting, each a work of art in itself, but assembled like pieces of a photomosaic creating a larger image. At the culmination of the show, the small paintings will be sent out to all of the people who backed the project. The disassembly and dissemination of the piece becomes as much a part of the work as its creation, as it symbolized the cataclysmic event of collapse of the hive that happens with CCD--in which all the bees fly off and fail to come back to their hive.

In addition to the Join the Hive project Yager will spend the next five months creating work that plays in the space where painting and sculpture meet--from framed traditional paintings and free standing sculptures to what she calls “kinetic paintings.” These are interactive, wall-mounted paintings that have three-dimensional elements with moving parts.

Successfully funding this Kickstarter project will allow Yager to spend five months dedicated to producing art fulltime. This time will make it possible for her to complete a minimum of an additional 15-20 pieces including a large installation to add to the six pieces she has finished over the past fifteen months of working studio time in around her factory job.

To be a part of the Join the Hive project and support this local artist, go to: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/311265581/kickstart-my-art-launching-jesi-yagers-first-solo and click “Back This Project.”