Brenda Stumpf

In this series of works tited 'Cavomyrt', Stumpf brings together childhood artifacts with various materials before encapsulating them in thick, translucent layers of sand, making everything appear crystalline and calcified.

These elaborate assemblages function as enchanted reliquaries to love, innocence, and intimacy. They also evoke deep personal, mythic, and archetypal associations while presenting the fragile endurance of the sacred and the spiritual.

The titles are combined fragments of phrases that the artist associated with each piece. For example, ‘Cavomyrt’ is derived from the phrase “cave of my heart.”

This piece titled 'Vessure' is created from the artist's childhood dress, removed antique wallpaper, vines, plastic branches, dried pods and pine cones, moss, shearling, animal skull and bones, piece of a wasp nest, copper fish, faux pearls, tulle, electrical wire, string, gel medium, acrylic, sand, and adhesive on wood panel.
 72” x 44” x 9”.