ἆς θελετ ̓ ὔμμες
“as long as you want”

This fragment is all that survives from a 2600 year old poem.

Sappho was speaking of love. We cannot know who she was writing about or whether this love was a lasting or a fleeting one, yet two and a half millennia after she wrote these words, they retain their quiet force. They are words of patience, of attention. Of looking and of listening. They are a guide for how we create.

The greatest care we can show is to give attention for as long as the beloved wants — a feeling or a quality of light may request a moment, a flower may request a week. To truly be present for these spans of time is a profound task, and one that shapes our world. Both our work offers this type of attention. Plants tell me what they want to consume, how they want to collaborate. A curl of hair tells you to look at it in this luminous light. We both answer yes, as long as you want.

-Julia and Heather

New York, NY - My Pet Ram is pleased to present as long as you want featuring new paintings by Heather Drayzen and sculptures by Julia Blume. Both artists harness logics of light and color to draw attention away from the self and toward ephemeral, intimate moments. Drawing on the skills of plants and light, the artists use beauty as a tool. Like a pitcher plant or a warm patch of sun, the paintings and sculptures beckon you closer. You look and you look, until you find that without having been aware of it, your attention has been sublimated into evocations of emotional histories, dense symbioses, and the fragile endurance of life.

Heather Drayzen’s paintings draw upon her lived experiences and interior world with a tender and intimate touch. She primarily paints small-scale domestic scenes in oil on canvas, often featuring herself and those she cherishes in quiet moments. Experiences like taking a walk with the pups and falling asleep take place in an atmosphere of iridescent golden light, highlighting the passage of time while nodding to art historical influences including Bonnard and Vuillard. Her paintings sit between figuration and abstraction, and she renders descriptive elements with varying levels of information to summon a psychological energy. Jewel-like fields of day-glo color contrast with subtle neutral tones tapping into a full on sensory experience. Each painting is a vignette within the larger narrative of her life, and when viewed together they reveal the feeling of a life lived along with a genuine emotional history.

Julia Blume’s sculptures engage in reckless symbiosis. Pitcher plants sprout among poppies, blackberries grow waterlily roots. Her sculptures are a mirror to the structures of the Earth: from the cells in our bodies to the vast networks of fungi and trees that make up a forest, everything is community. In Blume’s sculptures, organic and highly processed materials collaborate to form ambiguous collectives. Sculptures reference fungus, insects, and deep sea creatures, but are painted in luminously artificial shades. Via these riotous collectives, Julia breaks down false dichotomies of “artificial” and “natural”, and she considers the political implications of this historical separation.

as long as you want will be on view beginning Friday, February 24th through Sunday, March 26, 2023. The gallery is located at 48 Hester Street in the Lower East Side. Gallery hours are Wednesday-Sunday from 12-7pm and by appointment. For more information about this exhibition, please email info@mypetram.com.