The Flowers Are Always Blooming: Daisy Patton, MFA ‘11

Daisy Patton, MFA ‘11, prepared for three shows this fall. One of them her first solo exhibition at Houston’s Foto Relevance, With Hands Clasped Tightly. But in the intense leadup to delivering the work, her Western Massachusetts studio lost electrical power for two months. 

“I didn’t have time to wait to get it fixed,” she admitted. “I also lost my carpenter and had to learn how to frame everything myself, and work with salvaged wood panels and antique pediments.” 

Determined to keep on schedule, Patton rented a generator and wore headlamps to paint and build at night. She embraced the forced learning curve to the point that incorporating sculpture and sculptural elements  into her practice seemed like the next obvious step. Her first piece, an altered antique chair, was part of a group exhibition at the Hans Weiss Newspace Gallery in Connecticut. 

“It ended up being really bad luck that turned into good luck,” Patton said. 

Walking through the gallery at Foto Relevance, one notes that Patton’s large scale family portraits in oil and archival print on canvas are installed at eye level. It’s impossible not to lock gazes with her subjects or avoid constructing narratives about their lives. 

These portraits are an afterlife of sorts–recognizing those who should not have been forgotten. Part of the ongoing Forgetting is so long series Patton began in 2014, the photographic images are gleaned from abandoned family photos found online and in thrift stores, antique shops, and more. 

Flowering vines and lush overgrown foliage surround each of them. Patton explained, “Photography is essentially the death of a moment, according to Roland Barthes. It’s just a split second and then the present is in the past. In my paintings, the flowers are always blooming, as a nod to the strangeness of time and to the in-betweenness of the people in the paintings–between life and death, presence, and absence.” 

Without knowing anything about her subjects, Patton enlarges the images, mounts them on canvas, and paints over and around them. 

Patton’s work around families and their social meanings–a cornerstone of her practice–began at SMFA, her first choice school for a graduate degree in the visual arts. However, she’d almost talked herself out of applying there in the first place–assuming that either she couldn’t get in or wouldn’t be able to afford it. 

It’s a good thing that Patton was able to push away her doubt. She ultimately bet on herself, taking out student loans and working as a teaching assistant. She also received The Montague Travel Grant from SMFA which sent her to Dresden, Germany in her final year to research East German literature and explore creating a graphic novel. 

Those two years deeply shaped the artistic practice she is widely known for today. 

“When I got to SMFA I was in flux because my work was in flux,” Patton reasoned. Originally a painter, for years she’d experienced relentless creative block whenever she picked up a brush. She’d gotten into photography in the few years leading up to SMFA. 

SMFA faculty pushed her to dig into new mediums like sound installation and performance–and that spirit of experimentation jolted Patton back into the headspace necessary to rediscover painting–but this time as a multidisciplinary artist.

Patton’s work as an MFA candidate began to grapple with ghost stories and acts of remembering. Raised by a single mother who discouraged her from discussing her father's heritage, she tried to learn more about her father, who she had never met, at SMFA. She explained, “ I didn’t have a photograph or even his name but I knew a few details and that he was from Iran.” Being surrounded by conservative evangelical culture growing up, she’d never felt safe enough to disclose or engage with her father's heritage due to fraught tensions of US-Iranian relations and the aftermath of 9/11.

She said that absence and alienation from one half of her family deeply shaped her work in the context of presence, memory, and families: “Next, I started asking other people in the community with absent fathers to share their stories with me.”

Patton recorded the intensely emotional narratives as a collaboration with participants, creating a sound installation series that led to a powerful thesis project titled, I’m Perfectly Fine Without You, still ongoing. 

She also built community with other students–most notably Dell M. Hamilton, Sofia Botero, and Allison Maria Rodriguez. “We did so much talking about the stuff that we were reading and making. It really influenced my thinking,” Patton said. 

It was during this time that a health emergency resulted in a diagnosis for Multiple Sclerosis and Patton grappled with recovering during a demanding semester. After graduation, she took a day job working admin at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health to benefit from a strong health insurance policy. After moving to Colorado with her spouse, she became a full-time artist, with admission to a competitive residency program in Denver allowing her to explore large-scale works. 

Nowadays, Patton’s work can be found in collections including the Denver Art Museum, the Tampa Museum of Art, and Seattle University. After the rush of her fall shows she’s determined to continue Put Me Back Like They Found Me. The ongoing series of embroidered portraits and painted hospital gowns recognizes cis female survivors of eugenics programs or forced sterilization. 

Patton said she finds it hard to close a series when she gets personally attached like she is to this one. She’s grafting together concepts across mediums and canvases, and many are coming into full bloom. 

Lead image courtesy of Daisy Patton.