Life imitates art for Huntington designer

A sheet, a shirt, some red felt, a teapot, inspiration and imagination were all Huntington artist Kristine Perelle needed to create one of her latest artworks. It's an homage to health care workers in the time of COVID-19, and she posted it on her Instagram account in advance of May 12th, International Nurses Day.

Perelle had to temporarily halt her interior design and decorative arts business, The Ambiancer, due to the pandemic. The 55-year-old, a fourth generation artist, admits laughingly that she's genetically wired to make art. While looking for a new creative outlet, she found out about online museum challenges. Perelle made and posted her first piece on April 9. She's completed 19 so far. She's even enlisted the help of her husband, Philip Giovannelli, to capture her work with his camera,

CREATIVELY RECREATING

In late March, The J. Paul Getty Museum in California threw down an artistic gauntlet, "We challenge you to recreate a work of art with objects (and people) in your home. Choose your favorite artwork. Find three things lying around your house. Recreate the artwork with those items and share with us." It was the tweet heard around the world. "Our current estimate is close to 150,000 participants," says The Getty's Julie Jaskol, assistant director of media relations.

Social media sites are now loaded with images like Labradoodles in Renaissance-style ruffs. There's actor Jared Leto with his head on a plate, lots of girls with pearl earrings, and even Medusa's snaky hair remade with gummy worms. "The only tools you need for this activity are your imagination and a picture of a work of art you like," say the Getty's Sarah Waldorf and Annelisa Stephan.

Part of what sets Perelle's responses apart is the range and number of artworks she's produced. She's recreated contemporary paintings, ancient sculptures, black-and-white photographs, Impressionist garden scenes and a 15th century masterpiece by Rogier van der Weyden from the National Gallery of Art, which took tracing paper and double stick tape to accomplish. They're sophisticated, visually appealing, and they're filled with humor, but also with meaning.

"I want to honor or put attention on certain things that are going on now," Perelle says. Her first recreation played off a drawing called "Armor" by Odilon Redon, of a masked face.

"That one totally spoke to me, and I thought it was perfect for the times we're in," she says, adding, "I picked pieces that I thought I could recreate with items I knew I had and that would work. And then I just gather the items, set it up, and get my poor husband to take the picture." Her works take anywhere from 30 minutes to most of a day, and require what she describes as a fair amount of jerry rigging.

The results range from poignant to laugh aloud funny. There's a tender portrait of Perelle's late mother and the hilarious sendup, "Wash Like an Egyptian." Commandeering the pose of a famous statue from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and substituting a bottle of laundry detergent for a duck, Perelle offers a tongue-in-cheek reminder to wash our hands.

DEVELOPING A FOLLOWING

The outpouring of support from her friends and followers is spurring Perelle to continue and to take the creations even further. She's thinking about a book or exhibition in the future. For now, she's just enjoying them and glad she's hearing from others that they're making quarantine easier.

"I hope viewers feel a sense of humor, and maybe a little awe that somebody can recreate something like that. And I hope to stretch their imagination during a time when it's not so easy, when you can't go out and get whatever you want. I would like it to develop into something else, but I don't how it will manifest itself."

Says Perelle, "That's part of the fun and yet another challenge."