Charlee Brodsky: The Audacity of the Mundane

Dec 18, 2024 | Exhibition

Art

Charlee Brodsky: The Audacity of the Mundane

December 22, 2024 - March 2, 2025

A large black bird sits atop a stack of rocks. To the left of the rocks are small plant sprigs. To the right of the rocks are stars hanging from the top and a small rabbit on the ground. On top of the birds head is a small white sphere depicting the moon.

Charlee Brodsky, The Moon Was as Full as the Night Was Still, inkjet photograph, 24×20.”

About The Art

STATEMENT—My stage is a piece of wood, the top of an old tool chest, 14” wide, 35” long, and just an inch high. It sits on a pedestal close to a window that gets filtered, rarely direct, light. Rocks, pigs, balls, flowers, binder clips, rabbits, an occasional grape tomato, and other miscellaneous things that I collected through the years, recently ordered on Ebay and/or picked up on the street, are my actors. They’re also my friends. They have personalities.

I bond less with the perfectly manufactured binder clips, but the other creatures and objects, and especially the rocks, have individual spirits that I respond to. Many have endeared themselves to me—I love the dog with half a tail; I still feel sorry for the bunny that is missing a leg; and for whatever reason, I talk and coo to the pigs. They are my perfect, imperfect collaborators that I work with to create stories of innocence, joy, affectation, impending doom, hope, as well as of other conditions that I see and partake in. Implicit in this work are my values and some commentary about the world in which I live and the world I would like to inhabit.

I started this series shortly before the COVID pandemic in 2019 and I continue it today. As the world is shaken by wars and natural disasters—interrupted by some glimmering good things, too—I go up to the studio on the third floor of my home, and with my “little friends” try to make sense of it.

BIO—Charlee Brodsky, a fine art/documentary photographer and
emeritus professor of photography at Carnegie Mellon University,
describes her work as dealing with social issues and beauty. A selection
of her awards includes the Tillie Olsen Award with writer Jim Daniels
for their book, Street; an Emmy with the film team that created the
documentary, Stephanie, which is based on her friend’s life with breast
cancer; two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts fellowships; an Honored
Educator award given by the Society for Photographic Education,
Mid-Atlantic Region. Among the books she’s authored are Knowing
Stephanie and I Thought I Could Fly.

Ms. Brodsky’s most recent work, The Audacity of the Mundane, is a series of still lifes and was exhibited at The Westmoreland Museum of American Art in 2021 and in 2024 it was exhibited at The Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, Sunnyhill Unitarian/Universalist Church in Mt. Lebanon, PA, and BE Galleries in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh. In 2025 the work will be exhibited at the Butler Institute of American Art. You can see more of the Still Life series at charleebrodskyphotography.com. BE Galleries handles her work.

CATEGORIES: Exhibition

DATE: December 22, 2024 - March 2, 2025

LOCATION: Davis Gallery

RECEPTION: January 5th, 2025 1:00pm—3:00pm

Selected Works

A stack of objects consisting of large rocks, a worn decorative pillar, as well as branches and a log. On top of the highest log is a small stone statue of a girl. On the lowest rock in front is a dog staring off to the right. The plants are depicted as withered or dead.

In the Garden of Parched Earth

Charlee Brodsky

A large black bird sits atop a stack of rocks. To the left of the rocks are small plant sprigs. To the right of the rocks are stars hanging from the top and a small rabbit on the ground. On top of the birds head is a small white sphere depicting the moon.

The Moon Was as Full as the Night Was Still

Charlee Brodsky

A blue vase sits at the center with branches coming out of it in all directions. Pinned to the leaves are small cocktail parasols. There is a singular pink paperclip on one of the right most leaves. On the ground to the right of the vase is a teal pingpong ball.

Still Life with Eucalyptus, Parasols, Ping Pong Balls, and a Pink Paper Clip

Charlee Brodsky

A carefully stacked assortment of animals. Two bears in the center, one stacked on the other, with a herron on the left and three smaller birds on the right stacked on each other. All of the birds are placed in a way to provide balance to the bears. There is a purple bloom on the top bears head and a ball on the head of the right most bird.

It Took a Self-less and Ego-less Collaborative Interspecies Team to Balance the Ball and the Bloom on Their Heads

Charlee Brodsky

In the center on the ground is a pig sitting on a stone and looking up. Above and around the pig are branches with flowering pink blossoms.

Sometimes Words, as in a Title, Add Nothing to an Image, But to its Detriment, Take Away the Delight of Pure Visual Effect

Charlee Brodsky

A girl in a pink dress stands on the ground looking in the direction of the viewer. To her right on the ground is a crown. Beside the crown is a large rock with a throne at the top. Sitting on the throne is a green frog.

The Prince Was a Frog

Charlee Brodsky

A large pile of stacked rocks. Standing on the rocks are four pigs. Two of pigs are looking down and one is looking left, while the highest pig is looking up and out.

It Was Not Clear if They Knew Which Way Was Up–Fortunately a Visionary Was Among Them

Charlee Brodsky

Multiple animals stand on or around rocks, each staring up at stars which hang from the top. There are two pigs, three ducks, a dog, and a herron.

They Were United in Wonder When Looking at Stars

Charlee Brodsky

A picture frame has objects behind it capturing a dog looking in the distance and a flower behind it. All around the outside of the frame are pieces of debris, trash, and rocks.

It was a Picture-Perfect Life But All Was in Shambles Around Him

Charlee Brodsky

There are thin twigs sprouting out of a stump at the bottom. Thin tree branches stretch out from the sprouts. There is a small bunny on the ground to the right of the stump and a small bird in the top most branch.

Awakening in Spring Dawn

Charlee Brodsky

Two rocks sit at the center, one taller than the other. On each rock is a small rabbit. There is another rabbit on the ground between the rocks and the viewer, and to the right is a bear. All the animals stare off to the right.

As the Sun Rose So Did They, and Everyday They Thought That it Rose for the First Time, and Everyday They Believed It Was Just For Them

Charlee Brodsky

In the center is a watermelon being propped up by an overturned chair and a bear. Balancing on the watermelon is a decorative pillar which has a chair and a dog on top. To the left of the watermelon is a tall pillar with a chair at the top. On the far left is a chair with a pig sitting on it and to the far right are two chairs, one turned upside down.

In the Kingdom of Water Melonia, the Only Rule of Land Was Gravity

Charlee Brodsky

A decorative pillar atop a rock with a chattering teeth toy standing at the top. All around the base of the rock are broken and overturned chairs.

It Rose to Power Singing, “The Song of Me,” and Broke Some Things Along the Way

Charlee Brodsky

An assortment of rocks stacked on or arranged near each other. Each rock has an animal on or near it. A small white bird on the left, a poodle at the bottom middle, and a small dog on the right. There is a large black bird on the far right and a small black dog on the upper left, with the top spot occupied by a white cat.

Each Had Their Own Point of View but the One on Top Inflicts the Truth on Others

Charlee Brodsky

An obelisk constructed of multiple items stacked on each other. An upturned flower pot at the bottom, a trash bin stacked next, with a barstool stacked on that. Standing on the stool is a bear with an ice cream cone on its head.

Obelisk

Charlee Brodsky

Five flowers are in view, two red and three purple. The flower stems are visible within a hanging picture frame, the blooms rising above it outside of the frame.

The Artist was a Minimalist Attracted to Nature’s Lines but Not Its Blooms

Charlee Brodsky

Two bears can be seen, one facing away from the viewer looking at itself in a mirror. The other is facing towards the viewer, looking at the first bear. There is a second mirror showing a three quarter perspective of the first bear.

The Dark Perplexing Realm of Consciousness

Charlee Brodsky

A bronze vase with five flowers coming out of it, ranging in color from yellow, orange, red, and purple. In the bottom of the vase with the flowers is a pink pig sticking out.

Still Life in Orange, Purple, Yellow, and Pig

Charlee Brodsky

There are two objects in view, a hanging cube with a question mark on it and a chair. There are many mirrors in the background and foreground showing the two objects for multiple perspectives simultaneously.

Inter-planar Perspectives and the Riddling Question of Truth

Charlee Brodsky

There are two nearly identical bears looking at the viewer. The bear on the right has small tufts of purple hair on it's head. The bear on the left has a very large purple afro.

They Were Identical Twins with a Genetic Aberration

Charlee Brodsky

A bear stands atop a boulder looking at itself in a mirror. There are chairs and a ladder leaned against the boulder implying they were used to climb to the top.

Finding Himself was an Arduous Journey

Charlee Brodsky

Multiple objects stacked upon each other creating an obelisk. A short candle stick at the bottom with a small teacup stacked on it. The teacup is holding a green ball which has a small perch on top. Sitting on the perch is a small green frog.

Obelisk

Charlee Brodsky

Two dogs sit facing each other. One is looking at a bone hanging between them. The other is looking at the first dog.

He Could Not Tell if it Were Hunger, Desire, or Beauty that Aroused Him

Charlee Brodsky

Two bears sit looking towards the viewer. There are leaves of orange and red around them and hanging from a vine.

They Were Gobsmacked by the Beauty of It All

Charlee Brodsky

Sculpture of a child sitting on a rock gazing up at the stars. There are three rocks of which the child is sitting on one looking up at a string of stars that are hanging from the top.

The Child Climbed a Mountain to Gaze at the Stars

Charlee Brodsky

An unusual arrangement of objects that would not usually be found together, as a measuring stick, a small bunny sculpture, two rocks, a couple of four petaled flowers, the end of a classical column, all placed on top of an old wooden chest.

The Quantitative Measure of a Thing May Not Reveal the Essence of the Thing at All

Charlee Brodsky

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