Michèle Ratté

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NERIDA 1, detail of 3-dimensional assemblage, 2010
H 82" x W 6" x D 14". 23K gold and platinum mono-print on shaped and pieced hand-loomed silk, hand-printed and dyed silks, limpet shells, concealed wire.

NERIDA 1 (full view left), 2010, H 82" x W 6" x D 14",
23K gold and platinum mono-print on shaped and pieced hand-loomed silk, hand-printed and dyed silks, limpet shells, concealed wire. Detail at right.

NERIDA 1 (details), 2010, H 82" x W 6" x D 14",
23K gold and platinum mono-print on shaped and pieced hand-loomed silk, hand-printed and dyed silks, limpet shells, concealed wire.

NERIDA 1 (detail), 2010, H 82" x W 6" x D 14",
23K gold and platinum mono-print on shaped and pieced hand-loomed silk, hand-printed and dyed silks, limpet shells, concealed wire.

Michèle Ratté
Splendent Earth

Vermont Public Radio's
Commentary Series

By Commentator, Annie Guyon

July 18, 2011.

Listen to VPR Commentary

Play the slideshow to the left while listening.
Full text may be read on Ratté's Press page

The element of gold is an essential ingredient of Michèle Ratté’s new work, representing universal symbols such as: the sun, life force, nobility, power, incorruptibility, and eternity. Stones, fossils and shells are also key elements.

Growing up with a geologist father, and living in the Arizona desert, mountains of Vermont, and beach communities of the West Indies and Martha’s Vineyard, has influenced her aesthetic sensibility.

The natural world is compelling and fundamental to Michèle Ratté’s process. “For me inanimate objects, such as stone, emanate a life force and can be experienced as remarkable,” says the artist. This idea is exemplified in “Nerida” and “Apotrope”.