Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me

                          - “Over the Rainbow” by Yip Harburg

 
Strobel & Sands is pleased to present Ryna Frankel: There’s No Place Like Home. This is Ryna’s second exhibition with the gallery. Strobel & Sands has selected art works from Ryna’s two series, Plants Remind Me of Home and I Sit and Think of You, to explore the concept of what home means to us as individuals and as a broader society.

As eluded to in the theme song from the fantasy movie, The Wizard of Oz, home is an abstract and elusive concept that carries comforting yet conflicting connotations. On the comforting side, home is a cozy, safe nest that addresses our individual needs and wants as we personalize our space. On the other side, home can denote an ongoing yet obscure pursuit for a place that fits.

Ryna’s drawings and collages of house plants from Plants Remind Me of Home, sit in a line on the paper, like they would line a windowsill of a residence. This image conjures both the idea of looking outward from inside one’s own created ecosystem, and also looking inward to further develop the idea of one’s own world. By bringing the outside living world into one’s interior space, the house plant becomes a symbol of humanity’s need to control our environment.

I Sit and Think of You is an ongoing project in which Ryna places her sculptures on sofas and chairs left on the sidewalks and streets of Seattle. These creature-like sculptures have taken a new home, discarded by someone who no longer needed it, a refuge to the new resident. The works on paper and sculptural installations are in dialog with one another regarding the common elements of home as an abstract idea, and that of a comforting and physical place. These divergent views are not necessarily at odds, but show that home can be a comforting thought, and also something we continually strive to build.