Last Friday, I headed southeast toward Roswell, New Mexico not looking for any UFO sightings, but to experience the artistic talents of up and coming artist Sienna Fleming. Fleming’s exhibition, Playing Hookey, is an eclectic mix of both her past and current work including photographs, collages, hand held mirrors, bottle caps and graphic works available both as post cards and greeting cards.
Her digital photos start with a figure interacting with the landscape or architecture. After printing, cutting, layering and re-photographing the newly constructed collage, the finished artwork becomes a visual play between the narrative and imaginative as seen in her “Walls and Dolls” series. Fleming also exhibits a collection of bottle caps which have been accessorized with circular cutouts from stray encyclopedias and affixed with magnets on the back. Thinking outside the box, Fleming has found a way to use the frame of a hand held mirror to house her drawing series of animated faces which are featured tastefully next to her display of bottle caps. Fleming’s artwork is both youthful and girlish coupled with the finished and professional quality of a trained artist.
Sienna Fleming was born and raised in Roswell, New Mexico. She was one of the 27 students in the inaugural graduating class at the New Mexico School for the Arts (NMSA) located in Santa Fe, after having spent her first semester of high school at St. Margaret’s School in Aberdeen, Scotland, and a year and half at Roswell High School. Fleming will attend the School of Visual Arts in New York City beginning this August where she is enrolled in the Advertising Department. Fleming parents, Stephen and Nancy, have operated the Roswell Artists in Residence program for years.
Playing Hookey will hang through July 30 at The Tinnie’s Mercantile Store & Deli,
412 West 2nd Street, Roswell, NM 88201, 575.622.2031
