Reading The Key Series An Exploration in Metals, Pigment and Paper

Welcome to Reading The Key, Ginger's largest and most favored series of works to date. Reading The Key was first exhibited in 2009, and here you can view the first pieces in the series and read the accompanying essays.

The series explores knowledge and the power of the written word: its impact on its author, its reader, and us. It includes mixed media paintings, small-scale metal sculpture and jewelry. The first 16 elements of the series, plus the 17th essay (reflective), are listed at the right in the order of their creation. Peruse, and consider the key. A simple metal form, it is common, yet valuable. Without a needed key, access is denied. But key in hand, one may enter, embark, or open, and continue. It is part of a system: alone it is merely an object, but paired with the right lock, it fulfills its purpose. Just as a key gives access, knowledge affords access to opportunity in life. In “Reading the Key,” Ginger uses a key to symbolize the vastness of knowledge itself. All of the paintings in the series include a key, whether painted, collaged, or embedded.

Below is a close-up view of story etched into metal, presented with the series artist's statement, a poem entitled "key".

key words on a page document thoughts, opinions, actions otherwise diminished once documented reader inspired, offended, informed paper becomes stone irreversible knowledge gained cannot be lost entry granted read on © Ginger Meek Allen