It has been 10 years since John and Connie Ernatt last exhibited together in their studio at Diver.
John is a founder of Fisch Haus on Commerce Street. He recently did the gate work at the city’s McAfee Pool and a large sculpture by the performance lawn in Botanica.
Connie is well known for her work at Botanica, as well as her police memorial sculpture outside city hall. But she is likely best known for the troll hiding on the bike path across from Exploration Place.
Now, John and Connie are enthusiastic about sharing their new work that they made together.
“I did this ... painting right here,” said John. “Just the painting, not any of the 3D elements of it. And I asked a friend ... who had bought some work for me in the past.
“He said, kind of very starkly, ‘I would never spend money on something like that.’”
So John approached another friend for his opinion.
“He saw this painting, and he loved it, and he said, ‘I want a giant one of these in my loft apartment.’ And as we were walking back downstairs, Connie said, ‘I could see one of my monkeys on top of that.’ I could see it too, and it kind of made a lot of sense.”
In that moment, a light bulb went off.
“That was sort of the impetus for starting to imagine working together on some things,” said John.
Inspiration for the Ernatts also came from a place of grief.
“We lost my my uncle, Michael, who is a huge influence on me,” said John. “The idea of working with Connie versus kind of working alone in my studio sounded way more interesting at the time.”
So together, John and Connie decided to try something new.
“We haven't really worked ‘together together.’ We help each other all the time,” said Connie. “We haven't really collaborated on art pieces.”
Together, they were guided by a semblance of a system.
“I feel like we had a couple of North Stars,” said John. “One was ‘less information, less information, less information.’ And then ... going back to my Uncle Michael, he had this incredible ability to create
spaces. Could I imagine these in one of Michael's spaces? [That was] a fun way to work.”
Connie has a large collection of objects at her disposal in the studio.
“Almost all of them have a ‘found object’ of some sort,” said John, “which is how Connie works.”
“I think it was just a piece of wood,” said Connie.
“No, it has leather on it,” said John. “It was a tool of some sort.”
“Yeah, burnisher or something,” said Connie. “It started with that. That kind of inspired the inset. I think we had that, then John kind of made the inset and then I did the chimp on there.”
John then began painting a pale vertical line down the middle. Connie used one of her hand-sized chimp sculptures to alter the pale line.
“If he wasn't there, it would just be a straight line,” said Connie. “But ... he's somehow ... corresponding with what's going on in the painting.”
For the Ernatts, this is where the fun begins.
“It was ... sort of a revelation for me,” said John. “[I said], ‘Okay, this whole project is going to be fun because we're going to get to have that moment over and over and over.’”
John likes the humor in Connie’s work. Connie likes the abstraction of John’s work.
“Connie's work always has an element of fun. My work typically doesn't,” said John. “And I kind of envied that sort of ability to use humor a little bit.”
“So I'd say some of them are more successful at being more abstract, and others ... have more of a narrative,” said Connie. “But I think, you know, they're going to relate.”
There’s a totem-like quality to the work, which started as one of their limitations for creating.
“Connie and I just sat down one day and just sort of brainstormed like, ‘What could we do, what could this do? What could that do?’ And we just had almost like these flash cards working within whatever limitations that you set for yourselves,” said John.
Connie describes the piece in front of her that is hung vertically, but she thinks it could also be horizontal.
“It has just three elements,” Connie said. “It's a wood piece, kind of a John shape that he kind of put on, and then ... there's a chimp there, and then there's this fabric — kind of curtain shape that the chimp is just kind of pushing it aside. So, again, it's just like he's interacting with the elements of the painting.”
Not all of the pieces were easy to assemble.
“Some of them kind of developed really quickly and just kind of fell into place,” said John, “and others we struggled on.”
“Even though they're the same format, they all are very different,” said Connie.
Despite some of the challenges, they knew they’d find a resolution together.
“We argue about stuff, especially creative stuff, all the time,” said John. “I am happy to report — this was ... really enjoyable work.”
“Yeah, we enjoy working together anyway,” said Connie. “We do think differently, but we trust each other's ability to get something done.”
And John and Connie are clear when they know the work is complete.
“It has to work for both of us to make it really finished,” said Connie.
Diver Studio on Commerce Street will host an exhibit of the Ernatts' work on Friday night.
