Climbing the Walls Designs

10/30/2024

Book now for early bird holiday pricing....
Single subject graphite 11x14 portrait of your loved ones or pets starting at $600. Price reflects unframed amd unmatted artwork.

10/28/2024

This week's blast from the past: The Construction Town

Built in 2012. The room was surrounded in town buildings made from wood. At the front of the room I painted a construction mural - borrowed from a children's book reference at the time. This room was my favoritye and I still have all of the buildings - so much fun!

10/03/2024

As the Crow Flies
5.5’x7.5’x9.5’, Foam, aluminum, fabric, branches, dirt, mulch and silk flower mixed medium installation, 2023.

As the Crow Flies is an immersive experience where the viewer walks into a tunnel-like portal. What begins as an English garden quickly morphs into a surrealistic Avatar-esque experience boasting handmade florals and manipulated found objects. The tree is carved from foam as are the birds, birdhouse and many of the flowers. Eucalyptus invades the senses, while happy birds chirp among the backdrop of dystopian fluorescent back lighting

Inspired by the Hero’s Journey, the protagonist is called to action and finds themself on the threshold of an adventure. This quest is fraught with challenges and perilous tribulations. The hero plunges into the spiritual underworld and comes face to face with her demons. Life changing transformation occurs, and the hero returns to a life of enlightenment.
As the Crow Flies marks the inaugural phase of a Hero’s Journey. It journeys through a metaphorical manifestation of introspection and a rite of passage. The work expresses the spatial experience of transformation from the old and new, the real and surreal, and the rational and irrational – through a psychological and corporeal lens.

09/22/2024

So pleased that there is a world where both my graphite portrature and sculpture can co-exist. A shoutout to my reference model for helping me decipher the perfect form that I then used in my installation, The Blind.

08/29/2024

07/27/2024

The Blind
Within the walls of her quiet haven, a young child trembles in the darkness. Daring to make the tiniest sound, the stuffed bear is firmly pressed to her lips to stifle the raspy, uneven breath. Shivers travel down her spine and through her bare toes. How long has she hidden in the closet, seconds? minutes? Or has it been all of her 8 years? Tiny fingers nervously trace patterns in the dusty floorboards while outside shadows menace the illuminated cracks of the ill-fitting and flimsy closed door.
A heavy rhythm of footsteps loom in the distance, coming closer to her hideout. The floorboards outside the closet creak, their echoes contort like sinister whispers in the stillness. Having reached the door, she can almost sense his trembling pulse and ragged breath. She can hear the low tones of his deep voice clearly now as the doorknob turns, “Here I come”.

"The Blind" is the corner piece to the “Portals” body of work. With the exceptions of the two-dimensional ‘See no evil, hear no evil, say no evil’ illustration, the installation is created entirely with foam, wood and mirrors. The work speaks to the vulnerability of childhood and innocence lost. Details abound with the dyslexic ‘Keep Out’ signage, a red glossy high heeled shoe and a menacing shadow in the darkness. "The Blind" offers a firsthand powerful glimpse of abuse with mirrors strategically placed to insert the viewer into the narrative.

To see more details on this work, visit the Installation tab of my website at: www.climbingthewalls.net

07/23/2024

“What molting is to birds, the time when they change their feathers, that’s adversity or misfortune, hard times, for us human beings. One may remain in this period of molting; one may also come out of it renewed.” ¬
- Vincent Van Gogh

"Molting" is an oversized foam recreation of a child's bedroom created in 1-point perspective - influenced by Van Gogh's "Bedroom" paintings. There are incredibly detailed sculptures of bugs, skeletons, pill bottles (and an ax murderer too!) and so much more to see in this childhood nightmare panorama - please check out the Installation tab of my website www.climbingthewalls.net

07/16/2024

"There is a sacred place I envelope myself at the end of the day. With lights drawn low and in silent absolute solitude, I slip into the steamy waters of my ceremonious bathtub. This is a religious experience. The liquid is just hot enough to castigate myself for the regrets of the day. I offer my regrets to the waters, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation. In the quiet, my demons appear and, one-by-one they are vanquished and replaced with resolve. I do not reach to touch the swaths of flesh that quiver on my side. I do not glance down at my scarred breasts and surgically mutilated belly, I push away the slight memory of a youthful body, now replaced with a splintered and weathered woman. Within moments my body disappears, and I am floating. I give thanks to the universe. Finally, I pray for the future and gaze triumphantly as the past trickles away through the drain. I am cleansed through body and soul. This is renewal." - lorrie anne minicozzi

Fall of the Sparrow; is a life-size installation almost ENTIRELY sculpted from FOAM depicting a reference to Shakespeare's Ophelia and feminine vulnerability.
For more information, or to see more of my foam sculptures and portrait work, please visit www.climbingthewalls.net

07/02/2024

lorrie.minicozzi's profile picture
As a child, I dreamt of flying. The dream was recurrent; I was high in the clouds above the bustling city, open arms soaring through a cloudless sky. For as long as I can recall, I have collected birds and bird trinkets. Birds, nests, cages, and eggs made from ceramic, wood, feathers, resin, and more adorn my home and paradoxically keep me grounded. Birds link me to the environment and, like a compass when I feel lost, they remind me to return to nature. Today, it is through the birds that I feel capable, strong, and free.
Empty Nest was modeled after a birdcage I acquired years ago to house flowers. My interpretive cage once held a solitary creature – existing as a pet – as no bird should be. It's very life dependent on the vo**ur who holds his key. Relegated to the confines of his unsteady swinging perch, the prisoner one day finds the strength to wrench the bars open and gain freedom.

Empty Nest
1.7’x2.5’x6.5’, Sculpted wood, pencils, plastic, graphite-rendered mixed medium installation


42s

05/20/2024

When I was an undergraduate senior forty years ago, I was told by my SUNY college advisor that I was not talented enough to succeed as an artist. He suggested for me to choose another career. I quit school the next day and set upon a 30-year autodidactic journey; feverishly exploring the much-revered old masters and honing my fundamental skills. Thirty-five years later I finished my undergraduate degree.
My first semester of graduate school at Savannah College of Art and Design provided the catalyst for my evolving creativity. The years of self-direction had painted me into a bubble. I had stagnated with old master-inspired mimetic realism and my work was stale.
Often referring to this work as my Alpha and Omega sculpture, Birds of a Feather represents the impetus for the creation of the “Portals” body of work. The portraits in the installation were created as my first project at graduate school and are watercolor depictions of my favorite silent movie film stars. My professor warned me that although they were beautiful renderings, they were mimetic copies and lacked originality. I placed them on the wall in my studio for a year and just stared at them. Unable to move forward, I realized I was trapped. The prison bars appeared the next day.

Please visit my website for a more detailed glimpse!!!
www.climbingthewalls.net

05/06/2024

As an adult, addressing my growing agoraphobia and anxiety through my art became a cathartic experience. Creating theatrical stage sets portraying my anxiety allows me to reconstruct memories internally, as well as externally through sculpture. My installations are home-centric in response to my reclusive domestic reliance -- and the sheer fact that they are too large to move.
The Sanctuary is almost entirely created from foam. I have often been asked why I recreate mundane objects, instead of using the actual found object. Using polystyrene makes the answer simple in that the creation of the memory is mine to form, perfect or rearrange at will – I am in control. My use of polystyrene began with the collection of recycled materials and expanded when I began to depend on the highly forgiving nature of the lightweight inexpensive material. Much of the foam I use is from recycled products, but I also procure foam in hardened blocks for sculpting, Styrofoam wedges, molded dowels, and pliant moldable air-dry foam. Rummaging through recycling bins and commercially discarded plastics, I found no end to the polymer wasteland.

For more information, please visit my website: www.climbingthewalls.net

04/13/2024

Very honored to be featured in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette on Sunday, April 14. Here is a preview. You will be asked to register (free) and more pictures are available on the lower right corner of the photograph in the article.

About 40 years ago, Lorrie Anne Minicozzi stood in the office of her academic art adviser at a New York university to go over her coursework. Clasping...

03/19/2024

Fall of the Sparrow, 6’x7.5’x9’, Wood, foam, spackle, plexiglass, acrylic painting, mixed medium installation, 2024.

"There, on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds
Clamb'ring to hang, an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide
And mermaid-like, awhile they bore her up;
Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,
As one incapable of her own distress,
Or like a creature native and endued unto
that element. But long it could not be
Till that her garments, heavy with their drink,
Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay
To muddy death." Act 4, Scene 7 Hamlet