“Remnants: Drawing & Photographs of Found Gloves,” a new art exhibit at the NAU College of Arts and Letters Riles Gallery (Bldg. 15), features fine art photography and sketches of found work gloves.

Eric O’Connell began photographing gloves in 2008. He is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the NAU School of Communication, where he teaches photojournalism. Artist Shawn Skabelund began incorporating found gloves into drawings and sculptures in 2008. Both artists began picking the gloves up off the ground, but now gloves are given to them by carpenters, loggers, ranchers or wildfire fighters.

Separately, the artists have been collecting used work gloves in our individual artwork.  Eric collects them and keeps them as intact as possible. They are carefully transported to his studio and photographed as they were originally found, including any dirt, rocks and other debris. The photos are then mounted and preserved with a resin, creating a similar metaphorical effect to found insects preserved - in-situ - in amber.

For both of the artists, the gloves exude a sense of longing, portraying a stilled-life, a memento mori.  There is also a sense of animism in each found glove, and if it is made of leather, in the animal whose body it came from.  And there is a longing that permeates the wearer who lost it. Who wore it?  What was their trade or craft?  What did they feel when they discovered their loss?