Meryl Pataky is a San Francisco artist who works with many materials, including neon, which she has recently been featuring in an outdoor context. In this episode of Art School, we visit her studio to learn more about her intentions, the science behind her materials, and how her medium and message are often intertwined or related. We also watch as Pataky and crew installed a "living wall" sculpture at White Walls gallery, and check out her process for bending glass tubes to create the text pieces for her neon installations. Pataky also gives us a brief history of her career, and talks about how making art can be therapeutic.
Among many sculptural materials, Pataky has also used handmade paper in her studio practice, and in our second video, she demonstrates the most basic way to create paper using cotton, a blender, and a vat of water.