Something Old, Something New: Constance Old

You may have encountered artist Constance Old on the streets of New Canaan. 

Last summer she set her loom on the sidewalk outside of design solutions, which often displays her work. Passersby could observe her weaving firsthand. Reaction is often delight mixed with perplexity. 

"I think her work is abstract, but very warm," Pauline Dora, owner of design solutions, told Patch. "Her weaving with recycled material is brilliant."

"What is this made of?" an observer asks, touching the strange texture or "How did you get such color?" bending closer to get a better look.

Constance loves to explain, especially to children who are often captivated by the bright colors. 

"Well, this bright blue is the plastic bags that the New York Times comes in. I weave them through this backing, which is actually a plastic tarp that the ladies in Chinatown use for their grocery bags," she says, looking serious before breaking out into a smile when people marvel at the ingenuity.   

Weaving hooked rugs is only one of the mediums in which Constance concentrates her talents. Bookmaking is another.

Old's "Book of Lists, 3 Volumes," which is currently part of the Memory exhibition at Westport Arts Center, chronicles our lives, today now, as we are living.  Mundane tidbits of daily life -- the To Do lists we all have: do laundry, pick up prescription, call plumber – are bundled, packaged and arranged together become the opposite of mundane.

Twenty some years ago, Old set out into the corporate world armed with an MFA from Yale, working for Martha Stewart Living as an art director and as a freelance book designer.  Since devoting herself full time to her own art, she now finds herself ensconced in her airy studio on Brushy Ridge with a solid body of work behind her.

"I am really excited about my current show at the Westport Arts Center and my three coming up—a new level for me as they are curated as opposed to 'juried,'" she said.

Old's studio was renovated from a garage that once housed Old Faithful on the property of her Brushy Ridge Rd. home. Constance painted the exterior a bright barn red and put in 10-foot custom windows to create an open, inspiring space that also contains cozy nooks where she amasses her many recycled materials, collecting and sorting, a seemingly endless task. 

When the Gap store closed in town years ago, and the jeans that everybody wanted for half price were gone, Constance spied the empty display cases and drawers—perfect for her myriad materials--and was able to procure them from the clothing giant for next to nothing.

 Constance's work takes on many forms, including printmaking, but has the essential element of taking ordinary, everyday things—that many of us, despite our good intentions to recycle—would toss in the trash. She not only finds worth in celebrating the existence of say, a pink paper clip or a receipt from a grocery store, the stuff that piles up in corners of our desks and drawers and drives us crazy, but by collecting, collating, repositioning, and packaging, she creates an amazing visual that stands alone as an object that brings reflection and contemplation every time it is viewed. The obvious overlaying principle that runs through all her work: go green, save our planet.

Old's pieces are held in private and corporate collections in this country and Australia and have been exhibited at the International Print Center in New York, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, and the Carver Museum, Silvermine Guild Art Center, The Katonah Museum of Art, and the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk. 

And,  oh, the next time you time you toss out your plastic bags, think of Constance.  They could be great art one day.