Dan's Cover Artist Patti Grabel Explains Her Multimedia Work

A Conversation with Patti Grabel

What inspired you to create “Dial You” (2023), and what is the significance of its title?

There was a moment in my past when I was questioning different aspects of my life. But I went outside of myself to look for answers. While looking in the mirror one morning, I had a conversation with myself. I realized that I am the author of my story. It was a moment that changed my life.

“Dial You” recalls that earlier epiphany as a visual depiction of the understanding that each of us are our own answers. And to trust our own voices. That’s why we need to dial ourselves.

The repeated phrase “I Am My Answer” creates an energy that dispels the static. Self-reflection, self-care and self-love come from within. So, in “Dial You,” the mirror and the phone and the “I Am My Answer” phrase create a kinetic, circular energy of self-reliance.

What did the creation process of this multimedia work entail?

Primarily, it entailed imagination and a little courage. And a few trips to Herrick’s Hardware store. I used acrylic and oil-based paints. It took some time figuring out the right tones. I also played with different sized mirrors and phones. And I used the iconic princess phone like the one I grew up with in the 1970s.

I worked on this in my studio in the Hamptons. It was in the afternoon and the sun was beating down, so I went outside. I climbed a tall ladder in my backyard and took photos looking down at the mirror on a picnic table. I loved how the shadows of the words were cast on the phone by the late afternoon sun. It all worked so seamlessly. I was overjoyed.

What message/themes do you explore with pieces like “Dial You” and the recently installed “I Am My Answer” at the Stony Brook Medicine Phillips Family Cancer Center?

We should not outsource our stories. We have to be the authors of our own lives. “I am my answer” has become my mantra and my manifesto. For me, it represents the light that we each have within ourselves. It is a light that we must trust and we must rely on.

How’d you develop your art style/process?

As a camp owner’s daughter, when pipe cleaners, lanyards, paint and plywood were readily available to me, I was engaged in mixed media back when I was 5. But back then it was just called junk in the art shack.

As an adult, I’ve developed an aesthetic sensibility around the spoon. I was a writer working on screenplays, and spoons were important to one of my characters — as in my own life, they represented the act of both giving and receiving. I took this notion off the page and began to work as an artist, photographing spoons.

I take my wooden spoons, sand them and paint them white, creating a void. I dip the spoons in different colored paint, and I hang them on a clothing line. I love how the sun, wind and moon dry them. It’s a collaboration with nature. I take them off the line and into my studio where I pair them and photograph them.

What else are you working on now?

I have been exploring different mediums, mostly keeping with photography but also working in jewelry design. I find solace photographing the ocean in the Hamptons. It’s motion and tranquility both give and receive. Like the ocean, we rise. We fall. We get back up. We withstand the tides of change.

I created a necklace with the words, “I Am My Answer,” as a piece of wearable art to remind everyone that we have the ability to create the life we see for ourselves. The necklace is divided into two sections. “I Am” rests on your chest and “My Answer” hangs on a chain that drips down the back of your neck as a spiritual gateway.

What art accomplishment or accolade are you most proud of?

The neon “I Am My Answer” installation and the poem “Notes to Self” being at the Phillips Family Cancer Center. It’s a tremendous reward and I am grateful for the privilege of my artwork being there to support patients and their loved ones.

What do you find most rewarding about being an artist?

That I have found something that brings me joy and keeps me grounded in who I am. My goal with my art is to elevate and educate people’s consciousness to love themselves and others in one humble motion.

Would you like to share any closing thoughts or additional information?

I am proud to say I have finished my first book, In Love With Spoons: A Journey Through Art and Food. I use art, poetry, essay-writing, original photography and outside testimonials to pay tribute to spoons as a vessel with which we can find love, spirituality and the means to discover ourselves and our connection to others. A portion of the proceeds are going to City Harvest.

It was so much fun to talk with Éric Ripert, Deepak Chopra, Divya Alter, Laurent Tourondel, François Payard, Susan Meisel, Marc Forgione, Katja Goldman and many others about our shared appreciation of spoons!

I asked them all: “If you had a choice to fill your spoon literally, spiritually or metaphorically, what would you fill it with?” And I’d like to close with that: How would you?

Visit patti-grabel.com to see more of Patti Grabel’s art, and follow her on Instagram @pattigrabel.