Artist Jay Handy, originally from Bay City, Michigan, is presenting a one-person exhibit at Studio 23 in Bay City starting March 25, 2022. The exhibit titled: This Must Be The Place, will include one-of-a-kind pulled prints depicting imagery found in vintage photographs of Bay City. Jay Handy imagined a community project that actually crowd-sourced the residents of this riverfront city in Michigan, to submit their family photos to be used as inspiration and collage elements in his artwork. Val and Armin are so happy that they had a chance to get to know Jay and look forward to attending his reception and workshop.  

Jay Handy is a printmaker specializing in etching and chine collé to create the signature dreamlike quality that permeates his work. From the Harvard Business School to Lesley University College of Art and Design, the winding road he traveled to arrive at his current position as a passionate and prolific artist imbues his art with the characteristic sense of tension and nostalgia his work is known for. Jay resides in Madison, Wisconsin, where he continues to weave memories into preserved moments in time.

Nostalgia is a primary presence in Jay's work, which contrasts beautifully with underlying elements of artistic tension. Like most artists, Jay finds himself reaching back into his history for inspiration. His work seamlessly conjures up memorable moments in life that trigger a feeling and capture that special moment for the viewer.

Artist Statement from Jay Handy: My art is an exploration of memory, both in its function and its feeling. When we think back on a memory, it’s never quite the same as the initial experience that it was born of—a unique and complicated aura now surrounds it. Depending on the moment in time, it may be tinged with a hint of tenderness or a sense of forlornness.

I find myself caught on a memory, turning it over and over in my mind to uncover every unique thread of nostalgia, of joy, of tension. The memory becomes a distinct moment in time, with so clear a life and story all its own that I’m compelled to transform it from a vision to a tangible image. My use of etching and chine collé recreate the memory and transmute the unique qualities that frame it into a language that can speak to viewers and stir within them that shared experience of nostalgia and memory.

Regardless of who we are, where we’re from, or what time period we’ve lived through, we each have our own experience of memory and the often bittersweet qualities that those memories are preserved in. My art is the translation of memory from floating fragments to captured moments.

Thank you to Jay Handy for this wonderful conversation for Art Ladders. 

Exhibition at Studio 23 in Bay City starts March 25, 2022. Studio 23 is at 901 N. Water Street, Bay City, MI with telephone number: 989-894-2323. There will be a gallery walk and talk that day starting at 4:15pm and a reception starting at 5pm. 

Link to Jay Handy's "This Must Be The Place" exhibit reception at Studio 23 in Bay City. 

Link to Jay Handy's Gallery Walk and Talk at Studio 23.

Link to Jay Handy's website.

Link to Jay Handy's Instagram 

Link to Jay Handy's Facebook Page.

Please contact Shelley Stevens at [email protected] for info on September 2-3 workshops.  Collage to Print: Exploratory Calligraphy with Valerie and Drawing the Abstraction in Nature with Armin Mersmann. Lodging can be arranged.