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The
$10 girl: Ronda Jeffer makes affordable art for the
masses.
PHOTO: Alicia Solsman
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Takin’
it to the Street
‘I’m the 10 dollar girl,” says
Ronda Jeffer. The Albany artist, who usually works in small
format and always underprices her work, is kidding, but just
barely.
Before she became one of the most collected artists in the
area, Jeffer was known for her painted cards—pop-sociological
compositions underscored with satirical captions that cost
little more than a greeting card. A few years ago, 700 of
her witty miniatures were shown at the Albany Institute of
History & Art. She sold $5,000 worth—at $10 apiece, hence
her self-applied nickname. Though the apparent spontaneity
of her compositional style is part of the appeal, her 3-inch
miniatures can take as long as four or five hours to produce.
“I sell ridiculously cheap,” she admits cheerfully.
There’s a reason for her cheer: At gallery openings, it’s
not uncommon for anything of hers on the walls to be snatched
up before the Brie reaches room temperature. A run of 150
playfully embellished religious cards sold out. One example:
A traditionally effeminate Jesus re-titled as Gender Bender.
“People thought they were sacrilegious, but they weren’t,”
she says of the series. “My art is about reverence.”
A College of Saint Rose graduate with an MFA from the School
of Visual Arts in Manhattan, Jeffer notes that price isn’t
the only reason she sells everything she makes. “It’s got
content,” she says definitively. “My work is about women’s
worlds and women’s lives.” Her influences range from Frida
Kahlo to Francesco Clemente, and from Running with Wolves
to musical- sisters duo CocoRosie. A list of the artists who
collect her work reads like a Who’s Who of regional luminaries.
As of recently, Jeffer is working larger. One new picture,
of a coyly androgynous guru titled Serenity, is a substantial
8 by 10 inches. And he can be yours for a trifling $80, even
though the pen-and-inked and painted and cutout collage is
made from imported Chinese and Indian papers. “I’m a proletarian
artist,” Jeffer explains. “I want my work to be in people’s
homes. My friends can’t afford thousand-dollar artworks, so
I make art that’s inexpensive and available. I want people
to have it.” Interested buyers and viewers can peruse Jeffer’s
drawings, cards, and decoupage glass plates at her booth at
Troy’s River Street Festival this Saturday.
Jeffer frequently collaborates with the festival’s organizer,
artist and jewelry-maker Dana Rudolph. Two years ago, they
created Razzle-Dazzle, a mosaic life-size moose, for
the Bennington Moose Festival (it won first place). This year,
they partnered on Giddy-Up, a mosaic horse for Horses
Saratoga Style 2007. “It’s a huge stretch,” Jeffer says of
the four-legged, glass-encrusted sculptures. “My work has
always been figurative, not three-dimensional. And I went
from one-and-a-half inches to seven feet. Dana is always dragging
me into this stuff,” she adds with a laugh.
Jeffer has displayed at Troy’s River Street Festival since
its first year, in 2004. One of the things she especially
enjoys about it is the reaction of kids to her art. “They
ooh and aah over my drawings, and will want to buy something,”
she reports. “I love that about street festivals,” she continues.
“You get to meet so many different people, people who wouldn’t
go to a gallery to look at art, but they will go to a festival
and be amazed at what’s there.”
—Ann
Morrow
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