My second trip to Mexico… and we headed straight to the big city. CDMX as it is known, has a population of over 20 million in the metro area and is at an elevation of over 7,000 feet above sea level. It’s a gritty and vivacious city with amazing food and refreshingly warm and generous people. We walked for hours. My take away is that we could learn a lot from the people of Mexico, their generosity and openess, their presence in life is something to admire and reflect upon.
The second half of our trip was in San Miguel Allende, (Population ~69 thousand). It’s beautiful and graced with a cake like cathedral at it’s center. Generous people, wonderful food and loads of visual inspiration.
The opening for Concord Art’s MJ2: Collage, Crafts, Drawing, Graphics, Mixed Media, Photography, Printmaking 2024 is February 22nd at 5:30pm. The show will run through February 11th 2024. My collage Retablo: Music was selected as part of the show.
Retablo: MUSIC
Detail
““Pursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life, as a dog does his master’s chaise. Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still.””
Artist Statement
I am launching into this statement with a Thoreau quote. We are in Concord after all!
The compelling part of this Thoreau quote is the idea of chasing down that which speaks to you. As an artist, it might be the meat of the endeavor. Taking risks and experimenting is a way to 'know your own bone.' Making this retablo collage started as something that caught my attention out of the corner of my eye in the process of printmaking. Retablos are usually devotional paintings of Saints. In the process of investigating what it was that had caught my attention, I made three mixed-media collage retablos, a trinity. I named them Music, Beauty, and Love.
The experiment to make these collages into retablos was probably seeded by my visit to El Santuario, a chapel in Chimayo, New Mexico. The artistry of the altarpiece, and other art in the chapel, have a beautiful and humble folkart-like magnificence in their use of wood and colorway. I was moved by the human devotion to craft and to beauty and to that which is transcendent. I am not religious, but I try to work with my own susceptibility in art. Back to Thoreau's words: "Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw at it still."
My collage Retablo: Music is an exploration of human devotion to music over time. The beauty of abstraction is that it allows for multiple interpretations. I'm thinking tribal, religious, and music made on the back porch.
Inspiration from the islands.
It’s a Wrap!
The opportunity to show my paintings was a full-circle experience—from the silent ‘creation conversation’ in the studio to these sun-filled walls. It allowed the paintings’ conversations to continue with others, making connections. Sweet.
Some images from the show:
My first trip to Mexico… how is that possible? Oaxaca is a hot bed of craft and color. The plant life is pretty cool too. :)
30th Anniversary trip and the keys to my heart; culture, art, food, nature, and friendship— not necessarily in that order. C’est pas du luxe! (it’s not luxury!). Soul feeding is not luxury but it looks like that to me. Being blessed with a partner with similar proclivities helps. :)
I’m a week back from my ANE workshop with Alfredo Gisholt entitled Abstract Painting and Perception and I am beginning to understand and see better the paintings I made there.
The Hamilton College campus has a beautiful collection of specimen trees and plants. Some of this beauty is part of the Root Glen, so there is much to inspire. I enjoyed many walks and took many photographs, my way of 'taking notes' while noticing. Now that I am home and taking a step back to look at the pictures I took, it's more apparent how my mind works when painting. While I do not work from photography or sketches, there is a connection to what I have photographed and sketched in my mind’s-eye.
At the end of each year, I create a small book. It’s a good exercise in seeing where I have been and where I might go in the new year.
Looking.
Beautiful thinking allows our imaginations a turn at the helm.
When I look at an abstract painting, I feel transported, given the gift of another way of seeing. When I paint abstracts, I let go of routine, rigidity, and process; I explore possibility, harmony, and beauty.
Abstraction is beguiling. When in the flow of painting, I am lost in solving the visual complexity of disparate forms, colors, and textures, searching for a framework with harmony. Leaning into the joy of painting abstracts, I find greater ease with complexity, I grow into new ways of looking and thinking.
When a painting connects with another person through its language of color, form, and line, it can be transformative. Like poetry which allows, in its abstraction, for multiple interpretations, abstract painting is a means to beautiful thinking*. By identifying with the gestural quality of a line, the ambiguity of a shape, the emotion of color, we get insight into ourselves and others, we allow for difference, and find a way to get comfortable with complexity.
*Beautiful thinking: Looking for the interconnectedness and interdependence of things. Describes transformative thought, an ability to glimpse our unfurling, growth, and interconnectedness.
Feeling the desperate need for a change, for an awakening, a holding of disparate ideas and emotions, and the ability to bend before we break. Let’s vow to honor our best nature. Let’s not miss another opportunity.
Openings to wonder.
There was much to catch the eye but my heart (and camera) are always drawn to the simplicity of color, light, and texture.