Works on Paper at Silvermine Arts Center
I exhibited two collages at the Silvermine Arts Center Galleries (New Canaan, CT) in a juried exhibition titled IN THE LAYERS (closed 12/23/13).
Both collages, titled Color Memory 8 (16×14 inches) and Color Memory 7 (9.5×12.5 inches), are works on paper assembled with contrasting red, brown, yellow, orange, white and teal blue papers cut and pasted into blocks I arranged in a geometric grid pattern. Papers are found, printed and painted.
The colors are my memory of Sedona, AZ. The reds are the red clay dust of the desert rocks lying along the roadside. The brown-yellows are the low mountains in the near distance. The light teal blue is the bright daytime sky. The orange is the blazing sunset.
I visited Sedona a few years ago and started work on the Color Memory Series as soon as I returned to my New Rochelle, NY studio. It was important to remember all the colors – and the experience of the visit.
The exhibition IN THE LAYERS closed December 23, 2013. Suzanne Julig (Suzanne Julig Art Advisory) selected the works for the show, and said everything had to be on paper or made of paper. The exhibition included watermedia, collage, photography, printmaking, handmade paper and paper sculpture.
Julig said the poem THE LAYERS by Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006) inspired the exhibition theme. People who love poetry know the poet and his poems. Julig said she was looking for works with layered meaning and layered materials.
Kunitz was twice named the United States Poet Laureate, and wrote the poem THE LAYERS in the 1970s after the deaths of his mother, two older sisters and some close friends. The poem is filled with themes of change, loss, emotional pain and melancholy recollection. But, the poem is also ultimately, a poem of hope and transformation.
The Poetry Foundation has a printed copy so you can read the Kunitz poem. At YouTube you can hear the poet’s voice as he reads his poem. He says: Live in the layers, not on the litter. He ends with: I am not done with my changes.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/242450
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzHeGzFy0Cg.