I love the formal challenges of composition, color, and craftsmanship involved with painting in oil on a canvas in 2 dimensions.  But what I love most of all is figurative imagery – trying to express something interesting about a (usually human) form in space and time.  For my last show, I concentrated on using mostly classical painting techniques to create intimate realistic little portraits of the women in my family. As a newly retired person with (finally) more time to paint, I am now trying to figure out what kind of painter I’ve become in the interim.

So, this show re-plays some ideas from the past (mirrors, patterns, spatial ambiguity), re-purposing some old canvases in new ways, and experimenting with more spontaneous, stylized types of representation.  What holds it all together is a desire to find new and interesting ways to think about figuration and see where that leads next.

The first painting, “Self-Portrait in My Studio” is an old painting done soon after I graduated from the post-bac program at SAIC, about 25 years ago.  All the other paintings are recent, but have to do with “looking,” in the same vein as that painting – examining what it means to make and see art in new ways. The mirror that appears in many of the paintings is meant to portray that act of self-examination. All these paintings are simply documentation of that experimentation in self-examination.

The painters who have most influenced me are also diverse—Charlotte Saloman, Alice Valenstein, Eduard Vuillard, Jorge Castillo, and the Bay-Area Figurative painters from the 60’s—just to mention a few.  I am grateful for all those artists and their visions, who have in turn inspired mine.

Opening Reception, Friday, Sept 10, 5:00 – 8:00pm

• Exhibition dates: Sept 2 – 25, 2021
• Gallery hours: Thurs & Fri 2-6 pm,  Sat & Sun 12-4 pm  

Affiliate Members: Kina Bagovska – Nancy Bechtol – Denise Bellezzo – Monica J. Brown – Virginia Carstarphen – Esther Charbit – Jessica Gondek – Kristina Gosh – Pauline Kochanski – Cynthia Vaicunas – Chiyeko Yuki – Amy Zucker

Interns: Olivia Sciford – Devon Weist

Closing Reception, Friday, Sept 24, 5:00 – 8:00pm

• Exhibition dates: Sept 2 – 25, 2021
• Gallery hours: Thurs & Fri 2-6 pm,  Sat & Sun 12-4 pm  

Still not comprehending, though understanding the depth of what she was being asked to do, those words resounded in her spirit, and so, almost without knowing why she did it, she passed this message on to her own daughter: “Remember.” And so, it was passed down through generations, across continents, over oceans, through rivers, atop mountains, written on clouds, intertwined in tree branches, and encoded in dreams when those memories had been forgotten. And so… I heard my grandmothers speak in a whisper, softly, yet firmly: “Remember.”

Ancestor(s) Stones are intuition mining tools. They represent ancient wisdom, antiquity. They are the knowing inherent in having bourn witness to the ages. They align with the string of memory that lives in DNA, passed down through generations. They represent grounding, leverage, or steps to take. The stones have taken many shapes.

Sticks are fuel for flame. They feed the fire. Inspire it to burn. They are motivation for the fire to continue. They are place markers. They are divination tools used in the location of underground water. They are broken branches: once connected to the tree.

I am the branch, extending back, resting on the bough of my mothers. I am the daughter of Elizabeth, Flora, Grace, Ora, Parthena, Zilpha, YOMHN… and her mother, and her mother, and her mother…

• VIRGINIA CARSTARPHEN
• WANDERINGS, MAPS AND MEMORIES
• Exhibition dates: May 28 – June 19, 2021
• The video below is the online opening reception of the exhibit.  It took place on Zoom on May 29, 2021

Click on play above to see the video of the online opening reception on Zoom

While in college I discovered the writings of American geographer John Wright who coined the term “geopiety:” geo from the Greek for earth and piety from the Latin pietas meaning sense of duty of filial love. This word so perfectly expresses my love and sense of devotion to the places that have filled my life. The landscapes of Georgia, New England, Florida, and the Midwest; the waters of the Great Lakes, Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico all figure prominently in my work.

Although my work edges mostly on abstraction, I have always thought of myself as a landscape artist.  Artists like Eva Hesse, Anselm Keifer, and Cy Twombly inspire me. Cartography and asemic writing are devices I rely on to explore my subject matter. Through line, color, material and gesture I attempt to honor the landscapes that I am deeply attached to. These landscape explorations are filtered through both experience and memory. Imagination plays an important role as well.

At times these abstracted landscapes can be internal mappings of the human body on a cellular level – a way of finding myself in the world.  Other times they verge on more macrocosmic abstractions – a landscape as big as a galaxy.  Often they navigate the space in between. It is within that space that I find balance between destruction and renewal, entanglement and order.

In this body of work, maps themselves become the vehicle to explore these ideas.  Where am I? Where do I come from?  Where am I going?  These questions are at the heart of the manipulations of the maps.  They become transformed by my wanderings, both literally and symbolically.

ERA OF PREPARATION AND DESIRE  Virtual Opening Reception – Sat. Apr 3, 4-5pm