Published in the Weekly Volcano, April 22, 2015
 |
| Susan Aurand, The Diver I (lower detail), 2015, oil on wood panel, overall 44" x 12", detail 21" x 12" |
 | |
| Lucia Harrison, Beneath the Forest Floor II, 2015, handmade paper, watercolor, ink, photopolymer prints, and thread, 9” x 1 ¾” x 9” |
The
latest show at the gallery at The Evergreen State College is a two-person show
with longtime and recently retired TESC art faculty members Susan Aurand and
Lucia Harrison. Each has taught both art and science classes, and each brings
meticulous observation of nature to their work. Stylistically they are much
alike, especially in their paintings and charcoal drawings.
One
of Aurand’s charcoal drawings was the first piece of art by a local artist I
saw when I movied to Olympia in 1988. I was impressed with her technical skill
and with the lush tones of her hyper-realistic drawing, even though I thought
at the time that the subject matter was a tad trite. There are two charcoal
drawings in this show from the same period (1986). “Anna’s Idea” and “No One
Could Account for It” both picture young girls and birds drawn in exquisite
detail. Two earlier charcoals (from 1974) are detailed views of flowers. The
drawings are crisp and rich in dark and light contrast with the blackest blacks
and white that glows like snow in sunlight.
More
recent work includes a group of landscapes painted on wooden and mixed-media
constructions with carved and painted feathers, specimen bottles and other
objects on structures shaped like houses with peaked roofs. Local art lovers
should be familiar with these because works from this series have been shown
often at Childhood’s End Gallery.
New
to me is a group of paintings from her “Driver” series. There are four of
these, each a vertical panel made up of five-to-seven sections with something
different painted on each: grass, sky, reflections in water, and textured
panels that could be anything from old fence boards to pieces of rock.
Harrison’s
“Ancient Forest of Fraying Pan Creek” is a mixed-media installation that is
hard to describe consisting of circles of hand-made paper with leaves, roots,
paints representing, among other things in nature: decomposing leaf litter,
Mount St. Helens ash, minerals from unknown volcanic eruptions — hung on the
wall and hanging from the ceiling and displayed in Plexiglas trays.
Her
prismacolor drawings from Red Salmon Creek are mounted on board and arranged in
a set of 10, including “beaver,” “kill deer,” “red winged blackbird” and other
images from nature, mostly seen in extreme close-up with density of detail.
These are realistic but not as photographically realistic as Aurand’s
paintings.
Like
Aurand, she also shows paintings and charcoal drawings taken from nature. The
charcoals in particular are similar. Had they not been labeled I would not have
been able to tell which were by which artist.
Harrison
is also showing a number of intricately constructed and painted (or drawn and lettered)
art books that are simultaneously records of nature observation and stand-alone
works of art.
Both
artists are highly skilled, and their work reflects a deep love for their
subject matter and for their craft. Teachers from all over the Puget Sound area
should bring their students to this exhibition, and when its much-too-short run
is over it should move to other venues from colleges to major museums. It would
be an ideal exhibition for the Department of Ecology.
"Nature: Observation, Metaphor, Transformation," 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and
Wednesday, 12:30-5 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, through May 6, The Evergreen
State College Gallery, 2700 Evergreen Parkway NW, Library 1st floor, Olympia,
360.867.5125
No comments:
Post a Comment