Susan Aurand and
Mary McCann enliven Childhood’s End
By Alec Clayton
“Thickets and Tangles” series, graphite on paper by Susan Aurand, courtesy Childhood’s End Gallery |
A warm and
welcoming glow washes over you as you step into the gallery at Childhood’s End.
It’s not just that the art on display is good, which it is. It’s the spacing of
the art and the dominant colors that flow wavelike from painting to painting
from the warm gray of Susan Aurand’s graphite drawings to the brown tones of
her constructed paintings to the violet and blue and hot orange of Mary
McCann’s paintings as they circle the gallery walls, and it’s the way Aurand’s
and McCann’s artworks complement one another.
Aurand’s
“Thickets and Tangles” series is her newest work. Eight pieces from the series
are included, each the same size, approximately 16 by 12 inches, and drawn with
graphite on paper. Each is of a tangle of sticks, twigs, vines and flowers
tangled together like pieces of a bird’s nest, and on top and inside of the
tangles are such objects as eggs, feathers and pebbles. Most of the parts are
collaged onto a graphite drawing, some flat against the surface and some
suspended in front; there is physical depth of close to an inch. And each collaged
element is itself a drawing on paper done by Aurand and precisely cut and
pasted so there’s an enticing kind of puzzle
at work: what is drawn and what is cut and pasted, and it turns out that
everything seems to be both. With cast
shadows. But are they actual shadows or drawn shadows? It is impossible to
tell. The unifying element (and the thing that makes these works so stunning)
is the soft and smooth shading in tones of gray.
From these we go
to a group of six earlier works from Aurand’s “Ways of Rising Up” series. In
this series, Aurand paints and assembles wood, glass, metal and various objects
to create landscape-based imagery that is also like an apothecary’s collection
of medicine jars, tubes, rocks, feathers and eggs, including mysterious powders
in miniature jars and butterfly wings, all of which sit on shelves or are
suspended in front of delicately painted natural forms with stormy clouds and
brilliant sunbursts. The construction and the painting are both precise and
smooth. The dominant color scheme is based on variations on sienna. These
constructed paintings are mysterious, intriguing and finely crafted.
"Dry Falls" painting by Mary McCann, courtesy the artist |
"Wingate Formation" painting by MaryMcCann, courtesy the artist |
The only painting
that departs from the heavy impasto is “Windgate Formation,” in which the paint
is softly blended. In this one, receding and converging lines in the foreground
create the impression of a filmed image with a fast zoom.
The titles
indicate that each painting is of a particular place, but recognizing the
places is of secondary importance to the wonder of her paint application and
color uses.
Visit Childhood’s
End to take in this show. You’ll come away feeling better.
Susan Aurand and
Mary McCann, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday,
through April 20, Childhood’s End Gallery, 222 Fourth Ave. W, Olympia,
360.943.3724.
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