Published in The Weekly Volcano, April 30, 2015
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| Lucia Harrison, Beneath the Forest Floor II, 2015, handmade paper, watercolor, ink, photopolymer prints, and thread, 9” x 1 ¾” x 9” courtesy The Evergreen State College |
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 moved 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.
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| Susan Aurand, The Diver I (lower detail), 2015, oil on wood panel, overall 44" x 12", detail 21" x 12" courtesy The Evergreen State College |
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 Frying
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 These constructions are hung on the wall and hang from
the ceiling and are 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, Harrison 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.
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