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| "Slipping Between" monoprint with accidental shoptowel, 24" x 20", 1998 |
I’ll let you in on a little secret. I like
Susan Christian a lot, and I have since first meeting her in 1988 or ’89, but I
have not always liked her art. In the early days of our acquaintance, what I saw
of her work was primarily variations on a scene of a single mountain viewed
from a distance across water. Just as Cezanne exhausted his view of Mont Sainte-Victoire, Susan exhausted her view of this mountain overlooking the Salish Sea.
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| installation view, photo by Alec Clayton |
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| "Tripartite Oyster Bay," pastel 48" x 18" 2001, photo by Susan Christian |
Now, 30 years later, she is showing some of
those same pictures in the lobby of the State Theater in conjunction with their
performance of The Highest Tide, the play from the Jim Lynch novel
adapted for the stage by Jane Jones. And now I really love those pictures. The
pictures haven’t changed; my ability to see them has. Back then, I thought them
rather bland; now I see that they are deceptively simple―refreshingly and
boldly reductive, painted with a sure touch and depicting mystery, majesty and
barely contained energy.
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| New painting, "The Highest Tide," acrylic on canvas, approx. 86" x 38", photo by Susan Christian |
In the many prints in the lobby, the
mountain hovers just as Mt. Rainier sometimes appears to hover above the
clouds. It stands at the horizon. It floats on the water or rises from the
water.
They are not all of the same mountain. There’s
one mono print called “Reading Your Dreams” that looks like a snow drift with a
couple of mountain-peak-shaped black lines and a blue sky filled with large
white dots―an abstract interpretation of the excitement of wind and cold while
skiing or snowboarding (possibly, up to the viewer to interpret).
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| Opening reception, photo by Lynette Charters Serembe |
There are two larger pictures in the box
office. “Tripartite Oyster Bay” is a pastel depicting the deep blue waters of
Puget Sound as seen from either a deck or a pier overlooking the sound with a
mountain range in the distance. Susan lives on the water, and the scene is
probably from her home. The picture is divided by a central light section that
breaks the composition into three roughly equal sections with the pier jutting
out at harsh angles. The blue of the water is rich and glowing, and in the
section on the left looks like windowpanes between each section of the railing.
It is a beautiful and sparkling painting.
The other painting in the box office is a
large work in acrylic on canvas that was done specifically for this show. In a vast
field of dark and stormy blue a small group of jagged red, orange and lighter
blue marks create a concentrated explosion of something like lightning on the
water. This is the power and the majesty of Puget Sound made palpable in
abstract painting.
Although all but one of the artworks in this
show were done more than three decades ago and about 20 years before Lynch’s
book was published, they are the absolute perfect illustrations for the book
and play.
Susan Christian will give a talk in the lobby
following the Sunday matinee March 15. Free to everyone.
WHEN
When the box office is open,
noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and prior to performances, 1:30-2 p.m. Sunday and
7-7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday through March 21
WHERE
State Theater, 202 4th Ave
East, Olympia, WA 98501
COST
Art exhibit free.
Performance $36, senior, military $34, student, youth under 25 $20
LEARN MORE
360.786.0151,
http://www.harlequinproductions.org
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