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Review by Terri Parmelee "SPIRIT
ELEMENTS, |
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Both of these artists' works show a maturity developed after many years of experience in the visual arts. Susan Pearcy who has more than 35 years of printmaking under her belt, so to speak, has turned from printmaking in an expressionist style to drawing objects from the natural world with meticulous observation in a realistic fashion. Her feelings are expressed in the great enlargement of the objects depicted. "Magnolia Fruit", charcoal and pastel, fills a large sheet of paper, without background or other landscape elements, so that the tree branch and seed pod are dramatized. Attention of the viewer is directed to the observation of this graceful object, and to it alone. Pearcy's drawings complement the sculpture of Martha Tabor and are hung in proximity to these strong yet simple pieces. "Magnolia Fruit" is displayed next to Tabor's "What's Inside", a large construction of curly willow wood and wool. Tabor says that a gift of a good amount of the curly willow several years ago was what started her in making sculpture after having worked mainly in photography and printmaking. The wood seemed to be speaking to her. The result of this dialogue between the material and the artist's consciousness has produced unique sculptures that evoke impressions in the viewers mind of abstract ideas not usually expressed visually. The wool winding around and through the willow wood implies many things--intestines, the softness of a person's insides versus the strength of the bones that support them, for example. The overall effect is tasteful and speaks of time and of the fragility of the human body. "Spirit Boat I", cedar, curly willow and maple, conjures images from mythology, of a boat which transports the spirits of the dead to the next world. Next to it is displayed the Pearcy drawing, "Hermit Thrush Wrapped", in which a dead bird is tenderly observed, most of its body wrapped in a long loose shroud. |
Links to the art of primitive cultures appear in Tabor's sculptures, also, as in "Spirit Wand II". The use of dark horse tail as a material in the work adds a mysteriously powerful element, not just in the contrast of the textures, such as the thin, yet strong fibers of the horse hair versus the smooth willow wood, but also in its evocation of the idea of the sculpture being a magic amulet. Tabor's "Jacob's Ladder", curly willow and walnut, evokes the idea of a stairway leading into infinity. The rungs of the ladder twist and turn and gradually become smaller as they ascend. Pearcy's dry point etching "Teasel" also exploits a natural phenomenon such as the bristles of a seed pod, to create an effect greater than that of the object itself. The links to nature in the drawings and sculpture of both artists are their strongest points, and are models for both to express a sense of wholeness and well being in a fragmented world. |