May 7 - 30, 2021
Opening Reception: Friday, May 7, 6-8:30 pm
“(IN)Between”
Lesley Cohen
“Still Life”
Elizabeth Strasser
On Thursdays starting May 6, the artist
will be present from 1-4 pm.
“(IN)Between”
Lesley Cohen
Click here to view the online preview.
No one could have predicted the onslaught of the Coronavirus, much less the chaos and uncertainty we’ve been enduring this year. It feels like I have been dumped (rather unceremoniously) into a strange in-between state amid the ‘before’ and ‘after’ phase of my life.
While trying to make sense of it, I am aware of the enormous transformative potential of this moment. I recognize that we are all in this uncharted territory together. No one has been here before; answers are transient at best. Most of us are struggling to maintain boundaries.
This new body of abstract drawings, (IN)Between, explores the ambiguity of transitional space in which definitions are suspended, and our boundaries are blurred. These drawings serve as a metaphor for the “meanwhile-times” when we are left to follow an unfamiliar route that tests who we believe we are. Once the unknown is revealed and we transition to this new path, we begin to uncover a new layer of ourselves. Even the familiar becomes new again. Those moments of unintentional pause are a call for us to see that the spaces in-between hold all the possibility.
I work within the language of abstraction because it is the place where there isn’t a clear image or perspective. It’s much more of that in-between place. It allows my thoughts to intermingle, develop into something else, and become fused together. I’m concerned with the coexistence of disparate forms, the spaces in between, that hold an all-consuming myriad of possibilities just beyond reach...
I draw what looks like unsalvageable parts of a whole. Each piece is a network of seemingly disconnected, disparate, but inseparable relationships all held in a complex, delicate balance. The drawings, though created separately, encompass different, connected purposes. Your mind will naturally knit them together. At times my process feels like I am between seeing and not, between being and not. That’s the irrational part of my work. I am frequently mystified by the results of my process. And these outcomes inspire my next body of work.
Charcoal and chalk pastel, my preferred media, yields a palette with a range of countless blacks, off-whites, and grays that vary in density and transparency as much as in tonality. I continually increase my respect for the power and the range possible with this seemingly limited media. My regard for surface, texture and values—the grey scale—renders noticeable color unnecessary in my work. The works have visual layers of media, understanding and interpretation that can be read on multiple levels.
The pandemic/lock-down afforded me time to reflect on my journey through this uncertain time and has offered me some lessons to draw from it. The ambiguity created [has been] a challenge, but it didn’t exclude optimism. I remain hopeful that we will be offered a chance to press “reset”. At that point, we can all find our way to a better path going forward.
“Still Life”
Elizabeth Strasser
The paintings and ceramics in “Still Life” focus on still life in two senses: first, the traditional art idea of capturing interior forms in a moment of time and second, celebrating the ongoing pulse of life in its turmoil and uncertainty. The content of the paintings, ceramics, and still life arrangements reflects both the stillness and the disturbing contradictions of a locked-down society.
Last year the world almost closed because of the Covid 19 pandemic.
The slowness brought isolation. The isolation brought anxiety. My studio allowed a peaceful refuge. Working with clay was the perfect activity for quiet and unencumbered process. I began making small vessels. I left most of them unglazed. The finished pieces reflected my desire for simplicity.
Small white pots were scattered around the studio, balanced on tables, pushed against other objects. I started painting these accidental still life arrangements using oil on canvas. I painted from various angles, shrinking and enlarging. Shadows became objects, objects morphed into shapes. I was very aware of details that may have gone unnoticed in more hectic times. I moved away from what I was seeing, taking the objects, the forms, the colors and using them to convey the contrast between calm and tension. The compositions reflected both the quiet of objects stopped in time and the unease of objects in flux.
The paintings led me back to clay, where now I worked on larger forms. I put the finished ceramic work into still life groupings arranged on fiber mats. I made the mats of flax and other fibers (dryer lint being a surprising favorite). The arranged objects on the fiber mats are like the three-dimensional arrangements from which the still life comes, linking the ceramics to the paintings and to the multiple meanings of still life.
The paintings, the ceramics, and the still life arrangements reflect both the quiet and isolation of the year and the ongoing pulse of life that has survived the period of loss.