Originally printed in The Monitor on 9/17/2012.  

By Linda Lewis

Having access to an artist’s oeuvre provides a unique opportunity to gain a broader perspective on the influences that shaped the artist and subsequently, the work.  Artist and Emerita of Art from UTPA, Nancy Moyer, provides us with such an opportunity in her retrospective.  

Artwork included, in this exhibition, ranges from the 1970s to the present.  The 70s was an era of political foment and rebellion against the status quo in the United States.  Fueled by energy from the civil rights and anti-war movements, women began to critically examine their place in the art world.  With the feminist declaration that “the personal is political,” women began exploring the personal in their artwork.  This exhibition shows us just how prickly a woman’s life can be.  

A group of large scale pastel self-portraits create a striking focal point.  Asunder is unique within the group, because it is the only self-portrait that expresses active palpable anger.  Her rage is directed at a male-dominated bureaucratic system symbolized by a drawing of a man on paper--that she savagely rips in half.  

The remaining images seem tragic because there is no outward anger or resistance to the horrific agony of flesh piercing cactus spines and other insults.  However, Making it in Texas evoked a visceral reaction in this viewer.  For her, there is only escape, and in Leaving the Past, we see our headless heroine sprinting off into the unknown, albeit still tethered to her past.  The impetus to escape leads to several outcomes.    

First, she explores the themes of change through death and rebirth in a series of intricately detailed drawings.  In Academia, she photographically documents the pernicious effect employment in academia has had upon her life.  In Angry Rabbit Dialogue, her head “crowns” through a cane bottomed chair.  In this rebirth scene, she arrives armed with a gun.   

As Moyer discovers tools to protect herself, the environment becomes less threatening.  Finding her own voice is symbolized by typewriters hatching out of eggs.  We also begin to see “spineless” cactus, as she develops a spine of her own, and tames her environment.  In a telling series of “ranch” drawings, massive Zebu bulls, virile men, and a horse gaze benignly at the viewer.  

Symbolic language morphs into actual text in more recent work.  In Retrospect explores typographic and photo montage compositions reminiscent of a modernist movement that endures today.  It seems fitting for an examination of her life in words and photos.    

Secondly, continually changing materials and techniques seems to be a conditioned response to personal circumstances that is bolstered by developments in critical theory and new media.  Moyer was schooled in a craft medium, jewelry/metalsmithing, but rejected it for some time for the classical techniques of painting and drawing.   Later, she experimented with hand-made paper, Xerox printing, computer aided design and photography, and in recent years returned to jewelry/metalsmithing.  

Similar themes across media create a cohesive look to the exhibition.  An injection of wry humor often lightens the seriousness of the issues she tackles. 

SYNTHESIZED NATURE

Seeking Resolution by Mars Woodhill

Polished Agate

You will undoubtedly find color combinations that attract you in Mars Woodhill’s paintings on display at Quinta Mazatlan in McAllen, TX.  I was immediately reminded of polished agate stones with their beautiful striations of color.  I was also reminded of carnival spin art.  British artist Damien Hirst transformed the lowly technique of carnival spin art to high art in his spin painting series.  Well, that's debatable I suppose!

Beautiful by Damien Hirst

I wouldn’t classify Woodhill’s work as a spin painting, but the dynamic of motion is required to achieve the effect of fluidity in the work.  The term for this is “fluid painting.”  Woodhill states that they are created by varying the viscosity of the paint.  She won’t divulge specific technical information about her technique, but the technique is not new.  I came across an artist at a show in Phoenix, AZ about 20 years ago, who was utilizing the same kind of technique with the same effect.  He wouldn’t divulge either. 

I have my own idea about how it is done.  Paint pigments are different sizes molecularly, and the water and the pigment act as resists to each other, creating the striations.  The word “resist” is used in art to designate something that acts as a barrier.  Did you know that plain old water acts as a resist?  I watched a youtube video on Turkish marbling that exhibits this tendency a few days ago.  There are fissures in Woodhill’s surfaces, a look that can be achieved using Golden’s crackle paste medium.  Similarly there are thinning mediums that can be added to paint.  

This work isn’t original conceptually or aesthetically, but Woodhill has mastered her medium.  You can see this development if you compare her 2009 paintings to the 2012 work on her website.   The work relies upon the formal elements of color, pattern, line, texture and movement, and all those elements are manipulated effectively to achieve an interesting and pleasing result.   

Quinta Mazatlan, 600 Sunset Dr., McAllen, Texas, 956 681 3370, www.quintamazatlan.com

Enriching Your Artistic Life

Leslie Elsasser, an artist who paints miniatures, traveled to our neck of the woods to talk about her exhibition at STC.  Unfortunately, the exhibit has ended, but if you want to read a review of this wonderful exhibit, check out Nancy Moyer’s review in The Monitor.  I want to talk about something else.  

In the promotional materials for her presentation, she was referred to as a Fulbright Fellow and, she referred to her Fulbright experience in her talk.  Something she said about it made me want to pass on a little more information about Fulbright Scholarships.  She said that a new experience inspired dramatic change in her life.  It is a generally held belief that travel can enrich our lives immeasurably.  Travel writer Rick Steves says:  

“Ideally, travel broadens our perspectives personally, culturally, and politically. Suddenly, the palette with which we paint the story of our lives has more colors.”   

Receiving a Fulbright Scholarship gave Elsasser the opportunity to spend two years studying miniature painting and traveling in India.  Her research lead to the work she completed for her Master of Fine Arts thesis.  For Elsasser, her experiences “provide a rich source of inspiration and reference for her ongoing artwork.”   I had a similar experience.  I received a Fulbright Scholarship, and spent a year (1995-96) conducting research at the Danish Design School in Copenhagen, Denmark.  The research I conducted also lead to the completion of an MFA at Arizona State University.  A profoundly moving experience during other travels lead to an inspired work of art that won the top graduate student prize in the School of Art in 1999.  The award?  Money for more travel!!

So, we are two people who had our lives changed dramatically by taking advantage of a Fulbright grant.  But, how did we know about this grant?  I would never have known about these scholarships if I had not attended a lecture by a professor from the University of Arizona.  Elsasser says that she became aware of the scholarship while she was searching for grants.  I might have bypassed looking at the Fulbright, because I was under the impression that they were only for professors.  However, that is not the case.  Fulbright offers competitive, merit-based grants for students, scholars, teachers, professionals and groups.  They also vary in the length of time you spend in the country.  You can get all the details by going to the following website: 

 http://fulbright.state.gov/about/frequently-asked-questions#faq1

Embroidery Series

Ana (Argentina)

embroidery by Manju Ben

thread, mirrors and screen printing on cotton cloth

16 x 20 inches

Women In Miniature Series

Devi

handmade pigments, gouache and 14k gold on handmade paper

“Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel the more truth we can comprehend.” 

--Hypatia