The Process of Creation
Roland Poska (American, 1938-2017)
Untitled, c. 2000s
Cotton fiber and pigment
57 x 96 in;
144.8 x 243.8 cm
Roland Poska pioneered the medium of handmade paper in contemporary art. Working with 100% cotton fiber and the purest pigments, he delivers large scale paintings and sculptures that toe the line between landscape and abstraction. Known for his infectiously positive attitude, he was an artist greatly concerned with the good of humanity and believed in a future world devoid of prejudice and violence. These themes intertwine with his paper pulp creations, which pull their viewers into a natural world of intuition and imagination.
From a dry deckle edge of a handmade sheet of paper,
the idea began to grow.
Perhaps everything in the universe, indeed the universe itself,
is the result of forces forever meeting, or parting.
Where forces meet, or part.
From this eternal process,
everything springs eternal.
It is from what is unseen that everything manifests
itself in continuous shifting forms.
We Meet, We Grow, And We Part.
From nothing to something, the first is incomprehensible,
but, so is the second,
the process of creation.
— Roland Poska
Writing courtesy of Jerald Merberg Gallery Inc (https://www.jeraldmelberg.com/)
James Austin Murray (American, b.1969)
Watching the Watcher, 2016
Oil on canvas over panel
48 x 48 in;
121.9 x 121.9 cm
James Austin Murray’s works explore three dimensionality on a two dimensional surface. With a single stroke of brushing off the canvas, he creates rather unexpected yet intuitive curves and lines that adds the depth of the ivory black. His compositions visually shift from concave to convex, which renders a viewer to contemplate that each piece is striving to understand the flat plane before them. He creates this optical play by troweling oil paint onto the face of the canvas and then pulling a stiff bristle brush across its surface in a single stroke achieved through muscle memory.
“Like the martial arts I practice, there is a type of repetition involved. I know that if I ever get to the point where it was only repetition, I would be done with it. What constantly surprises me are the incremental improvements in my technique and subject.” — James Austin Murray
Murray’s work is found in numerous private and public collections such as Weisman Collection, Los Angeles; Hotel Palomar, Philadelphia; Four Seasons Hotel, Washington, Omni Hotel, Nashville; and Tom Ford.
Excerpt from Eric Minh Swenson
Christina Massey
Crafty Collusion 3, 2018
Acrylic and enamel paint on canvas, paper, repurposed aluminium with image transfer print, plastic fencing and wire
86 x 67 x 15 in;
218.4 x 170.2 x 38.1 cm
Painting meets sculpture in Christina Massey’s Crafty Collusion series. In these mixed media artworks, Christina uses a combination of canvas, fabric, paper and repurpose aluminium from craft beer cans. Works are hand stitched and woven together to create the complex and undulating surfaces.
“In a world that wants quick sound bites, my work is complicated. It is intentionally between several definitions, simultaneously painting and sculpture, craft and fine art and they even appear both soft and sharp at the same time. Addressing a wide range of subjects, I examine how various topics relate and overlap one another and find interest in the duality of meanings drawn from material, process and language.
Through the choice of my materials and form, my appreciation and concern for nature and the environment is revealed and acts as a representational aspect in my otherwise abstract work. Techniques like stitching and weaving are commonly used as well as processes that have stereotypically been lower on the hierarchy scale of mediums be that from printmaking to glass blowing. Works range from two to three dimensional, large to small, finding a common ground through style and using subtle language connections through the materials and titles to make conceptual connections to the forms.”
Courtesy via Christina Massey
Jin Meyerson (American, b.1972)
Broadacre, 2013-14
Oil on canvas
74 x 157.5 in;
188 x 400 cm
Jin Meyerson’s juxtaposition of the abstract works with the large distorted oil painting sums up his career and evolution.
Referencing Frank Lloyd Wright’s utopian city of the same name, Broadacre is a large-scale oil painting that commands the room. Wright’s vision was to allow individuals to flourish in a new democratic city that eliminated the old-fashioned need for people to crowd together, while simultaneously embracing modern technology and communications. Sampled from Hong Kong’s local architecture – notorious for tight living spaces – the dense layers of buildings create the background, distorted through blocked-out patches of white, while other areas stretch across the canvas, almost like the roots and branches of a tree. Meyerson has said, “I truly believe that real artists start to make work out of a need to find something out about themselves and the world they live in.” — Jin Meyerson
Courtesy via Artomity Magazine | Written by Katherine Volk
Liam Everett (American, b.1973)
Untitled (knossos hives), 2019
Ink, oil, salt, sand, and alcohol on linen
94 x 78 in;
238.8 x 198.1 cm
Liam Everett’s compositions are built up with and worn down from these improvised actions. Marks are made with a combination of acrylic and enamel paints, alcohol, and salt. Typically used to preserve or clean, salt and alcohol have acidic properties and act as dissolving agents. They weaken the binding agents in the paint, stripping the color and distressing the surface
When he paints on canvas - rather than on Masonite boards, on vinyl, or on other fabrics that are supported by the wood and sticks he used to apply the pigment - he sends it out to be stretched. “Almost 99 percent of the time I don’t see the paintings until they arrive in the gallery,” he has said. “And this is the final restriction for me because if I stretch them myself I have control somehow. I have what I think of as ‘the finish.” He has added “There’s an opening, something reveals itself, and what’s revealed is foreign to me. Then I can learn something from it. Then I can let it go.” — Liam Everett
Courtesy via 2017 SECA Art Award | Written by Jenny Gheith
Gregory Hardy (Canadian, b.1950)
Edge of the Bay, Dark In the East 2019
Acrylic on linen
48 x 66 in;
121.9 x 167.6 cm
Edge of the Bay, Dark In the East, 2019 is painted of the Lake La Ronge Region in Northern Saskatchewan where Gregory Hardy has a cabin and spends a large amount of his summers.
Gregory Hardy’s paintings materialise out of a process that begins with his physical presence in the landscape. While constructing the original scenic experience, Hardy focuses on the element of impressions and reduces down the surroundings to an intuitive manner that engages both mind and spirit.
“Stroke by stroke, layer upon layer, they construct their own history through a process of emergence and obscurity. The viewer’s entrance through and into the interior space of Hardy’s paintings parallels that of the artist’s journey; his desire to find, in the temporal, an entrance to the spiritual.”
Excerpt from “Gregory Hardy – Journeys in the Landscape” | Written by George Moppett Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon