Ehryn Torrell - Self-Similar

Ehryn Torrell- I Florence Trust, Summer exhibition July 2011. London, England

Ehryn Torrell - In amongst the ruins (detail). 2005. Acrylic on canvas.
19' x 5'6" Photo by Guy L'Heureureux

Ehryn Torrell - Atfernoon Old Town. 2009. Acrylic on canvas. 58" x 68"

Ehryn Torrell - I installation view, Self-similar. February 17 to April 26 2011.
Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, Canada

This week I was fortunate to attend Ehryn Torrell's artist talk about her work and then see her series "Self-Similar" at the opening at St. Mary's University Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Ehryn visited China five months after the earthquake of 2008. The devastation and resilience of the Chinese people became her subject. However, she views these works as reflective of her inner states of mind.

Her work is impressive and large, painted loosely, but includes interesting details. Each work encompasses its own world of debris, which Ehryn described as composed of various elements derived from multiple sketches and photos.

Ehryn Torrell writes about her series "Self-Similar":
Using the lens of the built environment to explore personal and universal conditions of human experience, my paintings examine empathy, contingency, loss and vulnerability. The title of this body of work, Self-similar, borrows in equal part from mathematics and film. In mathematics, an object or thing is described as self-similar when one or all parts are smaller copies of a larger shape. In Jean-Luc Goddards 1967 film "Two or three things I know about her," protagonist Juliette Janson describes feelings of alienation from the city and longs to re-experience a moment when she felt connected.

http://www.ehryntorrell.com/artwork.php?di=1iselfsim&fi=1mongkokm


While in Halifax, I visited the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. I particularly enjoyed Elizabeth Enders exhibition "Painting...Place." These works were painted and drawn while Enders traveled and while she resided in her cottage on the Nova Scotia coast. I appreciate the simplicity of her landscape work and its evocative power. Perhaps I will be able to tame the "baroque" tendency in my work so that it can exist alongside such simplicity in the same work. 

My mentor, Suzanne Gauthier, suggested I inquire about the Art Sales and Rental Gallery in the AGNS. I plan to submit a few pieces when I am back in Halifax in October.

My visit also included visits to commercial galleries Studio 21 and Page and Strange Gallery. I dropped into the faculty exhibit of NASCAD next door to P & S. Three artists in the show used plywood in three different ways - food for thought! Suzanne gave me a tour of the new NASCAD campus by the waterfront near Pier 21. It is huge with great facilities for ceramics, metal work and sculpture.

I am anxious to get back to work on my canvas and bring it to some sort of resolution and I am looking forward to working on plywood again. 

New Horizons Opening

'Night Tree' on display.

One corner of the gallery during the opening.

Catering by Dolma Food. Yum!

The opening for my show 'New Horizons' was well-attended and there was much enthusiasm for the work. I was interviewed for the local newspaper and the article generated interest among all of our acquaintances. Three pieces were spoken for within the first half hour! It is always instructive to see which artwork receives the most attention from viewers.

This show includes 10 plywood projects (from Residencies 1 and 2) as well as one diptych on canvas. It is great to see all of the work together and to see it under gallery lighting. I was able to leave enough space between the pieces to dramatize their individual qualities. I pan to return this week to take more photos.

I will be working on plywood again this week as I have a plan for using small pieces assembled with bolts, which will fit into a small box for shipping. Painting continues on canvas and paper as well.

NEW YORK, NY!

Times Square

Crowds in Times Square - we don't usually see this many people at once in Moncton, N.B. Canada!

Ellsworth Kelly's 'Sculpture for a Large Wall', MoMA.

Ellsworth Kelly's 'Colors for a Large Wall', MoMA with yours truly.

Tomás Saraceno's 'Cloud City' Installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

'Gibraltar' 1936. Calder's sculpture seems ready to move!

Inside the Lego Store at Rockefeller Center

Archived Sea Shells and Creatures at the American Museum of Natural History

Roy Lichtenstein's large painting 'Stepping Out' 1978.
 I used a poster of this work often in my art classes with second grade children.

'Morning Glories' by Suzuki Kiitsu (Japanese 1796-1858)
'Designing Nature' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Here a few photos and thoughts from my recent visit to New York City. My daughter and I had a whirlwind trip for four and a half days. We saw the exhibit of works by Picasso and Françoise Gilot at the Madison Ave Gagosian. Gilot seemed very influenced by Picasso's style, but her work appeared to be lyrical and positive where Picasso's seemed to be more brooding and anxious. 


At the MoMA, we also saw the extensive show of Cindy Sherman's photography. It was great to see the real thing after looking at so many of the portraits on the web or in print. I can relate to playing with 'dress-ups' and costumes as a child, but I have never pursued it beyond that. Sherman's "Film Stills" were much smaller than I imagined them. An image can be "epic" and influential regardless of its size. The life-size portraits are very impressive, however.

Also saw Taryn Simon's "A Living Man Declared Dead" and "Ecstatic Alphabets/ Heaps of Language." The readings I have been doing for Crit Theory II about archives are related to both exhibits. 


Simon's work showed the descendants of certain individuals whose families had undergone extreme upheaval and social change. Some family members were represented by blank rectangles because they were unavailable to have their photograph taken or they were no longer living. Each person was photographed in the same lighting and with the same background. An enormous tome formed the complete catalog. I was hoping for an abridged version, but there isn't one! 


The "EcstaticAlphabets" offered many iconic contemporary works involving patterns with words and letters. Many pieces were arranged in grids. The archival influence was very present.

Tomás Saraceno's "Cloud City" fascinates with its multiple reflections and transparent panels. It is disorienting to climb through it, but exciting at the same time. I didn't feel as if I was in the clouds or hovering in outer space, but I did feel like I was in a totally new environment. The view of the NY skyline from the rooftop garden is something to see as well.


We also went to see "The Lion King" and "Jesus Christ Superstar" on Broadway. A project like "The Lion King" would be the ultimate experience as a theater designer and puppet creator. I enjoyed making puppets, costumes and sets for our school productions while I was teaching art, but never envisioned anything as fantastic as the "Lion King!" The original recordings on LP of "Superstar" were part of my adolescence, with the music playing non-stop at my friend's house for months. Both shows were engaging and dramatic in different ways.


I was also able to connect with some of my cousins in nearby White Plains, NY. We hadn't seen each other in decades!


These are just a few of my immediate impressions from our trip. I will be digesting the rest for a while!

Walking through Central Park

Monument to John Lennon in Central Park near 'Strawberry Fields.'

Fern Porthole, Finishing Touches

New Fern Porthole 7  12 ½" x 15 ½"

In many ways, this project has been the most challenging of the digital image projects I have been working on. When I wanted to have it printed to the 12 ½" x 15½"size, I could see that the fern in the foreground was blurred. It had been copied from a file with lower resolution (ppi) than the ferns in the porthole. The edges of the porthole ferns were sharp and crisp, which can be interesting, but was too harsh in this case. After this, I have been careful to standardize all the files before I cut and paste from them!


With this image, I began to experiment with blurring some edges and outlining others. Then I lightened and brightened certain leaves to create more interest. Tracing around fern leaves with a computer mouse involves a fair amount of trial and error. One false move and you have to start over again! However, the mouse works better than the touch pad in terms of control. 


This project is the result of 13 stages of development!