CMYK - An Exploration In Color - Opens Friday, Aug. 4 - 6 to 9 at The Ford Gallery

Many months of deep diving into melding fibers, hand painted, stitched, and printed collage papers with plaster and acrylic are culminating in two shows for me this summer - the first of which opens tomorrow, August 4th, at The Ford Gallery in Portland. CMYK - An Exploration In Color brings together five local artists, each with their own interpretation of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black - pigments used in color printing, a subtractive color model used to achieve true colors.

detail of “Fragmentary Blue” 60”h x 48”w

Each of these mixed media pieces is quite large, which posed some interesting challenges for my mixed-media mash-up experiments - I wanted to push myself to explore a variety of ways of integrating the threads, papers, and paint - sometimes taking collage to the loom, sometimes weaving directly over the panels.

detail of “Shadows on the Wall” 48”h x 36”w

I also wanted to integrate poetry that I felt resonated with each color, discovering that my personal sense of them exists in the atmosphere around us - the brilliant blue of a cloudless sky, the rich magenta hues of the horizon at sunset, the radiant sun, the black of night. Embedding the poems either into the base layer of plaster or written onto collage papers, I held them front of mind throughout the process. The collage, mainly consisting of altered printed archival photos (CMYK inks) on translucent papers, came to represent fragments of memory, of experience, and the fibers our personal and collective histories.

detail of “Streaming Upward” 48”hx36”w

The time spent with these four paintings has taught me so very much. The lessons have been as much about life as they have been about art making: learning to take bold risks with the realization that I can only control so much of the outcome, that the imperfections that naturally arise are to be embraced rather than resisted, and that we are ever evolving, becoming who we are meant to be.

detail of “The Hand of an Artist” 48”w x 36”h

I’m not entirely sure where this will lead me next, but am eager to continue to follow the threads.

If you’re in Portland and able to swing by on Friday evening, please do - I would love for you to see where my curiosity has led me, and I’m sure you’ll be impressed by the beautiful paintings that Heather Adamek, Rachael Allen, Alison Dougherty and Lacy Lowry have brought forth for this show.

Next month is “Montage” a group show at the Lolo Pass Hotel gallery on E. Burnside - more details soon!

Thank you for reading this far - so appreciated!

XO Liz