Carole Guthrie

My visit to the UK to see son, granddaughter and son’s partner was invigorating in so many ways. Usually, we head off tot he Tate or a London museum, but this time, the South Downs provided all the inspiration needed. Perusing the pubs, with their eclectic menus and warm atmosphere is something to sit back and ponder since I have been home.

I guess it is heartening as a painter to know that some of my heroes, namely Kandinsky, sometimes miss their mark.  I refer to the early work pictured on my August Kandinsky calendar.  Whoa, buddy, what were you thinking?  Of course, Picasso had a few ‘unsuccessful’ works which still bring in millions at auction!

Moving from nature and tornadoes to Kandinsky’s passionate philosophy about art making is a relief, even though the drama is revealed in the artist’s non-objective paintings. In his essay, “Point and Line to Plane,” he says the point is akin to language and is a language signifier. The point as period, but further he says that the point is a “tension, a temporary presence.” “Point and Line to Plane’ could be a drawing manual, giving artists compositional guidance through the use of these elements. Line can be quiet or thrusting. It’s all about mark making on a black sheet of paper, thus creating a composition. In literature, point (or period) indicates pause between two sentences (or lines). In music a pause/period after a musical note creates a Mozart or a Beethoven composition. Point, line and plane are interwoven among the arts. Now my questions is: What is the content in the pauses/silence between points/periods.

Nature’s Drama of June 1 was unsettling and the funnel cloud traveled in a random pattern throughout Western Mass. I was in the basement with my 4 year old grandson, watching the eerie color outside as the 100 mile per hour winds uprooted trees and tore my fence apart. It was frightening. It was like emerging from a war zone as we started back up the stairs. Now, however, I am going to take this drama and put my passion back into art. No funnel clouds will be seen in my 30 x 40 inch canvas! It’s time to make the most of my time and paint.

SKY CATHEDRAL

Nevelson, architect of blackness,

Mozart’s Queen of the Night

Sings her impossible arias

In dark composition that soar.

“Black is not absence,

but the sum of all color.” Her words.

From Manhattan rubbish

She builds baroque

Cathedrals that reach for

the infinite opera.

 FRIDA

In a spot of color

you found the image

ink  blood

Art fused with broken spine

mended in  a purgatory of remorse.

Hair sacrificed to lovers,

a sister  your husband

on canvas you wear Diego’s suit

and you own it.

When your soul was shoved into hard barren earth

you painted green leaves, blood stains

lost pregnancies and monkeys

your landscape vivid, thick as your honest eyebrows,

dark, rich as the sweet odor of Mexican soil.

Images strong as you weaken.

Pain intrudes, splits your portrait in two,

one the loved other, unloved.

Wounded body and bruised heart.

Skulls in a miniature landscape

carved into a forehead of dreams.

A world found in each canvas,

its horror and its beauty.

In July, I was asked to give a lecture for Senior EdVentures at UMASS, my alma mater.  It was good going back there as a teacher, and the group was so responsive.  My lecture had to do with 3 artists that used Word and Image, drawn from several lectures given for the International Society of the Word and Image (in Chicago, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland).   The Artists were: Medieval Abbess Hildegarde of Bingen, Post Modern Artist Barbara Kruger, and an installation by Tony Harbart called Elmer Walker, Hermit to Hero)…

After spending the spring and summer working on mixed media florals that are 18 x24″ or 16×20″ I decided to do some larger canvases.  They are of an abstract nature and require the viewer’s response and interpretation.