On the night of Sunday 21st of December the light of the sun begins to return to the northern hemisphere.  Once again, we approach the magical Winter Solstice. Many of the Christian traditions celebrate advent during this season – advent meaning “the coming”. Regardless of ones’ religious or non-religious preferences, winter is a quiet time of waiting, of trusting and of courage TO trust – only to find courage finding us. We are collectively seduced into looking upon darkness as negative and light as good. It is a rather universally accepted belief. And yet, if there is no darkness how would it be possible for us to see the radiance of the flickering candle flame? How would it be possible to be captured by a night sky sparkling with the diamond-like twinkling of stars? How would the full moon find us?

It seems to me that both light and dark are equal companions. The perfection of opposites – the necessity and perfect union of both. One of my earlier pieces (still available) is titled Finding Courage (shown at right). When I created it, it was intended to be symbolic of those seasons when our roots feel much too shallow to support us through a wintry season in our lives. Even though we feel a sense of being completely “off balance” and a dramatically frightening chill blankets us in those times, we are mysteriously and perfectly held – rooted firmly – rooted perfectly. Since the creation of this piece, as it happens beautifully with each of my creative endeavors, the piece has spoken to me in many different manners through the seasons. Today, the piece speaks to me of courage finding me – of a realization that I need not seek or look for it outside of myself – it is mine already – always. It almost becomes an illusion to ever believe I even have to think about needing it – it is inherently mine. We each, I feel, always hold the exact amount of courage we need in any season of our lives and at times, circumstances bring us the realization of its infinite presence.

As you greet the Winter Solstice this year, I wish you the peace of knowing you are never walking in the dark without purpose nor without light.  Rather, you may be walking in the dark toward something to be awakened – birthed – within you that could not be awakened without first trekking through the seemingly dark, cold days. The spring flowers will bloom once more – yet only after the season of winter has tended their frail roots in preparation. Instead of longing for spring, I wish for you the welcome and deep, warm embrace of all the mysterious wonders of winter – of the coming – the resting – the birthing of something profoundly new in your life – in your heart.

Winter Solstice Blessings to each of you!

 

Finding Courage was accepted into the juried 2014 Art Kudos International Exhibit.

There’s still time! The AWA 2014 Show will run through September 15th at the Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA. A closing reception will be held on September 13, 2014 from 5-7.

The talented women of American Women Artists continue to exhibit their work at the Addison Art Gallery of Orleans, MA through September 15. The gallery will host a closing reception for the AWA Member Show & Juried Competition on Saturday, September 13 from 5-7pm.

  

“…if we follow the trajectory of American art from the past and extend it to the works of art featured in this show at the Addison Art Gallery, we can appreciate more fully how they, like all great works of art, transcend both time and space.”  – Erin Coe

Erin Coe was the curator of the 2013/2014 exhibition Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, organized by the Hyde Collection in association with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, an exhibition that achieved national acclaim as it travelled from the Hyde to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, then made its final stop in San Francisco at the de Young Museum. She is the co-author of the exhibition catalog, which was honored with an Award of Excellence by the Association of Art Museum Curators, and was rated as “one of the best book discoveries of 2013” by the Boston Globe. What follows are her remarks about the body of work currently on display at the Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, Massachusetts.

 

I was honored to be selected as the awards judge for the American Women Artists (AWA) Seventeenth Annual Members Show and National Juried Competition. I have been a juror of many shows and it is a daunting task. Serving as the awards judge for the exhibition of the AWA was especially challenging given the exceptional quality of the works on view, which represent a cross section of the most talented and skillful women artists working in the United States today.

 

AWA prescribed the criteria for evaluating the awards and it includes the following elements: composition, draftsmanship, mastery of medium, and quality of design. I’ve applied the same standards to jurying shows and all of the works featured in the galleries fulfilled and, in some cases, exceeded this criterion. Therefore, in determining the awards, I was looking for works of art that transcend these categories and engaged my eye, mind, and heart on a deeper level, whether the work evoked a mood, emotion, sentiment, or idea. Moreover, I wanted to bring a balanced perspective to my judgment by ensuring that my selection represented a variety of genres (landscape, still life, and portraiture/figurative) and medium (oil, watercolor, graphite, bronze, ceramic, stone, etc.).

 

Lastly, I also considered the artworks’ cultural surround. By this, I refer to the visual correspondences that placed the exhibited work in a dialogue with artists of the past. As an art historian specializing in nineteenth and early-twentieth century American art, I was immediately impressed, on entering the gallery, by the visual correspondences between the works on view and historical art. In particular, such artists as Frank W. Benson, William Merritt Chase, Susan Macdowell Eakins, Daniel Garber, Marion Kavanaugh Wachtel, Childe Hassam, Walter Launt Palmer, Jane Peterson, Severin Rosen, and Andrew Wyeth came to mind.

 

The three-dimensional works in the show evoke the streamlined aesthetic of Art Deco, or the curvilinear naturalism of Art Nouveau. While there are echoes of past art in these contemporary works, they speak to the present day and appeal to a captive audience for representational art. American art is grounded in realism. Indeed, the country’s first exceptional native-born painter was

John Singleton Copley who specialized in portraiture, and the tradition of realism has persisted in this country from the late eighteenth century to today. It is kept alive by each of you – the members of AWA. In conclusion, if we follow the trajectory of American art from the past and extend it to the works of art featured in this show at the Addison Art Gallery, we can appreciate more fully how they, like all great works of art, transcend both time and space.