Quotes: Cliff Eyland

"It's not hard to make art if you have a steady work ethic –– if you work every day. ... I've always thought that my kind of art is about [the] incremental making of things every day rather than [to] make a giant painting and get exhausted." –– Cliff Eyland (b. 1954), Canadian painter, curator, and writer
* Source: Nora Young interview with Cliff Eyland, Spark, CBC Radio, Sunday December 21, 2014

Cliff Eyland @ Halifax Central Library

Cliff Eyland, Library Cards, 2014; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2015

Summer isn't complete without a visit to Halifax where my husband and I reconnect with good friends and spent time in a city that we love. One highlight of our visit was spending time in the new Halifax Central Library. We've been watching its progress for many years. Cliff Eyland's installation of 5000 "tiny paintings" graced a long wall on the main floor and an upper wall on the top floor. A few months ago I stumbled across his work when I was looking for information about Aganetha Dyck and I wrote about him here.

Cliff Eyland, Library Cards, 2014; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2015

Have I mentioned that I am obsessed with modules?

Cliff Eyland, Library Cards detail, 2014; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2015

Eyland (pronounced eeland) has worked in the 3" X 5" index/recipe/library card format since 1981. I wonder if he ever deviates from this format. Thirty-four years is a significant commitment to one size. It's like a good marriage.

Cliff Eyland, Library Cards detail, 2014; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2015

Before the advent of computers, one had to search for library books at a cabinet containing multiple drawers filled with cards. Unless the cards were typed with information, they looked a bit like the card in the above image, sans the Letraset dot inclusion.

Cliff Eyland, Library Cards, 2014; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2015

In December 2014, Nora Young interviewed Eyland for her Spark program on CBC Radio.

Cliff Eyland, Library Cards, 2014; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2015

This group of modules was on the upper wall of the upper floor of the library. The space had the feel of a classy living room with leather club chairs and sofas. The three directional view was spectacular regardless of the weather. When the fog rolled in, it felt like you were floating in a cloud. 

On a practical level, I'm curious to see how these Cliff Eyland modules will age when exposed to so much light. I'm also curious to see how the library maintains them: next summer will I see them encrusted with dust and cobwebs?

If you visit Halifax, Nova Scotia, do explore the Halifax Central Library. How often are libraries tourist attractions?

Ritsuko Ozeki @ Froelick Gallery, PDX

Ritsuko Ozeki, Down Up, 2014; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2015

While in Portland, Oregon, I stumbled across Japanese artist Ritsuko Ozeki's exhibition Distance at the Froelick Gallery. It ran from July 21 to August 29, 2015.

Ritsuko Ozeki is a Tokyo-based painter and printmaker. She studied painting and intaglio at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo, Japan and earned both a B.A. in 1994 and an M.A. in 1996. Down Up is massive: it's 98" X 137" and arrived at the Froelick Gallery neatly folded in an envelope. Ozeki printed the artwork in modules of Japanese paper using about six different plates and then joined them together to create one large whole. She employed etching, aquatint, and collage in her process. According to Froelick Gallery director Rebecca Rockom, Down Up references the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in 2011.

Ritsuko Ozeki, Down Up detail, 2014; Photo © Karen Thiessen, 2015

Ozeki's prints, especially Down Up, drew me in immediately and they have had a significant impact on how I think about my work, especially her spacing, line, and repetition of modules. 

Her use of folds is right up my alley too. This week I started reading Sarah Thornton's 33 Artists in 3 Acts and her mention of the folded work of Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco (his Corplegados) and Chilean artist Eugenio Dittborn caught my attention.

To learn more about Ozeki:
http://ritsukoozeki.tumblr.com
http://ritsukoozeki.com

Quotes: 18th century Chasidic saying

"Just as the hand, held before the eye, can hide the tallest mountain, so the routine of everyday life can keep us from seeing the vast radiance and the secret wonders that fill the world." –– Chasidic saying, 18th century
*Source: C. Stern, ed., Gates of Repentance: The New Union Prayerbook for the Days of Awe (New York: Central Conference of American Rabbis, 1978), p. 3 via Norman Doidge The Brain's Way of Healing 2015 (unpaginated).

Postcards: Yoonhee Choi @ Blackfish Gallery, PDX

Yoonhee Choi 2013 exhibition postcard; Image credit: Karen Thiessen, 2015

Yoonhee Choi's exhibition, Trawling (June 2015), at Blackfish Gallery in Portland, Oregon was over by the time I visited, but I was able to see three framed artworks that were hanging in the gallery office. The above postcard is from an exhibition in 2013. 

Yoonhee Choi is a Korean-born artist who trained as a city planner and architect before turning her attention to fine art. She uses found objects and obsolete planning and architect supplies in her artworks. I am smitten with her two inch collages (framed size is 11'' square) and installations. Yoonhee Choi is a faculty member in the School of Architecture at Portland State University. 

Postcards: Martha Rich @ Wieden + Kennedy Gallery, PDX

Martha Rich exhibition Postcard; Image credit:Karen Thiessen, 2015

I had the good fortune to meet Martha Rich while she was finishing installing her show at Wieden + Kennedy Gallery (an advertising agency) in Portland, Oregon. A few days later, I attended the opening. The work was selling fast. I'll share photos at some other point.

Quotes: H. Jackson Brown's mother

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." –– mother of author H. Jackson Brown (b. 1940), American author
*Source: artpropelled & Prophet of Bloom (who corrected the attribution).