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Phyllis Ewen - Artist

musings

Above and Below the Horizon 3 - the artists, the exhibit

1/26/2017

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Inga Þórey, our curator placed our work: My 3-dimensional collages at one end to the left as you entered the gallery, Soffia's large charcoal  drawings on the long wall, her scrolls in a vitrine  Elva's prints next to Soffia's drawings and toward the far end where, in a recess, Inga installed our collaborative piece.  Two short walls, perpendicular to the window wall, the vitrine and a pedestal broke up the space and added rhythm.
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Above and Below the Horizon
Soffia, like many island inhabitants, is focused on the horizon and in much of her painting work, she places herself on the ground looking directly out. This puts her and us in a strong and solid place vis a vis our surroundings. When Soffia became interested in Marie Tharp's maps of the ocean floor, she first drew this underwater vision as a journey-story on scrolls, where one can imagine a small Soffia traveling across under water to Places Unknown.  Only a part of the story is visible, the rest is rolled up.  The position of the artist and the ‘reader’ is on the bottom of the sea looking out as if, even here, we are looking at a horizon.  In powerful charcoal drawings, Hidden Landscapes , our sea bed exploration is enlarged to life size.

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While Soffia stands and looks; Elva sits down to touch and feel the earth's crust.  Elva pays close attention to the surface of the earth: the textures and lines of lava fields, mosses, and rocks in her homeland. She conveys them in lovely evocative prints. Often the images are small honing in on a microscopic detail; while in the series of six larger collographs Written By Nature, our view is expanded.  Elva uses elements from the earth to create her matrices, adhering sand and other material to her metal plates.  Inspired by our collaboration, she asked me to bring sand from Cape Cod so that she could use the sand from the Reykjanes peninsula and sand from across the sea on the New England Coast.  In this way, her work and mine reference each other in nuanced ways.   Four of Elva's small collographic plates were exhibited on a pedestal allowing visitors to the exhibit to see and understand her process.
       
FOR WRITING ON MY WORK, SEE PREVIOUS POST




Our opening reception on November 11 was well attended.  A local painter had an exhibit in another gallery at the museum and a cultural award was given to a choirmaster from Keflavik where the museum is located.  Before the galleries were opened a folk group played, we were all introduced, and a youth choir sang.  There were between 500-600 people in the museum that evening.
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 Two days later Elva, Sofia, and I gave talks about our work to an audience of 30+ people, more than usually attend I was told.  I spoke first in English, the two Icelandic artists in Icelandic and then in English Soffia and I talked about our collaboration.  There were questions asked and much interest in our work.  I was introduced to a friend of Elva's a geologist who was interested in my work about Reykjanes and shared her knowledge of the relationship between the geothermal plant and the changes taking place in Gunnuhiver.  I have to get in touch with her to continue that dialogue.  The museum produced a beautiful catalogue with a CV and four pages of images for each artist, images from our collaboration, and distance shots of the installations in the museum.  We received national attention.  On November 11, the morning of our opening an article with photographs about our show was published in the Morgenbladid.  We were featured on the nightly news on November 22  www.ruv.is/sarpurinn/ruv/tiufrettir/20161122
And the university website had a long review of the exhibit. 
All this was wonderful, but most important is that I have two friends for life.
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Above and Below the Horizon 2 - My Work for the show

1/22/2017

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With a year to prepare for the exhibit, I began thinking about what I wanted to show; how to represent myself as an artist from across the ocean, inspired by the icelandic landscape, but also located within my own sphere.  I have for the past ten years been involved in thinking about global warming and the footprints that humans have made on an already changing terrain. Using maps and photographs, modified in Photoshop and printed digitally; I had been creating 3-dimensional collages about the changing coastline of New England, focusing on the beaches of Cape Cod.
I chose two pieces, Liminal Break 1 and Restless Sand 2 to include in the and two  pieces that refered to the  geothermal landscape on Reykjanes, where the museum is located. These are titled  Cauldron 2 and Cauldron 3.  I also wanted to create two large installations; one using images taken from the patterns in the sand of the cape when the tide has ebbed and the other using the colors of the land and steam that I'd seen at Gunnuhiver in 2014. 








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I put aside the beginnings of the Reykjanes piece, that I'd begun in the fall of 2014 to concentrate on the installation about Cape Cod, where I'd altered the colors of the beach sand patterns into yellows, ochres, blues and greens.  I started three times, unsatisfied and discarding each attempt, until finally I found elements that worked.  I used some images to locate the more abstract elements, see below, as being on a beach with dunes, paths, ocean, and sky.  I enjoyed playing with scale, the abstract patterns - closely observed -  becoming dominent in size, with the locating images smaller and taken from a distance.  At the same time, then, the viewer is looking out  and down, the movement of eyes replicating the movement of the land.  Wind and water alter the coastlines and I want the viewer to experience the movement of this land.
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 This installation was not  completed until It was hung in the museum.  I needed to see what space it would occupy and how I wanted it to look in situ.  I knew that I wanted the piece to hang away from the wall with the more abstract elements (as above) further away from the wall than the elements that showed location.  I chose to use magnets on steel screws of different dimensions to create a sense of movement.  Receiving advice from friends Gene Turitz and David Martin, i attached washers and small discs to the back of the pieces.  These discs  lined  up with the screws on which we put small strong magnets.  Teddi, who helped me install this piece on the second day, had fun with the process so we both had fun. The piece is called Undertow: Cape Cod.  I consider it a work-in-progress and will show it in different configurations in the future.  One opportunity will be in the Inside/Out gallery run by the Somerville Art Council in June 2017.  The image below shows the wall at the museum with Undertow: Cape Cod.
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I knew what the installation, Reykjanes: Gunnuhiver's Ghost, would look like before it left my studio.  It was to be a tryptich and I had had planned very carefully, the spacing between the three sections and the depth of earth's crust that I wanted to express.  I  bought screws of 1", 2.5", 3", and 4" so that the volatility of the geothermal landscape it refered to would be felt by those looking at the piece.  It was, as installed, also about 10 ft across.  It was much harder to install and was frustrating to Halli who was helping me.  Because the sections were heavier than that of Undertow, I had over-estimated how many magnets and screws would be needed.  I'd been encouraged to hang it as if it might be jostled or pushed by visitors to the museum, so was over-careful.    I had pushed myself to create work of greater complexity and size than I usually do. That I chose to do this under a deadline was something I have to re-think for the future,  I was quite stressed in the months leading up to October when I had to ship the work to Iceland.  But the reason I keep doing what I do is because I like to challenge myself and continue to develop new ideas and new ways of expressing thse ideas.   In the end, the stress was worth it.
This piece was greatly admired and  I felt successful. Gunnuhiver's Ghost has been acquired by the museum.  It couldn't be in a more appropriate collection. 
                  
                                                                              

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                                                                                                                                                            MORE IN NEXT POST
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Above and Below the Horizon  1

1/16/2017

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NOVEMBER 15, 2016 - JANUARY 15, 2017, DUUS MUSEUM, REYKJANESBÆR, ICELAND

"Our earth is not a stable entity; we live on itsʽ very mobile surface. The natural world is far from settled but ever changeable and inconstant." __ Ragna Sigurðardóttir in catalogue essay (English translation)   above_and_below_the_horizon.docx
"This is essentially the point of view expressed by a show entitled Við sjónarrönd, a joint project of artists Elva Hreiðarsdóttir, Phyllis Ewen and Soffía Sæmundsdóttir."
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HOW IT BEGAN
In August 2014, I went to Iceland with a group from the Boston Printmakers where I met many wonderful Icelandic artist members of Íslensk Grafík/ The Icelandic Printmakers Associatoin. I was inspired by the colors and activity of geothermal landscape on the peninsula of Reykjanes SW of Reykjavik and when I returned began to create pieces using photographs I’d taken at Gunnuhver. 
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Two artists, Elva Hreidarsdottir and Soffia Sæmondsdottir, visited my studio two months later,  and as we looked at  what I was working on we realized that we shared an esthetic, interests, and concerns.   We decided that the three of us would do something together and began writing a proposal for an exhibit.  Elva presented our idea to the Art Museum at Reykjanesbær, located not far from the location of my inspiration and to our delight, it was accepted and the date was set to open in November 2016. We received the official letter in October 2015  with a year to prepare.
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PREPARATION
Elva and Soffia were on site -  in Iceland  - and-so took the lead in discussions with Inga Thorey, our curator about how she envisioned  the show.  The museum space is 2500 square feet, with the long wall 75 ft.  A large space to fill and a great challenge for three artists.
It was decided that each artist would  show a substantial body of her  individual work and that we would also work together on a collaborative piece.  Soffia  had a residency in upstate New York a year ago, so she and I met in Northampton MA to look at images and talk about the show.  She helped me pick some smaller pieces that I had done and we each threw out ideas about our joint piece.  Coincidentally, we were both excited by the maps of the ocean floor that the geologist Marie Tharp had made in the 1950s.  We agreed that we would work with those images together (see earlier posts).  And as it turned out, Soffia's work in the exhibit also evolved from her immersion in  the underwater landscape. 


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FOOTPRINTS

1/4/2017

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I'm excited about the work Elva, Soffia, and I started together (see last post) and want to make it my own. For now I'm taking a break from sculptural collages to work on expanding our collaborative piece, creating mixed media prints, painting & drawing into and onto the prints. I'm looking forward to seeing where this will take me intellectually and aesthetically. I want to bring back text, graphs, equations into my work. And research into global warming effect on oceans and the sea floor.
review.pdf

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Collaborating

1/3/2017

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Sjónarrendur/The Horizon




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The piece, combines three different printmaking methods, digital printing, etching and collography and incorporates drawing, text, and equations. 
Working on a collaborative piece always has unexpected results, and this is certainly the case with the piece done with Elva and Soffia for our show, Við sjónarrönd/Above and Below the Horizon  in Keflavik.  In a collaboration, each artist has to give up ownership and allow the work to exist in a shared space. It is a very freeing experience for me and one that can develop into new work for me after.

We took as our starting point, maps of the ocean floor created by Marie Tharp,  an American geologist and oceanographic cartographer who, in partnership with Bruce Heezen, created the first scientific map of the entire ocean floor in the 1950s. Tharp's work revealed the presence of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, causing a paradigm shift in earth science that led to acceptance of the theories of plate tectonics and continental drift.  Coincidentally, Soffia and I had both been inspired by these topographical maps and decided to work collaboratively on this underwater landscape that separates and connects our two countries.  The Atlantic ridge which indicates the fissure between the North American and the Eurasian plates rises out of the water to create Iceland.  
HOW WE WORKED:
I scanned and downloaded images of the ocean floor, altered them in Photoshop, and printed a selection of 11 x 17 inch rectangles on Hahnemuhle German Etching Inkjet paper.  In May of 2016, I  brought 20+ images  to Reykjavik and the three of us poured over them to choose those we wanted to modify.  Back home, I reproduced the chosen images and sent them to my friends in Iceland. The idea was that each of us would have a hand in the creation.   Soffia and Elva then added elements on the digital prints using  etching o rcollography.  Soffia brought their modified images to New York to see what I thought.  I photographed them and then added another layer with text, equations and drawing. Each rectangle has the hand of at least two of us.  Sjónarrendur/The Horizon, presented a grid of 15 of our images chosen by our curator, Inga Thorey.  It received attention in an article about the exhibit printed in a national newspaper the day of our opening.  In an interview for the article, Soffia expressed our desire to continue with this project.  A review of the exhibit mentions that this brings together the themes and concerns that the three artists share. 

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 Við sjónarrönd/Above and Below the Horizon

12/20/2016

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If you can read Icelandic, unlike me, you will enjoy this review of my show -- with two Icelandic artists -- in the Reykjanes Art Museum in Iceland.  It appears in a prestigious site  from the University of Iceland.  Við sjónarrönd/Above and Below the Horizon is the title of the exhibition which is up until January 15, 2017.  I will write more about this in other posts.  This image is a collaborative piece that we three worked on using digital printing, etching, collograph and drawing with graphite.

hugras.is/2016/12/thad-sem-natturan-skrair/

© 2015 HUGRÁS. ALLUR RÉTTUR ÁSKILINN. - HÖNNUN VEFS: SÓLEY STEFÁNSDÓTTI

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Desperado Philosophy

12/14/2016

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This is a wonderful blog, which I discovered when he  posted about my work.  I had noticed what I thought was another 'Phyllis Ewen', but it turned out to be me. The post is about my series, Global Currents, the first work I did about water, climate, and in this case, power.  How water is controlled to benefit those who try to own it.

desperadophilosophy.net/2015/09/30/let-it-flow/


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Global Currents #2

And here is today's post about clouds.
desperadophilosophy.net/author/genialdesperado/  

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Inventing 3-d Landscapes II

12/9/2016

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The show has five artists: William Brayton, Gary Duehr, Phyllis Ewen, Ted Ollier, and Heidi Whitman.  In addition to the high quality of each artist's work, each one is a delightful, smart, and lovely person.  Set-up and the Opening were pleasures because of this.  Curated by Gary Duehr.
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Inventing 3-D Landscapes

12/9/2016

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I My show, TERRAIN, in 2013 included pieces from series in which I created images about global warming, drying rivers and rising seas.  The series, NORTHERN WATERS, was begun a day before hurricane Sandy hit New York.  I felt that I was making visual effects of climate change and became energized.  A few months ago, I was asked by Gary Duehr to show with four other artists in INVENTING 3-D LANDSCAPES, which is now at the Brickbottom Gallery in Somerville. brickbottomartists.com/gallery_current
In addition to showing Northern Waters 1,4, & 8 I have an installation, Jokulhlaup: Glacier Leap, which creates the impression that elements are falling apart and melting.  The Icelandic term used by geologists to describe a sudden collapse of a glacier with a rush of flooding. 
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My friend, Shoshana, had many wonderful comments today on these pieces.  She understands the levels of meaning I am hoping to express.  That the work should be both beautiful and provacative; perhaps illustrating frightening occurences, such as the melting of northern glaciers and the damaging effects this is having on our rising seas, and frequent powerful storms effecting much of our planet, changing coastlines.  She saw human forms in the placement of certain of the puzzle pieces, which I had never consciously noticed.  She talked about how the motion of the separate elements was downward and we discussed the visual aspects.  We discussed the difference she felt between looking at a framed piece with the reflection it offered because of the plexiglas -- reflection in both sense of the word and for example, Northern Waters 8, which asks you to enter into the vortex.

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    Phyllis Ewen - Artist

    1 Fitchburg Street C103
    Somerville MA 02143
    617-669-3907
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