"Ye Buoyant Waves Hath Borne", a diptych, oil on canvas by Mary Louise Long
Art/Place Gallery in Fairfield will launch the spring season with two vibrant solo exhibitions, March 30 through April 25: “Dots: 2010”, watercolors by Toby Michaels of Westport and “Temporal Legends”, paintings and monotypes by Mary Louise Long of Stamford. The opening reception is Saturday, April 3 from 4 to 6 p.m.
In conjunction with the exhibitions, Art/Place will host a lecture “The Healing Power of the Symbol” on Sunday, April 11 at 3 p.m. by Dr. Joseph Wagenseller, Jungian Analyst, founder/director of the Temenos Institute of Westport and past president of the Jung Institute of New York. The public is invited. As space is limited, reservations are advised: (203) 292 – 8328. A $10 donation is suggested.
Both Michaels and Long are brilliant colorists, and both create powerful, provocative abstract images. However, there are sharp contrasts in individual styles, techniques and sources of inspiration.
Mary Louise Long’s oils on canvas explode with color and exuberant rhythms in sweeping brushstrokes reminiscent of the Abstract Expressionists. Yet she is more concerned with mythical and literary allusions than surface techniques. Long considers her works “narratives, stories of our temporal existence, our fleeting time on earth.” In her large scale oil painting, “Ye Buoyant Waves Hath Borne”, a six by ten foot diptych inspired by Lord Byron’s Bride of Abydos which alludes to the tale of Hero and Leander, references to the sensation and flow of water can be seen. The painting “Cobalt Tendrils” continues this narrative, using a variety of cobalt blues, indicating water and air.
Alejandro Anreus, curator of her solo exhibition at the Montclair Art Museum, states, “Long’s abstract forms twist and bend in a frenzy, crowd the entire surface and threaten to erupt, recalling the eternal conflicts limned in the myths and tragedies of ancient Greece”.
Like her paintings, Long’s monotypes - created with etching and lithographic inks - are saturated with intense color. She says, “As the brilliant colors play against one another, the shapes seem to develop a life of their own. In my work, I search for that subjective shape that stirs the viewer to bouts of recognition; let the viewer bring his own thoughts!”
Mary Louise, Painting: Orion Series
Long studied at Boston University, American University and has an MA in printmaking from Montclair State University. The recipient of a painting fellowship from the NJ State Council on the Arts, she was a lecturer in art at Bloomfield College, NJ as well as a painting and printmaking instructor at the Montclair Art Museum. Long has been included in gallery, college and museum exhibitions throughout the Northeast, in addition to six solo exhibitions at the Alexey von Schlippe Gallery, University of Connecticut, Avery Point.
Toby Michaels is influenced by the psychology of Carl Jung and her work is informed by her studies and extensive experience as an art therapist. She is fascinated by circles of all sizes, including “Dots”, the title of her current show.
Combining many vibrant colors, her works pulsate with energy and exude a feeling of joy. Paradoxically, her repetition of the circle is also a calming, healing “centering” process for the artist, and perhaps the viewer as well. Michaels notes that Jung considered the circle a symbol of Self, of psychic wholeness – a spiritual connection to the cosmos.”
Of her work, Michaels says, “I’ve come full circle. Dots that appeared in my early paintings have now emerged as a major theme in my work. “Dotting”, the repetition of the circle, becomes a mantra, a meditation, a centering, an experience of wholeness and equanimity, a spiritual adventure. For me, the process of creating art is healing and transformative.”
A former art teacher in Westport, Weston and Darien elementary schools,
Michaels received her Masters Degree in Art Therapy in l978, initiating an art therapy program for Norwalk Hospital’s Department of Psychiatry where she practiced for 17 years. She later led art therapy programs at Silver Hill Hospital and became an Adjunct Professor of Art Therapy at Quinnipiac College. Currently a full time artist, Michaels is featured in the award winning 2009 documentary film “Years in the Making: Ageless Artists, Ageless Art” which will soon be aired on PBS.
Art/Place is open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at 11 Unquowa Road, Fairfield (next to the movie theater). For further information: (203) 292-8328.
