Tag Archives: Zachari Logan

When 1 + 1 = More

Having decided to include both drawings and stitched work in Drawing Threads, I have been thinking quite a bit about multi-disciplinary artists lately. I’m sure their motivations are as varied as the artists themselves, but I do wonder about the thought process of those who choose to divide their energy between mediums.

The main reason that drawing has become such a mainstay in my own practice boils down to time. Being able to complete a thought and have a sense of accomplishment in one sitting, rather than the days into weeks that large textile pieces require, has propelled my ideas forward much more quickly in both disciplines.

The following is an excerpt on the subject of multi-disciplinary work from an interview with Lisa Ferber on the Huffington Post Blog, 3.21.12

Explore. Don’t feel a need to stick to just one method of self-expression. “You are not just a writer or an artist — you are a creative person, so don’t limit yourself to a particular medium, such as painting, writing, or performing,” says Ferber. “I love being multidisciplinary. I see myself and all people as unlimited creative forces. I always create out of joy, whether it’s with a pen or a brush or in front of a video camera.

With that thought in mind, I’d like to share several of my favorite artists from Instagram who spread their work between more than one discipline.

Australian artist Veronica Cay, pairs drawings/paintings with ceramic sculptures. She often incorporates snippets of fabric into both, adding an interesting dimension that — no big surprise — is particularly appealing to me.

Veronica Cay Transgress, Whatever Happened

Nigel Cheney is an extraordinary draughtsman from the UK whose eye for detail also translates into a passion for stitch.

©Nigel Cheney “Hare”, 2009 (left) “Cinquecento”, detail 2010 (right)

Geninne Zlatkis’ work depicts animals, birds, and plants. She paints their images on paper, tools them into leather, and etches them into the pottery she creates. She also makes masterful hand-carved stamps. Her stunningly colorful photography captures the New Mexico landscape where she lives and the natural objects she collects from it.

©Geninne Zlatkis “Blue Bird”, (left) Leather Cuff, 2015 (right)

Zachari Logan, whom I’ve written about before here and here, combines a spectacular drawing practice with equally intriguing ceramic sculptures.

©Zachari Logan “Fountain I”, hand-built clay body, 4x4x4.5 feet, 2013 (left) “Metamorphosis 2”, blue pencil on mylar, 10 x 17 inches, 2013 (right)

Lynn Chapman is a self-described plein air painter, textile artist, and illustrator from the UK. She is very active with Urban Sketchers. The lines of her drawings are fluid, economical, and very expressive, while her textile pieces celebrate color and marks with an equally flowing feel.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention friends who balance more than one discipline…

Dianne Shullenberger’s textile collages, colored pencil drawings, and sculptural objects are an ongoing expression of her love for nature.
Almuth Palinkas is a tapestry artist and painter. Her devotion to beauty is evident in all her work.
And Roz Daniels makes striking art quilts that, as with her stunning photographs, depict her strong inclination toward simple geometry.

And of course many, many masters delved into multiple mediums.
One final thought: when you have time, read this article about Ellsworth Kelly’s Temple for Light, which is an inspiring culmination of multidisciplinary achievement and, in many ways, a place to worship the deep waters of creativity.

Coincidence as Instigator

Don’t you love a good coincidence? Whether or not you really believe in them, the idea of such a thing makes life so much more interesting.

I have a friend I rarely see who, the past couple of times we’ve crossed paths, has mentioned how much she enjoyed The Paper Garden. Written by Molly Peacock, it is a biography of Mary Delany, an eighteenth century woman who first embarked on her artistic career at the age of 72. Delany is credited with being the originator of collage, creating 985 beautifully realistic images of flowers, made of finely cut, exactingly colored paper that she painted herself. Her work, referred to as the Flora Delanica, now resides at the British Museum.

Respecting my friend’s opinion I made a note of the book, but admittedly hadn’t done much to seek it out. However, I happened upon a pristine copy for 50 cents at the library book sale last summer, so how could I resist? I snapped it up, put it in my ever growing to-be-read stack, and then promptly forgot about it.

Last September, during our trip through the Atlantic Provinces, one of the highlights was attending a talk at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design given by visiting artist Zachari Logan. Logan’s work, which I’ve written about before, is a tour de force of draughtsmanship, underpinned with layers of intention that elevate his drawings above and beyond his amazing technical facility. Composed of beautiful tangles of real and imagined flora, often strikingly set on a stark black ground, his pastel drawings of plants are rendered as though scattered on the paper, encircled in wreaths, or woven together in cleverly composed human forms reminiscent of the Renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo.

Crescendo ©2018 Elizabeth Fram, Stitched-resist dye and embroidery on silk. It will be framed to 14 x 11 inches. but this gives you a glimpse into the way the dye bleeds beyond the stitched resist patterning.

As Logan talked about his process, he mentioned that he seeks residencies in countries outside his native Canada, immersing himself in the art and history of that locale while allowing what he finds there to directly inform the work he produces while in residence.

The work in the show we were seeing during his talk in Halifax was the result of a residency in London, inspired by an in-depth study of the paper “mosaicks” (as she called them) of Mary Delany. As he animatedly talked about the beauty and inspiration of these pieces, painstakingly and delicately created by an aging woman in the late 1700’s, it began to dawn on me that she was the same person as the subject of The Paper Garden, sitting on my shelf at home.

The Paper Garden

My friend was right – it is a wonderful book! Part biography, part art book, part memoir , it follows the life of a fascinating and resilient woman whose social circle included nobility and celebrated artists, among them George Frideric Handel and Jonathan Swift. Yet her life had not been easy. Delany’s ability to gracefully meet the often challenging circumstances doled out to her, at a time in history when women had little power or resources beyond those afforded them by the men in their lives, makes for a fascinating read. By interlacing Delany’s life with her art, author Molly Peacock provides an enlightening and contemporary window into the life of an artist who was at her peak in her eighth decade, more than two centuries ago.

An Eye to the North

As promised, this week’s post is a taste of the some of the art we experienced in the Atlantic Provinces a couple of weeks ago. Three exhibits in particular stood out, making for a wonderful combination of textiles and drawing.
I could almost pretend they knew I was coming.

But first…
I think this public sculpture is worth sharing.

Migration Pathway #2 ©Giorgia Volpe Suspended over the St. Lawrence River near the Quebec Public Market, “th(is) piece ties together past and present in notion of migration, a seminal influence shaping our society and evolving territory. Migration Pathway #2 shows the vulnerability and endurance inherent in human and animal migratory and nomadic lives. Woven canoes rise in the air approaching the banks of the St. Lawrence in a surprising parade-like movement. The work pays tribute to Quebec folk traditions, the beliefs of early sailors, and First Nations traditional knowledge, and occupies a traditional site of meeting and dialogue for all these communities.”

Migration 2

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The Museum of Civilization in Quebec City was a very happy discovery. With exhibits involving history, science, art and culture, there was way more than we could absorb in one visit. However, two concurrent shows stood out.

The first, an extensive retrospective on the work of Hergé, the Belgian cartoonist and creator of The Adventures of Tintin. It’s a show that would be appealing to any age, and certainly inspiring to young drawers.

It was fascinating to study the extensive display of his working drawings up close, then to follow his progression through gouache color proofs, and onto final finished prints. You can’t help but admire in his ability to capture and express so much through a judicious economy of line that is all one weight and lacks crosshatching, a style he pioneered that became known as “ligne claire” (clear line).

The following appeared on one of the museum labels: “Although comics have long been regarded as a minor art, figures like Hergé have propelled them to unrivaled artistic heights. Certain lead pencil sketches of Captain Haddock, Tintin, or Professor Calculus, for instance, are exercises in style with enough complexity, astute turbulence, and accuracy of tone to rival works by such masters as Dürer, Holbein, da Vinci, Ingres and others.”

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Next, in a neighboring gallery, Carole Simard-Laflamme’s installation Dress of Nations is a work at once ethereal and imposing. Created to evoke every stage of life, from birth to death, this work is made of 6,000 “seed dresses” — textile miniatures made from pieces of recovered garments, threaded together and suspended from the ceiling in rows, composing the bodies of two large dress forms.

Dress of Nations, ©Carole Simard-Laflamme Statement: “Our garments tell our stories. They reveal our identities and present the symbols of our cultures. With this work, I wish to underscore our differences and our uniqueness…”

Over 400 people from different cultures sent the artist a piece of clothing along with a testimonial. The garments were cut, mixed, reassembled, and stitched together on wires, each seed-dress bearing a golden stamp. The overall effect was quite moving.

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Finally, it was pure luck that Zachari Logan’s exhibit Topiary opened at the Anna Leonowens Gallery of the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design the day before we arrived in Halifax. What a great bonus that we were able to attend his lunchtime talk, a part of their visiting artist series.

Logan’s detailed pastel and pencil drawings explore the intersection between “masculinity, identity, memory, and place”. He discussed in detail the parallels between his subject matter and the way he sees himself within society as a queer man.

Zachari Logan, blue pencil on mylar

His highly skilled draughtsmanship is mind-blowing, but the depth and intelligence in the metaphors he constructs based across a spectrum of art history, interlaced with an unflinching confrontation of some of the more poignant challenges many face within our world today, completely swept me away. I am still thinking about his work due to his seamless pairing of concept with execution.

Although this exhibition had none on display, ceramics are another component of Logan’s overall practice and the statements he makes through his art. Obviously I was intrigued by his marriage of the two disciplines in light of my own quest to coherently bring my drawing and textile work together.

Visit this page on his website to see more of his art and for a greater understanding of the ideas behind these and other works in his various series.

Datura, from Eunich Tapestries series ©2013 Zachari Logan, pastel on paper, 10 x 5 feet I was quite moved by Logan’s discussion of his portrayal of “ditches” and the plants that appear there. Having grown up in Saskatchewan, ditches were a familiar part of the landscape for him, filled with plants that are scorned as weeds. But he asked us to consider the term “weed” and how classifying certain plants as undesirable with that epithet can be equated with the words we use to label people who, for whatever reason, society rejects as well.

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Our trips north never disappoint. Because art seems to be such a valued and public part of Canadian life, I’ve been seeking information about their dedication to investing in culture as a nation. This 2016 article from the Washington Post is quite an eye-opener. Considering the ever-precarious state of the arts in the US, I’m tempted to say: read it and weep.