Stones and Scrolls
an exhibit by Fay Grajower
Newbury College
Library Gallery Room
150 Fisher Avenue
Brookline, MA 02445
Curator: Arthur Birkland, 617 738 2488
Statement by artist Fay Grajower
All of
the arts, poetry, music, ritual, the visible arts, the theater, must singly
and together create the most comprehensive art of all, a humanized society,
and its masterpiece, free man.
(Bernard Berenson)
Central
to my work is history and memory; the texture of memory and the unconscious
elements of an inherited memory that shape our lives. Text factors heavily in
my thought and my work. Phrases, words
and letters form calligraphic marks. As a shape and design they add layers of
texture and meaning to the build-up of a painting. Recognizable words inside a painting or the
phrasing of a title can direct the viewer's thinking or reaction to a
work. So too does the absence of a title
or a play with words have its effect.
Text is in texture as texture
is in memory. Text is the fitting
together of letters and words and phrases.
Texture
is the layering of events that make up history. Texture is the layering of materials that give body and surface to a
painting. Ultimately texture gives shape
and form to the work and to the present.
My mixed media pieces incorporate paint, sand, fabric, and paper, wood,
found and recycled materials. The
outermost layer is but the surface. The
layering and the process are the richness of the piece. Simplification can be complicated.
In my painting process, I
layer materials, layer words, move color and interrupt myself with asides. The asides take the form of words, stories
and distractions by working on more than one piece at a time. Each feeds the other as I struggle with any
given piece. The shortest distance
between two points is not necessarily a straight line. Lots of loose pieces of paper, multiple
images, just stuff in the environment, that most people would call clutter,
feed, engage, inspire and challenge me.
The build up and paring down
achieves the rich texture that is so essential in my work. The grid and the buildup of small pieces to
the whole as well as the breakdown of the whole to mosaic like parts factor in
my work. Stones are metaphors for life that was and for new life. Stones
are tablets; they are the surface and the tool for recording information as
testimonials and as memorials. Stones in my work are metaphors for the
mosaic of unity and diversity. Scrolls are a metaphor for shades of
history, for lightness and dark onto which history is recorded. Its meaning is
alive with each person's changing perceptions.
I apply a visual language of
abstract forms, layering of materials and calligraphic marks to stir up
emotions. An atmosphere of space and light
is created for each viewer's perception of history and memory. The works
energize the viewer to look into oneself for images and associations as
emotions enter the process. Current events impact word and
image. In the aftermath of terrorist attacks in the world,
a transformation has occurred. The materials used to build a structure - a
community - have been deconstructed. In
this destruction the material has been dematerialized. We now face a new
history and a new memory. Our memory
today is the inherited memory and collective memory of the future. The layers
of a painting resemble the layers of memory.
To jar one's memory is to uncover history. We have great challenges before us. The
resilience of the human spirit triumphs over brutality.
Boston
November 2011