Some of my painting influences...

(most of these images do get larger if you click on them and it's worth doing)


Before we begin, I will say that one of my big influences was working and managing a photo lab back east for 8 years, from 1984 to 1992. We did one hour processing and custom professional hand work in color and b&w. It was a great education because I saw so many images and what hit me early on was light. Light is critical. The majority of what I saw were pretty photos...what I call calendar photography. Every once in a while something striking came through. And so...I paid attention.

Over the years I've seen how that shapes my work. Now, onto the painters...


John Singer Sargent
The first artist is one who I've considered my art god since 1994. While doing a painting fellowship in 1995 I had Sargent's images spread out in front of me. I'd paint, stop and study his work, return to the canvas and paint some more to then again stare at his marks.

His color. His light. And I believe he's the master of whites. There is so much color in his whites. It's lush. All of his work is special but this painting made a powerful impact because it was the first time I saw the abstraction in his work. I was taken with the boldness of the red.





Henri Matisse - "Carmelina"
The reason I'm showing this one is because it's the first painting I saw in person that moved me to tears. It was at the MFA in Boston, in the mid-nineties. Even today, I still can't put my finger on why it touched me. It just did.



Emily Eveleth
About that same time, again in Boston, I walked into the Howard Yezerski Gallery and was encompassed by massive donut paintings set in an Italian landscape. I can't find those online, but here is some later work which I enjoy even more. Eveleth's paintings are always in my head.

Her work was the first that I found blatantly sexy in addition to being captivated with the light, the mark and her use of whites. To this day, I use these as my guide for what is erotic in art - Provocative. Imaginative. Visceral. Visual without being boring. Raw.

Treat yourself and click on this first painting.






You can see more of her images here at http://www.danesegallery.com/Main/Artists/Eveleth/EVEL_images.html. Her drawings are beautiful as well.


Manet
I've always loved this painting mostly for how he paints his bottles. I've seen a few of his simple still lifes and his touch is magical.





Antonio Lopez Garcia
His work is very emotional for me. There's a grace and beauty he can find in the mundane.












Amy Sillman
The second time I've cried while looking at art was when I first saw her work in April 2006. Approaching a gallery in Chelsea I could see her paintings from the windows. Before walking into the space, tears began to fall. My face was wet and I was blown away. Wandering through the rooms, looking at these big, canvases, color and mark was liberated from the surface and permeated the space. In being with them, I felt I had come home. As my friend and I left the gallery, I told him that her paintings were what I would be doing if I was brave enough. He smiled at me and then said "now let's go see some bad art."







Richard Diebenkorn
Isn't this the most beautiful painting of a pair of scissors? You need to click on it to see the brushwork.



A very different Diebenkorn but it too moves me.





Nathan Oliveira
In the last 6 months I've been studying his work quite a bit. I'm jealous that he can allow big spaces of color. When I attempt that, I feel naked. One day, I'll do it. Also, yesterday I realized that Oliveira's work reminds me of Giacometti's drawings and paintings. Alberto Giacometti was my second art god while I was in school.



And here are others:

Timothy Harney
Jim Dine
Robert Motherwell
David Parks
Franz Kline
Sigmund Abeles
Edwin Dickinson
Jenny Saville

some thoughts on my studio in the 619 Western

Pioneer Square has a rich tradition in the arts including the fact that the first Art Walk in the U.S. began in the Square in the mid-seventies. Our 619 Western Arts building has been a haven for artists since 1979.

When I began looking for a studio space in June 2007, I had two hard limits. Or so I thought. I wanted a private space and I did not want to be in a studio that opened to the art walk. While looking for work spaces I saw the ad in craigslist for my current studio: share with 3 other artists and part of Seattle's largest monthly art walk. I read it and tossed it.

But that ad haunted me for the next few days and I couldn't ignore it. I made an appointment with the artist to view the studio. Arriving early, I waited outdoors and walked around the building. Without stepping inside I powerfully knew I had to be there. It was my space.

When I walked in with the artist, the energy in the studio cemented that fact. It was a refuge. The sign above our studio door says "The Sophia Room".

Wisdom.

The studio has been a holding tank for creativity and for intimacy. Powerful moments and conversations have taken place not only at art walk but in private studio visits. It's been a safe space that offered healing. I've experienced and shared in not only my own but also others' internal openings.

Potent personal conversations.

I've witnessed joy. I've witnessed tears. I've watched bodies melt as aspects of shame fell away while viewing work.

During private visits, I've seen many someones sit on the little couch and given time, sink into the calm and allow themselves to relax in a manner they admitted was not often accessed.

In some of my most grief-stricken moments, the space would call to me. I'd lay out large white pages on the floor, get on my hands and knees and as tears fell, filled the sheets with big black charcoal marks.

I remember the connections shared at Art Walk with people where their intimidation that came from being surrounded by art began to be dismantled. For many visitors, the 619 building is the first step to connecting with art and artists.

I'm captivated by the unsettling and yet sexy crack that runs down the wall above each door on the north side of the building. I'm infatuated with the stairwell, the old elevator with its grate and the massive beam that runs the width of my studio. Every time I climb the stairs I smile and think of the history because each step is beaten in and deeply worn from many who tread its path.

The two large windows with their deep red paint call to me whenever I'm stuck with a painting. I can sit on the couch and look out onto the viaduct, paying attention to the sound of the traffic. Every once in a while I'm blessed by the smell of salt air that wafts in through the windows. It brings back powerful memories of my New England coastline.

And it's been a place for my painting to flourish and grow as I slowly continue to work toward a level of maturity. Learning to submit to my deeper self. I used to be very private with my work and this studio and special community has provided a safety net where I began to peel away the veil and reveal not only completed works, but the process. It was a letting go of a pride that required I only show my best which I knew was an impossible task and a set up for failure. This studio played a large part in revelation. Revelation of myself to others. Revelations of others to me. And most importantly, revelation of myself to myself.

Sanctuary.

An era is ending.

With the viaduct coming down in the next year or two, I knew that at some point all the artists in the 619 Western building would be required to leave. In mid-December the SDOT met with the artists and gave their time frame. The 619 artists will be evacuated in March 2012.

We have 15 months notice, which is a blessing. I'm not going anywhere for a while. But the idea of 100 displaced artists attempting to find inexpensive work space is heartbreaking.

The loss is pronounced because the official word is fresh and it's one more sad art item.

In addition to all that's happening in the world, there has been much distressing news in the art segment. The inexcusable censorship at the National Portrait Gallery, the economy that is challenging for artists to live their passion, the culture wars filled with a cacophony attempting to silence the critical importance of art in our lives, individually and as a community, and so much more. I haven't been able to write about it because the feelings run too deep and honestly, touch upon personal wounds.

Everywhere I look I see a society more entrenched in fear than in discovery. A culture ensconced in suspicion instead of invention. What happened to our imagination? Where is our striving for individual voice and personal excellence instead of settling for mediocrity?

So what do I do?

I work to try to keep my heart open.
I attempt to seek out the beauty while not hide from the ugly and the painful.
I continue to create.

And regardless of where my next painting home is, I will never forget the 619.

on the Viaduct paintings

I've loved the viaduct ever since I moved to Seattle and so am exploring it before it is gone forever. There is something intriguing in this solid structure that is disintegrating; a massive presence and the light that comes through the heaviness. It offers direction and yet, it's slowly crumbling.

Curriculum Vitae

Marie Gagnon
gagnonart (at) gmail (dot) com

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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (*solo shows)

August 2007 to present - monthly open studio - The Sophia Room, Seattle WA

*April 2011 - “Bleeding Vessels” - Hopvine, Seattle WA

March-June 2011 - “Seattle” - Coastal Kitchen, Seattle WA

*February 2011 - “Explorations of the Viaduct” - Gallery 4500, Seattle WA

*January 2011 - “Bleeding Vessels” - The Cask, West Seattle WA

August 2010 - "Y(art) Sale" - Ouch My Eye Gallery, Seattle WA

*July/August 2010 - "Bleeding Vessels" - Windermere, West Seattle, WA

May 2010 – “You Carry Your Weight Well” photo/video project – Frisbie St. Gallery, Oakland, CA

April 2010 - Troy Gua & The Collaborati, "Meet-Greet-Rinse-Repeat" - Monarch Contemporary, Seattle WA

May 2009 - Seattle Erotic Art Festival – Seattle Center, Seattle WA

December 2008 – Forgotten Works 8th Annual Challenge – 30 ptgs in 30 days – TK Building, Seattle WA

June-July 2008 – “The Guys We Would Fuck” – Monya Rowe Gallery, New York NY

March 2008 – Seattle Erotic Art Festival – Seattle Center - Seattle WA

December 2007 – Forgotten Works 7th Annual Challenge - 30 ptgs in 30 days - OK Gallery – Seattle WA

June 2006 – “Spirituality through the Lens of LGBT Culture and Thought” - LGBT Comm. Center - Seattle WA

April 2005 - “Prix Fixe” - performance piece for SEAF - Conworks, Seattle, WA

*April 2001 – "C'est Moi - C’est My Vie" - Babeland Gallery - Seattle WA

*August-November 1999 - Arts Alive Gallery - Springfield MA

*March/April 1998 - "Alteridem" - In Boston Gallery - Portsmouth NH

*February 1998 - Ceres Gallery - Portsmouth NH

May 1996 – UNH Gallery - Durham NH

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LECTURES/PUBLIC SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Panelist on gender for a class on Multi-Cultural Communication at SCCC - Seattle, WA - May 2010
Panelist - On Erotic Art - Seattle Erotic Art Show, Conworks - Seattle, WA - May 2006
Jurist - Seattle Erotic Art Show - Seattle, WA - January 2006
Panelist - Leadership As Service - LLC - New York, NY - April 2006
Summer A.I.R. Youth Camp, Rochester, NH - visiting artist - Summer 1997
Brown Bag Series Gallery Talks, The Art Gallery – Durham, NH - May 1996

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EDUCATION

Expressive Drawing for the Advanced Artist, Intensive – Gage Academy, Seattle WA – Jan 2001
University Of New Hampshire - Durham, NH - BFA, Summa Cum Laude - 1996
Rivier College - Nashua, NH - AA in Studio Art - 1990

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AWARDS

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship - summer 1995
Elizabeth Jones Scholarship - academic years 94/95 and 95/96

Statement for "Bleeding Vessels" series

Fifteen years ago I began immersing myself in still life painting. I was nearing the end of my BFA and they were my thesis work. With a need to create from observation, still life was the most accessible. In working cups and bottles and jars and bowls I became acutely aware I was painting vessels and noted that humans...we...are such vessels. Giving and taking. Holding and sharing. Relationships. How we position ourselves in a group or outside of it.

With time, still life almost entirely disappeared from my work but during that time I became an avid observer of human interaction. In June of 2009 bottles returned to my work.

My ongoing meditation has been on relationships. Transparency. Walls. Boundaries or lack thereof. Cliques. Groups. Families. What do we call community? How much of ourselves do we reveal to another or when is it appropriate to hide? How do we relate to our deepest self or to the other we call intimate? How much of our history do we expose? What creates chaos? How do we fit? When are we invisible? What is home?

I paint to try and make sense.