As Cathy Breslaw is one of our Picked RAW Peeled bloggers, both Joe Nalven and Patricia Frischer went to see her exhibition,
Cathy Breslaw: Future Contemplations
by Patricia Frischer
I am writing an emotional reaction to the works of Cathy Breslaw at the Gotthelf Gallery. It is delightful to enter this room full of lovely colors and shapes, but certain works attracted me more that others. There are large works with dark and light contrast and many obviously hand draw and hand crafted collaged elements. I find these works a bit confusing but they are obviously quest for some purpose. I am just not sure what. But those are contrasted with the much more pure net pieces with layers of hand gradient applied colors titled, for example, sunrise and sunset. If you get close to these works and block out all around you, you could get lost in them. If fact, I found myself wanting them to be huge and for the room to contain only four of them rather like the feeling you get when you are in a room of Rothko's paintings. You could be engulfed and transported. These works truly could allow you to contemplate much the same way at looking at clouds allows your mind to roam. Works that are capable of allowing this type of experience are very special.
I loved the relationship between the Shofar themed central work and the Jewish Community Center. The net veil records five words: Renew, Awaken, The Call, Reflect, Forgive. And there are miniature shofar symbols forming a circle at the base that reminds me of a maze walk which is used for meditation. Again I found myself wanting this piece to be larger, to actually walk the spiral and even add layers of net where I could enter into the work. I think this piece has the possibility of being a whole series or an entire room filling installation.
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| I was also drawn to this work which has these odd shapes attached directly to the wall with delicate wires. They seem to be scurrying across the wall but do not seem to threatening like spiders, but instead some sort of leaf or figurative forms and they create lovely shadows and are more delicately colored than appears in this image. This work was created in 2014 |
She is an artist to watch.
Contemplation: An exhibit by Cathy Breslaw
by Joe Nalven
How does an artist ─ working together with an art gallery ─ create an engaging exhibition? Many of us have participated in this experience, others have wondered about it.
Cathy Breslaw's exhibit allows us to step inside her mindset: Contemplation, an exhibit opening at the Gotthelf Art Gallery, San Diego Center for Jewish Culture.
JN: How did this exhibit come into being? I began to wonder about this question in looking at the imagery that will be in the exhibit as well as the connecting titles.
CB: When I was asked to do this show, I was asked that it have some relationship to Judaism. This was new to me. I had not done religious-related work even though I am Jewish.
As I began to consider the show, i realized it takes place during the High Holy Days which are the most important religious Jewish holidays. I am an observant Jew and my maternal grandfather was an Orthodox Rabbi (he died many years before I was born). These holidays are a time of prayer and reflection. Here was my contemplation as the central focus for the show. It is not a religious-based show, but the idea of contemplation as a thought process and a way to frame some ideas and work.
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| Cathy Breslaw / Sunset (Nb. layers of industrial plastic mesh and spray paint} |
I also found in my research that the shofar blows one hundred sounds on Rosh Hashana which is referred to the piece.
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| Cathy Breslaw / Above, Below and Beyond |
There are other works in the show based on a large series i have done in the past few years called Atmosphere which are like color field painting where I am using industrial mesh layers with spray paint to create wall works that somehow create an atmosphere I feel from nature.
I am always seeking to challenge myself in terms of materials and new or differing ways to communicate my thoughts and ideas. Materials themselves are a big motivator. I am drawn to simple, accessible materials rather than traditional art materials and ways of translating into art pieces.
JN: How does this exhibit connect with your way of thinking about the world in other ways?
CB: I think and read a lot about cosmology, philosophy, and have always been drawn to ideas about light and space. Installation work is a nice way of being able to create things in 3-D space without making them sculptural objects per se.
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| Cathy Breslaw / Free Flow 8 (left); Free Flow 2 (right) |
I want viewers of my work to make their own interpretations ─ to react to what they see and feel and not so much be told about what I think the work is about. I believe art should be another experience of living daily life. I don't want to direct viewers to a specific idea I am imparting. For me to create work, I am informing myself about my experience of the world but in no way do I want to direct others.
Exhibition:
Contemplation
Gotthelf Art Gallery
San Diego Center for
Jewish Culture
Jacobs Family Campus
4126 Executive Drive
La Jolla, California
92037
Tel. 858.457.3030
September 11 –
November 26
Hours: 9 am to 5 pm (daily except for Saturdays & holidays)
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Views from the installed exhibit:
From Cathy Breslaw's artist statement:
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Spirit Moves / Wall
installation piece made with paper, wire and paint. Ideas of the temporal and fragile nature of
life, movement and reflections of the pieces of shadows on the wall lending
more of a sculptural quality to the installation. The pieces are each literally
hanging from a "wire" from the wall.
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Installation photograph of several works: large round piece on
left is Metamorphosis, 8' in diameter, mixed media - mesh, tyvek,
paint, piece dealing with the ephemerality/ fragility of life. Central
Installation (yellow) The Call of the Shofar: 100 Sounds. talks about the Jewish
high holidays and idea of the shofar as a call to awaken, reflect, renew. Seven pieces along the right are
industrial mesh, spray paint works that each have several layers, referencing
color field painting in overall atmosphere dictated by color and emotion.
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From Cathy Breslaw's artist statement:
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines contemplation as “thoughtful, long consideration or observation, full or
deep consideration; reflection; religious connotations.” These
interpretations inspired the process of creating my works in this exhibition.
Some works are new while others have been made within the last two years. Spirit Moves is one of several installations and uses the accessible and simple materials
of paper, wire and paint. A series of twelve small paintings called Free Flow, were created by the ancient Japanese technique
of Suminagashi painting whereby paint or ink is gently dropped onto the
surface of water. After creating a deliberate composition, and laying paper
or fabric on top of the water, the image is released on to the surface of the
support material. There are three works from a series called Swept Away that incorporate drawing, paint and mixed media
on industrial mesh that are partially suspended from the ceiling and wall. Metamorphosis is an 8’ in diameter circular work made of
industrial mesh, tyvek and paint that has been created through a heating
process, having underlying themes of meditation and the impermanence of all
things. There is also a series of seven industrial mesh works which originate
from a large series called Atmospheres using layers of painted mesh pieces to create a
spatial experience having to do with our natural world.
|
As Cathy Breslaw is one of our Picked RAW Peeled bloggers, both Joe Nalven and Patricia Frischer went to see her exhibition,
Cathy Breslaw: Future Contemplations
by Patricia Frischer
I am writing a more emotional reaction to the works of Cathy Breslaw at the Gotthelf Gallery. It is delightful to enter this room full of lovely colors and shapes, but certain works attracted me more that others. There are large works with dark and light contrast and many obviously hand draw and hand crafted collaged elements. I find these works a bit confusing but they are obviously quest for some purpose. I am just not sure what. But those are contrasted with the much more pure net pieces with layers of hand gradient applied colors titled, for example, sunrise and sunset. If you get close to these works and block out all around you, you could get lost in them. If fact, I found myself wanting them to be huge and for the room to contain only four of them rather like the feeling you get when you are in a room of Rothko's paintings. You could be engulfed and transported. These works truly could allow you to contemplate much the same way at looking at clouds allows your mind to roam. Works that are capable of allowing this type of experience are very special.
I loved the relationship between the Shofar themed central work and the Jewish Community Center. The net veil records five words: Renew, Awaken, The Call, Reflect, Forgive. And there are miniature shofar symbols forming a circle at the base that reminds me of a maze walk which is used for meditation. Again I found myself wanting this piece to be larger, to actually walk the spiral and even add layers of net where I could enter into the work. I think this piece has the possibility of being a whole series or an entire room filling installation.
|
| I was also drawn to this work which has these odd shapes attached directly to the wall with delicate wires. They seem to be scurrying across the wall but do not seem to threatening like spiders, but instead some sort of leaf or figurative forms and they create lovely shadows and are more delicately colored than appears in this image. This work was created in 2014 |
She is an artist to watch.
