Tag Archives: Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery

Arts

Adrift Above The Arctic Circle: Love Of Place

The current exhibition at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery, by Iris Steigemann, is an expression of Topophilia: the affective bond between a person and a place. The art works of Adrift above the Arctic Circle are symbols that have the power to suggest the whole. The whole of a place–with no editing, shaping, distorting through politics, commercial interests or customs. In our daily lives, primary experience is often screened by multiple layers of distortion, yet art can clear this fog. Here are some ways in which I think Iris has met this critical challenge of clear seeing.

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Arts

Painting with Eyes Closed at the Art Gallery: Passing the test

Tests in art school are rarely what we imagine.  In Painting with Eyes Closed, the current exhibition at the Old Schoolhouse art gallery, Filipe Figueria has taken up the challenge of this test: a painting should be satisfying at a distance of both 12 inches and 12 feet.  So, what does it mean to be “satisfying?”

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Arts

Coming July 5: Iris Steigemann, Adrift Above The Arctic Circle

Iris Steigemann was an artist before she came to Cortes island in 1980, but for the last five or six years her work has taken on a new focus. 

“I’ve been painting icebergs. What fascinates me is the underneath of the iceberg. You usually see  a quarter to a third of an iceberg above the water.  Under the water, it’s kind of a dream landscape.  I  like to play around with that,” she explained.

“There is also the environmental aspect of it. The ice cap there is  melting way faster than  what was expected.  The thickest part of the ice cap in Greenland is about three kilometers deep. They’re doing ice cores of this and they can actually see what kind of weather there was, what was happening on earth at those times. Now  this is all melting.  They break off and a lot of them from Ilulissat Icefjord actually float around to the Canadian side.  They drift down the east coast and then they melt.” 

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Arts

Painting With Eyes Closed: The Artwork of Filipe Figueira

‘Painting With Eyes Closed,’ an exhibition by Filipe Figueira opens at the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery on Friday June 21st, 6-9pm. 

“You always have to come up with the title for shows. Usually they’re sort of pretentious and arty, but there’s a reason for this one. It alludes to the process. I’m inspired by scenes on Cortes. I’ll go somewhere, sketch and I’ll get inspired, but a lot of my ideas come just when I’m at the point of falling asleep. The painting will come into my head. Sometimes really detailed thoughts, like the paints to use, the techniques, the layout and even very specific paints and paint mixes pop into my head. Often I have to get up and sketch. Sometimes it wakes me up in the middle of the night. I’ll be thinking about the painting and that becomes the basis of the paintings. They are scenes from Cortes, but they’re mediated through this process,” he explained.

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Arts

Seeing the language of Art

Art is a language received through the senses, and viewing the Member’s Show at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery is a perfect opportunity to learn how this visual language creates feelings and messages when we look at the art works.

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