Judy Cooke ~ More Zen and Robert Hanson

Finding that Judy Cooke had done the lithographs (see image above) and Robert Hanson had written stories for Zen Painters (see yesterday's post), I needed to know what Robert Hanson's work is like. The actual stories are not on the internet, but a Google search will net you the information that he has written a number of stories, that he is an accomplished artist, that he is a Professor Emeritus from the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

In 2009 Robert Hanson exhibited a series of drawings entitled

Beauty

at PNCA's Feldman Gallery here in Portland. Acorn (shown to the left) was one of those drawings. He seems as transfixed with human heads as I am. Take a look at the individual lines, his marks and the unique coloration. His creations capture the essence of the individual.











In 2002 the Elizabeth Leach Gallery also here in Portland had a showing of Hanson's drawings, stories and photographs in an exhibition entitled Wicked Beings and Other Creatures. Here is an image from that show. From the Gallery's website you'll find this description:

Three short stories by Hanson will each feature one of his favorite early Northern European artists as its central character: Pieter Bruegel and the Giant Rabbit, Albrecht Durer and the Chiseled Christus, and Hieronymus Bosch and the Talking Picture. Accompanying the stories will be a series of portraits of fictional characters which Hanson created through the process of direct observational drawing, and photographs which suggest the imagery of forests and bring to mind stories by the Brothers Grimm.

And then in 2007, Hanson's "Three Graces", was at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. The elegance of his pencil strokes whether they are his controlled gestures or exact colors create portraits that will stay in your memory for long periods. Here is Blossom looking over at us.

His portraits are so expressive. It's as if each of these people has joined me for coffee as they have done for the last twenty years. They're that familiar.

Judy Cooke ~ Egypt and Zen

Judy Cooke created Egypt / Stack #5 during a special project put on by Bullseye Connection Gallery. The gallery's Research and Education department facilitated Northwest painters and printmakers transition to the medium of glass. In addition to Cooke, Martha Pfanschmidt, Eric Stotik, and Mark Zirpe participated. The results of their work was subsequently shown in the Found in Translation exhibition at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. Cooke used kiln formed glass to create Egypt / Stack #5. Glass joins the list of materials both conventional and unconventional Cooke has employed to create her art.

In addition to all of this Judy Cooke has also collaborated on at least one book. In Zen Painters, Cooke created lithographs to accompany short stories written by Robert Hanson. The text pages were designed and printed by Textura, a local Portland letterpress printing studio. Like all of Cooke's art, these lithographs are exceedingly elegant.

Wall O Pipe

The shapes in Corridor look more like plumbing pipe to me. If they relate to human bodies it's intestines, that's what I see.

Yesterday's link to Arcy Douglas, where he begins his post by talking about rubber and it's many uses, includes a connection to pipes- where it is used to keep things from leaking. Cooke used this pliable material, as LaValle pointed out yesterday, in her latest pieces. I think her earlier work, including Corridors, could have been influenced by this amazing doorway.

A canvas and a poem

There is a heavy duty canvas boat cover, used on a 12' row boat, listed on Craigslist this morning for $20.00. The seller, from Gresham, says its torn but useful.

And here is a poem by Shel Silverstein

Forgotten Language

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?

Judy Cooke ~ Celebration After the Fact, Includes Staples and Masking Tape

Celebration After the Fact is a large piece. When you approach this piece in the gallery at the Portland Art Museum, you'll see that it hangs on the wall beginning above your head and ending about a foot above the floor. It's also quite wide – your outstretched arms might not extend past the edges. Looking closer at the edges and you'll see grommets. Judy Cooke chose an old canvas tarp as the support for this abstract painting. It's canvas but canvas of an unconventional format for an artist –– unusual materials and materials used in a different fashion are some of the hallmarks of modern art.

Now look for four very light colored rectangles. There is one in each of the two bottom quadrants very near the grommets on the dark blue strips. Those rectangles were pieces of canvas that had been stitched to the original tarp, removed and then re-applied to the canvas, but with of all things, staples. Look closely again and you'll see strips of white running down the center of the canvas. That's masking tape that has been applied to split the canvas in two. The left half and right half are only symmetrical in size not in content. The canvas appears to be divided again by design elements–– an upper half and a lower half making four quadrants. Now look for thinner strips of white adding more design elements. There's one on the right hand leg of that triangle in the lower right quadrant. As your eye moves down to that triangle you'll also notice the only oval shape. The way it is placed and with the shading that Cooke has applied around its edge, it appears to be the entrance to the inner world of that canvas. Should you ever visit the piece, you'll notice subtleties of colors –– blues, blacks, greys and tans. Some of those combine to almost purplish tones. You'll also see what could very well be original "mold" stain on the canvas.

This is truly a work that will keep your interest if you spend a few minutes with it. While you're doing that, you'll probably find yourself wondering what Celebration After the Fact Judy Cooke was alluding to in her title. And for those who are at the Portland Art Museum, look down in that bottom left hand quadrant. You'll see Cooke has penciled in CELEBRATION AFTER THE FACT Judy Cooke 1972.

Celebration After the Fact, Judy Cooke

Celebration After the Fact is a pencil and ink collage on canvas Cooke made in 1972.
Is it sculpture? It is more sculpture to me than a drawing or painting, even though it is on canvas.
In this found item collage consider this quote by the artist; "I was having forms built that resembled the shapes contained within my paintings. What was inside, became the outside." There is a recurring theme in Cooke's work of the relationship of the containing space to the shapes within.
Some of her other pieces in the PAM collection include Dilemma, a 14 by 96 inch long oil, rubber and wax on wood:

and Semaphore,even skinnier at 7.25 x 96 inches made of oil and aluminum on wood.

Both pieces were done in the early 90's.
In an interview from Dialogue with fellow artists Lucinda Parker, Bob Hanson and Cie Goulet, Judy Cooke said "I am very concerned with the idea of an extended line; I've carried the idea around in my head for a very long time. I deal with this extended horizontal because it reminds you in a sense of your relationship to the horizon."
I love that sentiment, so poetic. I also love to think of my relationship to the horizon when I encounter Celebration After the Fact because this canvas has a story of travel with all it's holes showing, telling me it once had a job to do. And a canvas with a job to dO seems like something that should be at sea. Horizon and Sea. Cooke goes on to say "But my approach has nothing to do with depicting nature. My paintings are very concrete, very object like, very specific and kind of blocky." So there is her desire to evoke a horizon and to do itabstractly,that you sense it even in her unnatural blocky specific objects.
It is just such an object that we will dissect this week on 52 Pieces.