Alison Weld: Tonal Variation

Alison Weld: Tonal Variation

Checklist of works exhibited: Alison Weld: Tonal Variation

July 9 – August 14, 2016

A. S. Art FoundationJim Thorpe, PA

“Alluvial Chorale # 1”, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 72” x 33”

“Alluvial Chorale # 2”, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 72” x 47” “Alluvial Chorale # 3”, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 48” x 30” “Metabolic histories”, 2015, Oil, Acrylic on Canvas, 95” x 114”Components of Metabolic Histories“Mississippi Blues”, 2000, Oil on Canvas, Upholstery, 80” x 87”“Intimations”, 1983, Acrylic on Canvas, 36” x 50”“Tzee Tzer”, 2001, Oil on Canvas, Fake Fur, 24” x 36”“Rambouillet Blues”, 1998, Oil on Canvas, Fake Fur, 24” x 36” “Migratory Continuo #1”, 2015, Oil, Acrylic on Canvas, 48” x 60” “Migratory Continuo #5”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 48” x 65” “Paleo Continuo”, 2015, Oil, Acrylic on Canvas, 74” x 98”Components of Paleo Continuo“Man and Bird”, 1984, Acrylic on Canvas, 70” x 60”“Alto”, 2000, Oil on Canvas, 50” x 38”“Portrait 8”, 2000, Oil on Canvas, 24” x 18”“Portrait 13”, 2000, Oil on Canvas, 24” x 18” “Self Portrait”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 72” x 18” “Vertebrae Histories”, 2015, Oil, Acrylic on Canvas, 79” x 110”

Alison Weld: Tonal Variation

July 9th thru August 14th, 2016

A. S. Art Foundation

20 W. Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 18229www.asartfoundation.org

Tonal Variation Introduced in 2015, the Tonal Variation works comprise several discrete, achieved paintings assembled into diptychs, triptychs, and asymmetrical groupings. Within these assemblages I juxtapose multiple elements of seemingly contrasting visual statements to set in play a sense of aesthetic contrast and variation which expresses my life as an artist working within the continuum of past and contempo-rary art.

The Tonal Variation works may be constructed either from almost entirely new paintings or they may incorporate earlier paintings which were either single works or components of previous diptychs, triptychs, or groupings of multiple parts. For instance, Neo-expressionistic semi-figurative works of the early 1980s can be aligned with much more abstract works of mid-1990s and later. Acrylic paintings abut those in oil. Dynamic sight lines are established within assemblages of small and large paintings. Thus, Paleo Continuo (2015) brings together the 1984 acrylic Man and Bird with three oil paintings of 2000: Alto and two small “self-portraits” Portrait 8 and Portrait 13.

The resulting new works display a varied palette at times, or a varied gesture or mark in other instances, but all work to be integrated through structure and form. But both the separate elements and constructed assemblage also offer variations on the basic and recurring themes of my painting over four decades - variations which recognize changes and developments through time but which affirm the constant engagement in personal and collective expression. I am interested in my own “metabolic histories” and our culture’s underlying “continuo” from the paleolithic origins of art to the current continuum of individual and collective creativity. I believe art expresses the soul and expands the mind. It speaks of the individual and the culture to the individual and the culture. Much of my work can be seen within a tradition of expressive abstraction, yet I understand tradition lives by being relevant to the present. Ideas, expressions, aesthetics all “migrate” in time. A work of the past finds new life in the present.

Tonal Variations are thus rooted in the present, but do not negate the aesthetic past - whether that of our long, shared aesthetic continuum or my personal artistic journey. They acknowledge collective visual meaning. They are not separate from either the external lived world or our realm of cultural expression; they are a distillation and response, personal and shared.

A metabolism of the soulA history of the soul

A metabolism of the mind An historic continuoAn historic passage of the abstract and time now.

History and Time now. A tonal variation of the soul.

Alison Weld

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“Vertebrae Histories”, 2015, Oil, Acrylic, 79” x 110”

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Components of “Paleo Continuo”, 2015

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“Man and Bird”, 1984 “Alto”, 2000

“Portrait 13”, 2000 “Portrait 8”, 2000

“Paleo continuo”, 2015, Oil, Acrylic on Canvas, 74” x 98”

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“Migratory Continuo #1”, 2015, Oil, Acrylic on Canvas, 48” x 60”

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“Migratory Continuo #5”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 48” x 65”

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Components of Metabolic Histories, 2015

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“Mississipi Blues”, 2000 “Intimations”, 1984

“Tzee Tzer”, 2001 “Rambuillet Blues”, 1998

“Metabolic histories”, 2015, Oil, Acrylic on Canvas, 95” x 114”

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“Self Portrait”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 72” x 18”

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“Meiolania Quartet”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 96” x 70”

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“Tertiary Sinfonia”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 76” x 58”

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“Permian Sinfonia”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 92” x 74”

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“Tertiary Sinfonia 2”, 2015, Oil on Canvas, 74” x 59”

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“ Adirondack Avenue #2”, 2015, Oil, 72” x 64”

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Alluvial Chorale Alluvial Chorales are flowings of mark-making and deposits of consciousness.

Alluvial Chorale (2016) flows from Tonal Variation (2015-2016). Both series of paintings com-prise multiple parts–individual paintings brought together in abrupt juxtaposition, simultaneously de-claring their own integrity while combining to engage a complex web of color, texture, and form. Such juxtapositions of similar or contrasting visual elements have, in fact, long been an aesthetic strategy in my work. For the past two and a half decades, beginning when I abutted richly textured and expressive oil paintings with panels of stretched commercial fabric (the Home Economics series of 1995-2006), visual contrasts and dichotomy have allowed me to present my sense of life’s complexity and explore the opposition and entwinement of personal vision and cultural dynamics. The Alluvial Chorale paintings suggest, perhaps, a more subtle interaction among the component paintings. Here, a sculptural presence is still asserted, whether in the asymmetry or the geometrically balanced construction of the assemblage. But the eye is drawn primarily to the quieter, more reflective surface of the raw canvas upon which gestural mark and spontaneous flow of sumi ink and acrylic paint make present a cerebral and an emotional state of being. I have sought a straightforward honesty and emotional directness in the simplicity of fluid gesture and poured liquid upon unprimed ground. At times, the flat but definitive black of the sumi seems to dominate. Although perceived by some as the opposite or denial of color, black is an active color, whether loosely wending behind or through the var-ied colors and strains of acrylic paint or dramatically coalescing into large dark amorphous forms that challenge both the integrity of color and the expressiveness of gestural mark. But the acrylic also asserts its force throughout the Alluvial Chorale paintings, and the raw canvas speaks throughout as an equally meaningful element. And gesture is never absent. Gesture may be quiet. Gesture may be bold. It may be figurative. It is always abstract. Gesture traces an action. Gesture calls forth symbolism of the life force. Gesture is consciousness itself made physical. The act of painting is physical. The act of painting is symbolic. The act of painting is an emotive force. The work of art is a metaphor for life itself, a symbol for the metabolism of the life force: Meta-bolic Meaning; Metabolic Histories; histories of emotion; histories of expression; histories of being.

An Alluvial ChoraleA chorus of sumi

A chorus of acrylicA chorus of thought made physical

Aesthetic orderInstinctive drive

An alluvial orderingAn alluvial markingAn alluvial rivulet

The Great Stream of Art

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“ Alluvial Chorale # 5”, 2016, Acrylic on Canvas, 48” x 30”

Alison Weld

Documents

Alison Weld: Tonal Variation