Far from Black and White - Susan Smereka
Endangered Beauty - Sabrina Fadial
Transition: Turning the Wheel, the Art of Becoming.
We are at a time of transition, we are turning the wheel, but from what and to where? We are at a time of transition from the blinders of history, the horse blinders that close out the broader view allowing in only the pre-selected perspective. How can we turn the wheel of existence to meet a fuller future? How can we handle the lever to transform the world defined by pain, abuse, hate, and loneliness?
Transition is like the grey matter between black and white, the zone that is more complex than one thing or the other…. And when it comes to the shift between winter and summer, spring, it looks more like an effusion of colour. We also think of transition as threshold, but perhaps it is a bigger, broader place between one existence and another, a condition of impermanence.
In Comedia, Dante uses the stars as guides:
Through that round aperture I saw appear
Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears, Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars. (Pinsky, XXXIV, 138-140)
In order to leave the Inferno, Dante looks up to the stars as he transitions into the next realm, that of Purgatorio, the next book in the trilogy. He further follows them to meet Beatrice in Paradiso. And when he ultimately reaches the unfolding beauty of the cosmos, the Aakash space of the Universe… he is entranced not just by the Oneness, but the multiplicity of it all, the otherness of all the stars.
ma già volgeva il mio disio e ‘l vele sì come rota ch’igualmente è mossa, l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle (Par. 33.143-45)
but my desire and will were moved already — like a wheel revolving uniformly — by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
— www.digitaldante.columbia.edu
Can we too find a transition to a place of love within this calamity of our daily journey, national woes, and global discord? And can we move to a life bright within the beauty of that surrounds us, the beauty of the Universe?
To help us with this exploration through our current earthly transitions, we can look to Susan Smereka’s Far from Black and white series, opening at GreenTARA Gallery on May 28, 2021. She paints panels of color and stitches together layers of map that lead us through space, both known and unknown. These archeological digs through topographical maps and Pantone skin colours land us in a grid of being and the mystery of place.
And Sabrina Fadial with her Endangered Beauty reminds us of the power of nature and the courage and love of beauty even as we struggle to confront the art of our own becoming. She is guided by the exquisite beauty of nature and its precarious ephemeral condition. Her steel sculptures are flights of spirit and lightness despite the density of the material.
The Transition show runs May 28, 2021 through July 4th, 2021. Susan Smereka will be at the Gallery Saturday May 29, starting at noon, for a Covid-safe “Meet-the-Artist” informal opening. Other events include the Upcycle Journal Workshop on June 6th and perhaps a closing event with both artists.
Please note the Gallery is OPEN every Friday, Saturday, Sunday under Kraemer & Kin’s hours of operation, typically 12noon to 6pm.