[acx_slideshow name=”Continuum”]
Local artist Cynthia MacCollum’s exhibition of collagraph prints, “Continuum,” launches at 5 p.m. today (Saturday, Aug. 23) during a reception at New Canaan Library’s H. Pelham Curtis Gallery that’s free and open to the public.
Here’s a nice sneak peek Flickr gallery of the exhibition from on the library’s website (for the slideshow above, to pause on a particular piece and get more information about it, just move your mouse over it).
Cynthia MacCollum. Contributed
MacCollum, an outdoors lover and self-described “science geek,” came to the collagraphy medium with intentions to use it to serve her painting, and realized as she started working in prints that the form allowed her to create art that she couldn’t through painting.
As a casual art appreciator who often finds himself admiring contemporary art without knowing just why, I like it when an exhibition tells a story—and this one certainly does.
What MacCollum undertakes here is a series of snapshots that tell a story of life itself, an artist’s rendering of all biology, including our own as humans—as she tells us in our back-and-forth, printed in full below: “This is 4.6 billion years condensed into 109.5 linear feet of art.” As an enterprise and in its brilliant execution, it is equal parts overwhelming and inspiring, awesome and comforting. That MacCollum herself will be on hand to discuss the work at Saturday’s reception is a huge bonus, as she’s able to convey her inspiration for the exhibition, and its massive scope, in simple and direct language.
We put questions to MacCollum about Continuum, as well as about her life and family here in New Canaan. A huge thank-you is owed to the artist for her time and considered responses.
One last note before we get to the Q&A: The library’s art committee and MacCollum both offer thanks to Moet Hennessy who are providing Ruinart Champagne for the reception.
Here’s our exchange.
New Canaanite: This is a fascinating exhibition—I’ve just had my first look—and I want to talk about your work specifically. First, let’s place you in New Canaan. How long have you lived here and what sort of organizations are you involved with here? The promotional materials for the show mention your children specifically—where did or do they go to school here in town? Talk to us about some of the things you like to do in New Canaan, where you go.
Cynthia MacCollum: I have lived in New Canaan for 12 years—easy to remember because we moved in right after the birth of my daughter, Skye—and she just turned 12. My kids-Quinn, 15, and Skye-both went to south school. Quinn is at the high school and Skye is at Saxe.
I live close to town—very near the Nature Center—and I love to walk there and over to Irwin park. I’m inspired by nature in all seasons, and I also do some of my best thinking while walking.
I’m a guild member at Silvermine and a member of the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk. I have a studio at my home, but no press-so I do all of my printing at CCP. It’s a very special place and I feel so lucky to have this wonderful facility so close.
I would imagine not too many people will know the term ‘collagraphy’ specifically, though many people will know it when they see it. Talk to us about you as an artist a bit. What’s your background as an artist generally, and when did you start working in this medium?
I feel like I’ve always been an artist—even as a child. Not just because I was always drawing or painting, but also because of how I perceived the world visually. I did not major in fine art—my father felt it was impractical—which in a way kept me very true to my own style.
After a career in retail and eight years of designing scarves for my own business, as well as licensing my designs to others, I took a break when my kids were little.
When my daughter was three, I took my first printmaking class (at CCP); interestingly enough, it was a collagraph class taught by Sarah Amos. I really was hooked right away. I have tried a number of different printmaking methods, but collagraph remains my favorite. I came to printmaking as a painter, and for several years I was intent on making prints—through monotype—that looked like my paintings. I finally realized that I didn’t want to do that—that I wanted to print in order to create art that I couldn’t create through painting. And so I turned back to collagraph.
There are many ways to make a collagraph print, but all of them basically start with creating a plate—either by adding materials such as carborundum (steel filings) or acrylic medium—or by cutting into a plate and creating texture that will hold ink. I like to work with multiple plates and layer imagery in such a way that I create sheer layers that result in a luminous print.
Throughout this same time period I also painted a small painting every day for 3-plus years. This process definitely supported my printmaking by making my work looser and my subject matter much more free. Prior to that, I was extremely focused on landscapes.
Now let’s talk about what viewers at the gallery can expect to find. What are three things you’d like casual art appreciators to know and keep in mind as they make their way there to see your work?
I hope people will gain an appreciation for the beauty that exists in all life forms. And also that we, as humans, are a part of life on earth. The other thing I hope people can take in is the scope of time covered. I spent a lot of time studying this—immersing myself in it—and it’s still hard to wrap my head around it. This is 4.6 billion years condensed into 109.5 linear feet of art. The viewer should keep in mind that each step they take moves them forward in time by 42 million years.
And finally, I would have viewers keep in mind that the age of man is overrepresented spatially. The oldest human fossils are 300,000 years old—300,000 years on this time scale would be represented by less than a tenth of an inch.
If I’m not mistaken, there’s a note of optimism in the final piece here, “Take My Hand/Age of Man.” What’s your take that?
Maybe that means that you are an optimist? Yes, I think I am an optimist. And I think that if mankind can work together we can save the earth-and the many kinds of life inhabiting it-from the man made catastrophic changes that are already underway.
You’re encompassing so much in this work, and yet the inspiration for this exhibition is very simple and familiar—your kids’ social studies timelines from school. I’d love to hear more about where you’ve found inspiration as an artist, not just in this exhibition but throughout your career and work.
Nature is my biggest inspiration; all of my artwork—even all of the scarves I once created-is inspired by the organic.
And certainly that is how the idea for Continuum began.
I was seeking a formal structure for my exhibit that I knew would be organically inspired, one way or another. I had been creating images of abstracted jellyfish, and I had been reading a lot about the current proliferation of jellyfish in the oceans due to climate change.
I read the Science Times in the New York Times—I’m kind of a science geek, and there are just so many articles that tie back into this topic. Also I had recently read the book, signature of all things, which makes a lot of references to geologic time. So all of these influences had been swirling around in my head. And when I started to research this idea, I was fascinated. Plus I fell in love with images of microscopic algae.
The timeline idea came later, after I realized the significance of the time scale. I wanted viewers to experience the time scale, and a timeline seemed like the obvious way. Plus I hoped it would be understandable to all these kids in New Canaan who have made their own timelines. Originally I wanted the timeline to run around the walls under the prints, but I wasn’t happy with how the timeline looked with my art.