After ...the Journey - Mitchelton Art Exhibition
Local artist Susan Fell McLean's forthcoming art exhibition, ... the Journey, will be showing at the gallery at Mitchelton Winery from 26 April 2009.
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The forthcoming exhibition at Mitchelton includes art from her travels, however most of Susan's work is based on local sites.
...the Journey
In. . . the Journey, an exhibition of works on paper and canvas, textiles and sculptures, artist Susan Fell Mclean combines her passions for travelling and art.
In recent years her curiosity and adventurous spirit has led her into places as far apart as the laneways of a medieval city in Italy, and a remote Iban village in the jungle of Borneo. She has also spent time in the Australian desert and taken part in conferences in France, USA and Malaysia, and now 2009 finds her hard at work in her home territory ? northeastern Victoria.
In every location, Susan Fell McLean's quest is for the experience that captures the spirit of the place that she can then document in her photographs and paintings, or translate into her two and three dimensional textile pieces.
"I look for inspiration in the landscape, and amongst the people, in the daily details involved in living in a particular place; I find out as much as I can about the history. Something geographical, cultural, archaeological, or even the climate could become the inspiration to create a new piece. I set out with my camera and visual diary and search until each place yields something new or unexpected. For me, travel is about learning as well as seeing" she explains.
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Finds, a series of three textile pieces stitched with silks from a small family owned haberdashery shop and coloured with locally prized wines and porchini (mushrooms) from Tuscany is one example of the way Susan captured the experience of spending time in an artist's studio Palzzo Vaj in Prato, Italy.
The Latin Quarter windows, the theme of five small paintings and five embroidered shibori pieces, are a response to her experiences in Paris where she recently attended the International Shibori Symposium in 2008. She had works in two exhibitions and a film shown at one of the world's leading museums - Musee du Quai Branly, as part of this conference.
"While I love working with paint on canvas and paper, Susan says textiles speak a universal, and subtle language. They combine utilitarian functions with aesthetic qualities and cultural significance. With their capacity for variety and rich poetic potential, textiles identify the cultural origins and?individual creativity of their maker. They are the ideal medium for expressing those lingering and lasting impressions the traveller inevitably brings home. I feel that textiles connect me with age old traditions at the same time as helping to?define my place as a contemporary??artist within in the world of today."
For more of Susan's work, see her blog at: http://visibilityedge.blogspot.com/
...the Journey opens at the Mitchelton Winery, Mitcheltown Road, Nagambie (03) 5736 2222 at 2 pm on 26 April, with music from Rod Ladgrove, playing fingerstyle electric acoustic guitar.
He will present individual and lyrical interpretations of many familiar tunes as well as a bunch of original material.
The gallery is open daily from 10am till 5pm and ... the Journey will be showing there until 25 May 2009.
For more information contact Sari Wawn on telephone 03 5790 4352