Upstream by Deborah Garner

November 10 to December 06, 2019
Opening Reception: Sunday, November 10 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Improvisational Paintings via Personal Immersions in the Collective Stream of Consciousness.

Deborah Garner Artist Statement:

Over the years, my artistic process has shown itself to be one concerned with “letting go”. Letting go of image, symbol, composition.

A letting go of control by my intellectual self and an attempted stepping back from a strictly personal point of view toward a more universal one.

As a self-taught artist, I began early on by challenging myself when technique became too polished or facile, to loosen up by working with whatever was at hand  and with no forethought. Simply approaching a blank surface, getting out of my own way and seeing what materialized as I felt my way through.

Abstraction was the natural channel for this and instrumental music was frequently the means that allowed me to most easily sense colors, edges, shapes that morphed and merged as pigment on the pristine field. Small ensembles of jazz and chamber music sets the tone and on a good day I can completely flow with it. The resulting “relaxed-attention” provides a ephemeral pathway that is fleeting and must be pursued in the moment. As daunting as this can be, it is the only satisfying way I can work.

After decades of admiring, studying, and dealing in ethnographic art (traditional arts of tribal peoples) and  marvelling at the extraordinary individual expressions created by native artists in this relaxed-attentive “theta” state, I feel there are many years of personal exploration ahead.

I embrace that task and hope that you will enjoy selections from my visual journey so far.