BETHANY CLANCY
Staff Writer
Starting on Feb. 19 and running through Feb. 28, two artists had their work on display in the Emmitt Christian Gallery located in Rockefeller Arts Center. The gallery “Works on Paper” featured Maria Johnson, senior BFA double major in drawing and painting and art history, and Leanna Harp, a fifth-year senior majoring in ceramics and art history. The exhibit displayed paper they had been working on since last semester.
Johnson had started her paper-making journey a little over a year ago when she decided to take a paper arts class, and Harp began two years ago during her monotypes class.
When it comes to her work on display, Johnson said, “This series that I have created focuses on creating depth and the illusion of space within a flat picture plane. To do this, I used color theory methods, overlapping different weights of paper and the position of paper to create dimensionality.”
“My goal was to have the viewer think about how we interpret space and the importance of color to visual language. In some works, bold colors are dimmed by the layering of sheets; some are enhanced by their sharp outlines and others recede into the background,” she continued. “The movement of these forms also [draws] inspiration from the cyclical nature of solar flares, which penetrate the depths of space and move throughout it.”
The other artist, Harp, has a lot of linework on her paper. Her work, entitled “Movements,” was done on handmade abaca paper.
“These lines on the paper, I like to think of them as tally marks, are obsessively repeated over and over. I like to play with the visual representation of time,” she said. “Time is narrative, just as the past is permanent. I am obsessed with the embodiment of the past tense in my work. It’s different than nostalgia, but I haven’t figured out why yet.” “Nostalgia is a longing for a return to the past, but I don’t want to return. Just reflect,” Harp continued. “In this series, I am experimenting with the spontaneity of monotypes and combining the structure of the fixed patterns of my etchings. I am exploring the cyclical and continuous symbolism of my lines as it relates to the representation of time.”
The two have another gallery showing off their paper at The Octagon Gallery inside the Patterson Library in Westfield, N.Y., coming this March.