Artist Catherine Nash: New Artworks

Fire.
Intense Heat.

High Winds.

Smoke.

Oxygen.

Breath.

Transformation.

Standing tall.

Speaking truth.

Listening.  

Hearing.

Accountability.

Understanding.

Empathy.

Compassion.

Transformation.

Breathe.

Love.

One.

And so it is...

                                                               ©C.Nash

©Catherine Nash
Smoke, 2020 
encaustic painting in a vintage
box with original smoked sides,
wax dipped leaves, found wood.
7”w x 20”h x 4”d
$975
available through the Bowersock Gallery  508-487-4994
info@bowersockgallery.com

©Catherine Nash
Waning, 2020 
encaustic and mica
in a vintage drill bit box
11.25”w x 4”h x 2”d
(private collection)

I've offered a rare, intimate tour of my studio as I was working:

“Mesdames of Wax: Emma Ashby and Catherine Nash"
Bowersock Fine Art Gallery 
373 Commercial Street, Provincetown, Mass. 

This two person show runs June 19 through July 2nd, 2020.

[My art will be available all season within the gallery.]

Steve Bowersock presents my new work within the gallery:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LzzUuQ_LPI&feature=youtu.be
  

The Bowersock Gallery has posted 

Part 1 of a 2 part interview with me: 

...and Part 2 of 2 interview:

I have been so grateful to have had the carrot of a deadline to work towards - it focused my creativity within this time of uncertainty, which has certainly affected my work, however subtly.  The two assemblage pieces at the beginning of this post came after the Black Lives Matter protests/movement began...and the "poem" I wrote (after the works were completed) when the devastating fires in the Catalina Mountains began on June 5th from a lightning strike...and which continues to burn today.  Predictions are that they will until our monsoon rains come, perhaps in another 10-14 days..  Such a visceral metaphor for all that is happening socially and politically...

The sky and all it's mysteries continue to inspire me~  

©Catherine Nash

Promise of Another Day, 2020

Encaustic painting

12”w x 18”h x 1”d

$1250 retail

available through the Bowersock Gallery  508-487-4994
info@bowersockgallery.com

©Catherine Nash

As Above, So Below, 2020

Encaustic painting

12”w x 18”h x 1”d

$1250 retail

available through the Bowersock Gallery  508-487-4994
info@bowersockgallery.com

I've been reading books about Alexander Von Humboldt.  He carried a cyanometer with him as he scaled the highest peaks of the Andes in 1801-03. At the time, the shift in value of blue was still mysterious to scientists...

I release the science behind it and inhabit the mystery.   

Catherine Nash

Altitude, 2020

Encaustic painting

12.75”w x 12.75”h x 2.5”d

$1350 retail

available through the Bowersock Gallery  508-487-4994
info@bowersockgallery.com

©C. Nash
Altitude, 2020
side view

©Catherine Nash
Breathing Under Water, 2020
Encaustic painting 
12”w x 18”h x 1”d
(private collection)

Clarity. Attention. Pay attention. 

Breathing under water
…the silence of the depths. 

Tumultuous life above the surface
…but here I am. 

Under. Within. Without. 

Edges soften. Skin dissolves. 

There is no ‘me'. Attentive. Listen. Breathe.
                                                
                                                         ©C. Nash

"Breathing Under Water" was started a month ago in reaction to a soundscape recording by two talented Tucson friends of mine, Will Clipman and RC Nakai...specifically Tank Journey #3. (You can listen to their mesmerizing music at https://tanksounds.org/r-carlos-nakai-and-will-clipman/ Consider listening to that track while looking at my painting.) 

The painting emanated from my poetic response. For me, the image truly expresses not a hiding place from tumult, but a shelter that is protective and safe: the place of peace and quietude that I inhabit within which embodies both light and darkness.

We are fortunate and blessed to be breathing, both physically and spiritually. It is essential for us to breathe and live peace, especially now, holding ground in love.

©Catherine Nash

Morning Star, 2020

Assemblage in a vintage drawers, 

24K gold leaf, encaustic painting, 

mica, handmade paper, 

natural elements.

5”w x 15.5”h x 4”d

(private collection)

©Catherine Nash

Morning Star, 2020

Assemblage side view

©Catherine Nash

Tidal, 2020

assemblage with high shrinkage abaca paper, 

shell, vintage carved wood, branch, in a

1880s sewing machine drawer.

6.25”w x 16”h x 5.25”d

$695 retail

available through the Bowersock Gallery  508-487-4994
info@bowersockgallery.com

©Catherine Nash

Tidal, 2020

assemblage side view

These other works were also recently completed within the last 12 months.  Still enamored with the depth of space, these intimate landscapes are secured in burned vintage jewelry boxes.  My distress at our disregard for the environment in the name of progress triggered these works.  

Gaia, our planetary jewel that hosts life, is polluted and burned without regard to future generations.  Henry David Thoreau, in his distress at "progress" in the 1840s, exclaimed that "at least the sky is safe!"

  

Of course we know that isn't true, but looking to the sky reminds me how fragile life is~ 

©Catherine Nash
Aurora, 2019

Encaustic painting in a burned vintage jewelry box, 

found brass elements and wood.

13” W x 6.5”H x 2” D

(private collection)

©Catherine Nash
Relic, 2019

encaustic painting in a burned vintage jewel box,

found pocket mirror, wood, 24K gold leaf.

5.5” W x 6.25”H x 1.75” D

(private collection)

©Catherine Nash
Constellation, 2019

encaustic painting in a burned vintage jewel box,

rusted ring, found wood.

5” W x 9.75”H x 1.5” D

(private collection)

©Catherine Nash
Night Fishing, 2019

encaustic painting in a burned vintage jewel box,

found pocket mirror, wood, 24K gold leaf.

7.75” W x 6.5”H x 1.5” D

(private collection)

©Catherine Nash
Night, 2019

encaustic painting in a burned vintage jewel box,

old wooden screw press.

7.5” W x 6”H x 2.25” D

(private collection)

©Catherine Nash
Our Ocean, 2019

encaustic painting in a burned 

vintage jewel box, rusted ring,

antique optical glass, pearl.

3.5” W x 3”H x 3.25” D

(private collection)

©Catherine Nash
Four Elements, 2019

encaustic painting in a burned 

vintage jewel box, 

found rusted watch.

4.5” W x 3.5”H x 2.5” D

(private collection)

©Catherine Nash
Winged Sky, 2019

encaustic painting in a burned 

vintage jewel box, 

old T square.

7.5” W x 6"H x 2.25” D

$450  retail

available through the Bowersock Gallery  508-487-4994
info@bowersockgallery.com

©Catherine Nash
Acorn, 2019

encaustic painting in a burned 

vintage jewel box, 

reclaimed wood, vintage brass acorn, mica.

4.5” W x 3.5"H x 1” D

(private collection)




Hope...Love...One

~...on the trail of the Wandering Book Artists

Peter and Donna Thomas, Ukulele Book Series: Book #9 The Letterpress Ukulele, 2002. 18 x 6 x 3. Letterpress printing on shaped cotton paper. 24 one-of-a-kind books, each with a real ukulele as a structural element of the binding.
Photo: Peter Thomas

When does a book become art?
When does a sculpture become an artist book?
Is that an artist book or is it just "bookish"?
For that matter, what is an artist book?
Some consider that an artwork that sequences a series of images/text or that embody references to the formal structure of a book can be described officially as:

artist books.

Or book objects.
Or sculptural books.

Artist books deal with time and space in a tactile manner through movement and momentum, progression and an unfolding in a unique way. They invite and may even require the viewer's participation. However one defines it, the book as art is being explored by contemporary artists around the globe. (Download my teaching handout for artist books here. Just scroll down 'til you find it on the articles page.)


This past week has been quite adventurous here as Californian book artists Peter and Donna Thomas drove Paloma, their beautifully self-built gypsy wagon, into Tucson and right into our driveway, barely fitting behind the gate. Peter and Donna are on a year long adventure to "travel around the country to sell our books, teach book arts workshops, talk about books and see the beauty in the USA." They have already been on the road for a month. You can read all about it and follow them as they journey on their blog Adventure of the Wandering Book Artists.

It was just great to host the two of them and share time together again...I first met Peter in '96 in Copenhagen at an exciting IAPMA conference and then, in 1997, after a Friends of Dard Hunter conference in Sonoma, spent a week with eight other artists in the Thomas' beach side home in Santa Cruz collaborating on an editioned artist book.

On Tuesday, Peter and Donna pulled their colorful gypsy wagon right up in front of the University of Arizona Museum of Art, under a huge, old juniper for a bit of shade. And, like vendors of old, they showed their editioned and one of a kind artist books from the back of their caravan. Their artist book performance/ukulele concert was a lively and fun introduction to an interesting panel discussion about artist books (given by panelists Heather Green, Nancy Solomon, and Phil Zimmerman ) in conjunction with the exhibition Sculptural Books: Memory and Desire. (The show will be up through June 13th...!)

Joined by ten artist participants the next day, Peter taught a workshop in Rob's and my studio entitled "Scrolling Books from tiny to LARGE!", demonstrating a contemporary binding that he and Donna developed from historical examples.

Great fun! We got to select bits of maps from an old atlas to cover the first miniature binding. Everyone seemed to find countries and places that held a personal meaning and evoked creative ideas for content. Since the participants were experienced bookbinders, free rein was given for the second book...and some wonderfully exciting results ensued.

About learning a craft or technique, Peter advised us, "The more you make something, the more your hands know how to do it, and the more your mind can focus on the creative content."

While the workshop participants were creating their second book, Donna and I started a collaborative edition of 50 encaustic prints entitled Sky Prevailing. Our ideas melded together quickly, using inspiration from the Tucson sky and horizon combined with the motif of Paloma, carved into their gypsy wagon. My recent re-interest in Japanese woodblock printing inspired a molten technique for creating a smooth gradation (Jap: bokashi) for the sky. A first stencil of the flying bird was used during the first printing, and a second of the Catalina Mountains that we can see from our little yard added the finishing touch. The Thomases are printing broadsides and editioned artworks when they can as they are traveling to create an eventual collection or book that documents their year as wandering book artists.

Peter and Donna, collaborating on life and art together for over 30 years, are adventurous and inspiring folk: in 2006, they walked the same route as John Muir from San Francisco to Yosemite in 30 days. It took them three years to build their exquisitely hand crafted gypsy wagon. They believe in fulfilling dreams! Donna and Peter offer us a vibrant example of what it means to live life fully, creatively and from the heart and spirit. We wish them a happy and safe adventure as they continue on, sharing with you their journey's motto:

"BOOKBINDING FOR
WORLD PEACE!!"