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The light and space of artist Judy O’Shea

Posted on March 9, 2020 by Sonoma Valley Sun

By Jackie Lee | Sun Fine Arts

 

Judy O’Shea’s current installation at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art (SVMA) is a tour de force of atmospheric art, but she doesn’t want that to be obvious. “It’s somewhere between Elizabethan magic and Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte,” she laughs. “The goal is to have viewers walk through the forest of paper and have their own reaction.” Richard Berger, an important mentor, told her “If you can create anything that allows viewers to project themselves into the piece, you have accomplished your goal.”

“It’s all about the space,” Judy says, walking through the exhibition of diaphanous swaying handmade Japanese kozo paper panels leading to a clearing of undulating sculptures made of aluminum window screen filament.  “I start with the concept of the whole space involved, then light becomes the most important factor.” The moving panels pay homage, and the perception is another thing altogether when viewing the supporting background as the star. 

Photo of the artist at SVMA by Mirka Kastner

Her preparation and research for each installation are meticulous. After a fire destroyed her studio and all its contents in 2016, she met with SVMA’s Linda Keaton to prepare for a future event, established the exhibition area at exactly 43’ by 32.5’, and set about imagining what would best occupy it. The goal was to use the space creatively without crushing it. It also became a cathartic experience after the tragedy of the fire.

Creating “Permutations” entailed years of development and hand-crafting the paper to use – an undertaking requiring patience and muscle. Kozo paper is the base for the hanging panels. Made from mulberry trees, the stripped wood is soaked, cooked, beaten, and formed, unique marks are added, then it’s all hung to dry via a long process. Judy added watermarks of suits of playing cards, with the face cards being collaged pieces. In the final work, they resemble gowns or shawls in ghost-like, backlit, reflective transparencies hung with precision in an enveloping forest-like pattern.

Judy used rolls of window screen filament for the sculptures twisting around in the middle of the room. Lit from above, they invite the viewer to see identifiable shapes, one of them a ballerina.

 The colorful exhibits along the walls are made of Pelon felt-like interface used as a surface for another paper project. Judy treated the paper with cyanotype photo chemistry, the Pelon fabric below absorbed some liquid, and when the finished paper was stripped away, the fabric became a ghost of the action. Backlit, these add even more mystery to the space. Judy added, “The alchemy happens when it dries in the sun.” 

The installation process is probably the most difficult to accomplish. “Putting it up is performance art. I love taking on difficult places,” Judy said. She can’t say enough about the efforts put forth by Linda Keaton and the staff at SVMA, and how wonderful they are to work with. She is truly pleased with the outcome.

The biggest surprise is when it’s over and taken down. Judy doesn’t save her work for future installations; she recycles the paper she has made so lovingly over a period of months. “It’s over for me, never to be repeated.” Parts of them may end up in other art, cut up and repurposed, but Judy will not reinstall the exhibition anywhere else.

She’s also an entertaining writer. Her book about her escapades restoring a mess of a stone building in the French countryside town of Plaisance, France, is a delightful must-read; Water Paper Stone: Letters from a Mill in France is available in the SVMA gift shop. San Francisco Center for the Book launched an exhibition of massive proportions called “Water, Paper, Stone: A Walk-Through Book” in 2014, combined with art from 18 French and American artists who participated in the artist-in-residence program Judy and her husband hosted in France. 

Judy takes on no more than one installation per year, and she’s not sure what she will present in 2021. As an artist who has shaped, burned, cast, pounded, sewn, chiseled, forged, fired, glazed, and drawn with every possible surface and material, she won’t be short of creative ideas. 

Judy O’Shea’s “Light and Space.” Through April 5. Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, 551 Broadway. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. to Wednesday-Sunday. Svma.org. 707.939.7862.

Jackie Lee is a writer and artist living in Sonoma. A supporter of the local visual arts scene in all its forms, her focus is to showcase individual events and artists as well as those represented by established galleries.  [email protected].

 




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