Page 24 - April 2016

noThing in The Way
pAInTInG ThrouGh The eyeS oF eXperIenCe
FROM LEFT: Grief and Cliff People by Joella Jean Mahoney are examples of work from the artist featured at West of the Moon Gallery in Flagstaff this month.
STory By
nikki charnsTroM
on an early June morning, 3-year-old Joella Jean Mahoney scampered down the stairs country that mirror the configurations and tones of human flesh.
of her Lake Michigan home, ran to the porch, and stood on the front doorstep. The birds chirped and the air smelled fresh. It was in this moment the sun rose, the world turned “Technicolor,” and Ms. Mahoney experienced the beauty surrounding her. since that young
age, she has felt a deep connection with the earth, which she expresses through the visual arts. “It was beauty that so stirred me. The experience of beauty allows us to feel whole, even for
a moment everything is exquisite,” she describes.
Growing up, Ms. Mahoney was “exposed to the world of ideas” as much as the natural world.
Her childhood greatly influenced her heart for the outdoors, ultimately impacting her art today. “In 1951 when I saw for the first time the Colorado Plateau landscape, I found a pristine, natural environment just like my childhood, and saw a landscape that matched how I felt inside.
The vast, unfolding vistas implied endless life possibilities,” she recalls.
Residing currently in sedona with a bachelor’s in art from northern Arizona University and a
master’s in painting from Claremont Graduate University, she finds herself frequently painting the Arizona landscape.
“The Arizona landscape is spacious. It allows us to feel a sense of freedom and endless possibilities. It’s the ‘Land of nothing in the way’ because we see such vast distances and such grand vistas ... just wonderful feelings of space on the Colorado Plateau,” she says.
Beginning as an 18x24 inch canvas, her on-site paintings are realistic renditions of the view before her. Once she steps into her studio, a larger canvas is placed on the easel and the image is reinvented from memory and experience.
“I never work from a picture but rely on my excellent visual recall. That’s how I work. I am not a tourist painter or a commercial artist,” Ms. Mahoney states.
In painting from experience, the artist feels it influences the viewer in their understanding and gives them the opportunity to internalize the spiritual content of her work. Her paintings are pure expressions of how it looks and feels to be alive with nature. “My paintings honor the earth. I hope the viewer experiences the awe and wonder of our precious planet,” she explains.
Ms. Mahoney is Professor of Art emerita at the University of La Verne in California where she developed the art department in 1964. As a professor she had to know how to work with every medium. she taught painting and drawing live on television from nAU. This carries over into her artwork today as she integrates oil, watercolor, acrylics and other mediums into her paintings. “Painting is painting even if we use coffee, tea or shoe polish,” she says.
Although nature is ultimately her inspiration, she adores the analytical paintings of French artist, Paul Cézanne and the spatial resolutions of American painter, Richard Diebenkorn. Abstract expressionism of the 1940s and‘50s is another interesting influence on Ms. Mahoney’s artistic flare, which she describes as mid-century modern; meaning painting must be more than recording the visual reality.
In her series “Figure in the Landscape,” she personifies the experience of boundary crossing, non-linear modalities of knowing, and the commonality of human experience over time. Both male and female figures express the spiritual and mystical dimension of human experience and being. Ms. Mahoney paints these figures on canvas, allowing them space and therefore acknowledging her own personal experience of boundary crossing.
Cliff People appears at the time of the series in 1973 as a figure in a tropical landscape until it is reset in a desert scene soon after. This canvas expresses the multifaceted agony of loss through a non-conscious effort to release her personal grief. As the meaning is explored further, the title of the piece is in reference to the disappearance of cliff dwellers of the American southwest, the Anasazi. within the complexity of this piece the rocky earth is painted red with wounds and is comforted by a wounded mourner.
Woman in the Dunes (1974) shows the artist’s interest in the way the figure and the landscape relate to one another. Comparisons are made between the body and the shapes within the earth. It’s the shapes, rhythm and colors of the landforms and dry washes of the canyon
Known for her large-scale oil landscapes, Ms. Mahoney is intrigued by the views set before her and particularly favors to paint scenery. “The basis of landscape is rhythm. The experience of rhythm is essential to the sense of well-being,” she describes. This rhythm generates all life
— she finds it in the clouds, mesa edges, sand dunes, tree branches, as well as in the seasons, the tide, birth and death.
“Those rhythms are fundamental to the fact of life as we know it. we often feel soothed by rhythm or excited by rhythm in dance. Rhythm arouses our emotions,” she expresses.
Ms. Mahoney’s artistic mission is to continue to honor the earth through her paintings in all subject matter — whether landscapes, horses, flowers, or the human figure. she explores the question, “what is the experience of being alive and what does that look like? It’s all about being alive. That’s the subject matter of art,” she believes.
As far as the future for her art, she plans to continue with “non-recognizable” landscape. she will also dabble in her love for animals, nature and the figure. when painting the figure, Ms. Mahoney uses a live, nude model. This process begins with a six-month period of studying the figure and from there the time frame varies upon the painting.
“To paint a big painting it takes 60 years and six months, because when we paint we use everything we have been, are, and will be,” she says.
For Ms. Mahoney, art means a connection with everything surrounding her. she finds a bond with herself, others and nature in every brushstroke. “Art making connects me with everything. All of life is connected in some way,” she states.
In the “sunflower series,” the artist inserts a deep and intimate portion of herself into each painting. The work in the series is rarely exhibited because the content is personal and feminist; some paintings hold the theme of social equality. This series is inspired by Ms. Mahoney’s intellectual interest in General semantics of the 1950s; which was peaked by the social concerns brought about in the Vietnam conflict. After painting some works with the war as subject matter, she painted in way to celebrate the beauty of the earth instead of its destruction. Grief, at first glance, appears to be about a sensual relationship, but for Ms. Mahoney it is about the grief of losing those close to her and the “childlike wish to be comforted.” Through the intensity of red and yellow colors, and grief, the sunflowers appear to be wilting. Flowers tend to be a symbol of renewal, and throughout the series groups of people are seen living together under the overwhelming sunflowers.
with intentions to paint the landscapes before her, she has travelled to egypt to see the nile and Antarctica. A trip to the sand dunes of Morocco is in the near future for Ms. Mahoney and may be seen in works to come. “I try to go where the landscape calls me intellectually and spiritually. There’s beauty everywhere on our whole planet,” she explains.
As an internationally known artist through the Art embassies Program, sponsored by the Us state Department, her paintings are in numerous public and private collections. Ms. Mahoney was honored with the title “Distinguished Alumna” during nAU’s Centennial Year Celebration in 1996. A year later scripps College Fine Arts Foundations honored the artist for her Achievement in the Arts. In the past, she has had 20, 30 and 50-year retrospective exhibitions at Claremont Graduate University’s Art Department Gallery. Also, she has made a 20-year and 40-year retrospective catalog available.
The work of Ms. Mahoney will be displayed on the walls of West of the Moon Gallery, 14 n. san Francisco, throughout the month of April. she plans to show both classic landscape as well as her latest work, titled “The new York series.” This series is unique because it does not reference the southwest landscape compared to her classic paintings. The color black is used to convey drama, inspiration stemming from the frequency of the death of others in her life, and also the “industrial overlay” expressed by large cities. JoellaJeanMahoney.com
| nikki Charnstrom actively explores canyon and lake alike. nikki@thenoise.us
24 • APRIL 2016 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us