The Robert F. Agrella art gallery ended its exhibit, The Still Point, with an in-depth discussion by a panel of the exhibit’s artists.
Connie Goldman, Emily Lazarre and Judith Foosaner spoke candidly to an audience March 4 about their opinions, inspirations and history of the artwork composing the exhibit The Still Point, curated by Suzanne Lacke.
An enthusiastic audience quickly assembled before the panel discussion began to walk through the exhibit and view the artwork once more before listening to the creators themselves.
Petaluma campus librarian Karen Peterson moderated the discussion and asked several questions of the artists, beginning with their interpretations of the exhibit’s title.
Judith Foosaner explained that by cleaning out her studio space and clearing her mind, she successfully found her ‘still point.’
“You hold the brush to your center and only when you feel that the brush exerts no movement and is perfectly still, then you are ready to make the first line. That is what I would call the still point, for me. No fixity; it’s a vibration that comes through you,” she said.
Emily Lazarre added, “We went back and forth for a long time about what we should call the show and it seemed like a wonderful way to join the three of us. It’s been a real wonderful experience to know these artists.”
These answers led to the discussion of the artists’ journeys to abstract art.
Connie Goldman described her move from figurative painting to lyrical and organic abstraction, but said that she has continually worked with pieces involving multiple squares and panels.
These aspects of Goldman’s art can be viewed in her Doublet series featuring squares with folds.
On her own path to abstract art, Lazarre believes her passion started from a young age.
Lazarre connected childhood memories to the relational space in her art, stating that she was always more interested in creating houses for her paper dolls than playing with the dolls themselves.
She loved puzzles as well, “not to complete a picture necessarily but to have that satisfaction of the interlocking shapes,” she said.
During the panel discussion, the artists also explained the inspirations for their artwork.
Whereas Goldman cited famous sculptors as influencing her work, Foosaner credited dance, music and her love for reading.
“My first degree was in literature. I generally assume that when I’m working well, they’re all in the room with me; Shakespeare and Chaucer and Henry James,” Foosaner said.
Her first visit to the Museum of Modern Art in New York at the age of 21 also greatly influenced her art.
“I went up the escalator and the first painting that greeted me was Rousseau’s Sleeping Gypsy, and it’s huge and gorgeous and sexy and I just wanted to fall into it, so I did and I never fell out,” she said.
To close the discussion, the artists spoke to the audience about how to approach something new, such as viewing the exhibit’s pieces for the first time.
Goldman began by saying that the most logical way “is to break it down into its formal components, especially if it’s something that you absolutely don’t understand. Take one of my pieces that nobody understands and I would look at the color, I would look at the surface and I would look at the various components and how they relate to one another. That, basically, is what my work is about.”
In Lazarre’s response, she discussed her experiences teaching at the College of Marin and learning her students’ individual premises and influences for their artwork.
“I would just encourage everybody when they walk into a show like this, which can be daunting, to try not to ask themselves what it means. Don’t worry about it. Act as if you were sitting at the symphony and take it in and then allow it to later start giving you associations,” she said.
Whether in music, literature, dance or art, Foosaner concluded, “Let it move through you and don’t try to pin it down. Don’t try to analyze it. See if there’s something there that you can hang on to. Let it work through you. Over a period of time, if it’s valid, it will.”