September–The Call

Title: September–The Call
LC Subject: Painting Symbolism Women in art painting (image-making) paintings (visual works) oil paintings (visual works)
Creator: Ace, Katherine
Description: This painting depicts a woman with red hair, looking off to the left of the picture plane and wearing a blue sweater that appears to be pieced together over or with areas of blue sky. A total of nine colorful birds share the picture plane with her. September-The Call; Alkyd (oil); (34 x 46 inches ); from the series Saint Eve Book of Days Katherine Ace was born in Chicago and received a degree in ceramics from Knox College in 1975. She is a self taught painter working in alkyd/oil on canvas. Her work hangs in private, corporate and public collections. Katherine has participated in numerous regional and national individual and group shows. (Unknown, 1995) kat@katherineace.com The Oregon Arts Commission has ten Regional Arts Councils that provide delivery of art services and information. The Council for this location is: Linn-Benton Arts. You may view their website at: http://www.artcentric.org/
Location: The Valley Library >> Benton County >> Oregon >> United States Benton County >> Oregon >> United States
Street Address: 121 The Valley Library, Corvallis Oregon
Date: 1975/2012
Identifier: 1995_osu_valley-library_02_a01
Accession Number: 1995_osu_valley-library_02_a01
Rights: In Copyright
Dc Rights Holder: Ace, Katherine
Type: Image
Format: image/tiff
Measurements: 34 x 46 inches
Material: Painting; oil on canvas
Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Primary Set: Oregon Percent for Art
Relation: 1995 - 1997 Biiennium Valley Library Oregon State University, Corvallis Oregon 1995_osu_valley-library
Has Version: slide; color
Institution: Oregon Arts Commission University of Oregon
Note: To view a map of the artwork location in context to Oregon State University, see http://oregonstate.edu/cw_tools/campusmap/locations.php 5th floor
Color Space: RGB
Biographical Information: Images come into my mind complete. I think and feel in pictures. They are a blending of images from the physical eye, memory, and the heart and mind's eye. Thinking and feeling in pictures seems to have no opinion; it is neither passive or active. It is both symbol and the real experience. I am a self taught painter and value a diverse and common visual vocabulary. I paint in alkyd (oil) on canvas, sometimes incorporating collage. The dynamics inherent in contradiction and ambiguity fascinates me. It is at the heart of these images, but also fills my approach to painting itself. For example, I am attracted to the tension in combining spontaneous composition with focused technique. I have an image in mind but don't know how it will look to the eye -- the raw canvas is both filled and completely empty. I enjoy bringing together loose flowing passages with points of intense detailed focus, and bringing abstract thinking together with realistic technique. I am interested in the role of dark feelings, thoughts and states of mind in the process of transformation. I am drawn to fire beneath reserve. And, curiosity, I find that the content of a picture is actual, literal depth and dimension in art. It includes not only the pointing finger but where the finger points. I sometimes approach cultural myths that are 'background music' and have become such unconscious parts of us that they have almost turned into physical parts--unseen and taken for granted. What does it mean to taste the apple? What clothing do we wear on our minds? What is under our psychological clothing? Who look out from our eyes? I frequently incorporate images of flowers and birds. A flower is both a sensual-every-day-temporal experience, and an emotional-poetic-purely-aesthetic-eternal experience. These images lead me to consider our inner flora and fauna, the 'unconscious' (for want of a better word). Religion, class, gender, race, age, custom, language, culture, and nature bloom and bear fruit in the mind, and so do everyday things like grocery shopping, dinner time, children's jokes, a garden. (Ace, 1995)