The Stone Rose Gallery—founded by long time arts educator and fine artist Michiel Daniel—is presenting an opening reception for its inaugural exhibition, Mental Formations, featuring paintings by Maggie Tennesen. The reception will take place this Saturday, August 11, from 7PM to 10 PM. The show will run through September 5.
Tennesen’s work is vibrant. At a glance, it may seem almost simple, but upon closer inspection one discovers that the simplicity is actually an optical illusion of sorts, a magic trick that beguiles and delights both eye and mind. According to Tennesen, her work draws on diverse influences.
“The first is Buddhist,” Tennesen explains. “It takes a long, meditative time to make each painting. Each line is slow, and so the time element comes into play. Also, weaving, as to create new colors and forms, without the brush.”
The background, or under-painting, is done with traditional brush techniques, but she’s devised a meticulous process of laying down thin lines of layered color using squirt bottles and rulers.
“In the beginning,” Tennesen says, “I set out to task myself to make paintings and combine colors without the brush. Then there is a philosophical approach in the movement of color off of the wall. It gets so intense that it lives off of the wall, in its own space, between the viewer and the wall.”
Tennesen’s finished work has a sculptural quality, what she refers to as “volume, mass, or form.” When viewed up close, the layers of color are distinct but, when viewed from further away, they merge into an energetic field.
“The movement of emotions, thoughts, and life spans comes and goes, arises and dissipates, like waves,” she says. “So, the way the color comes from deep space and creates a wavelike form is also part of it.”
Tennesen’s work is also influenced by mid-century expressionists, and color field painters such as Hans Hofmann, Mark Rothko, Agnes Martin and Ad Reinhardt.
“I was drawing with ink and cross-hatching,” she recalls, “then used those lines in a series of paintings, and then the forms flattened out. At first, I used drips and the grid to make my canvases, focusing on the lines, making them stand out against dark volumes. Then, I gradually began to want to build density of line. “The color is also influensed by Tibetan Thankas, because I believe to limit oneself to one type of color consideration is cutting off the creativity and flow of the power of color.”
Tennsesen did her undergraduate work at CalArts, where she explored a variety of media and forms and earned an MFA from CSULB.
“There is a pulse and rhythm at CalArts,” she says. “It constantly challenges one to think and innovate beyond the norm. It keeps pricking the brain to move outside, and in the dangerous. I wanted to take risks and look into the unsafe. But I also wanted to paint. When I went to CalArts, we were into making performance art and, at the time, ‘painting was dead’. But later on, I wanted to go back to object making, to moving color, and so I chose CSULB, because of the strong painting dept. So I think that both world affected me as an artist in their own different ways.”
Tennesen says that her childhood was not steeped in art making, but discovered her love for painting when she was eight years old, and working with a Paint-By-Numbers kit.
“I smelled the turpentine and medium,” she confesses, “and I think I became addicted to the smell, the feel of the brush, and the sight of color.”
Tennesen admits that, while she’s affected by it to some extent, she’s unconcerned about the economic realities of the art market.
“If I hold true to my ideas and philosophies, I let that other world that they are go, and continue to make the art that answers the questions I have and need to work out on canvas.”
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The Stone Rose Gallery is located at 342 East 4th Street and its regular hours are Wednesday and Thursday from Noon until 6PM, and Friday and Saturday from Noon ’til 7PM.
To learn more about Maggie, and see examples of her work, visit MaggieTennesen.com.