If you look at the rope-like drawings displayed at Saratoga Arts Center from April 3 to May 29, it may look like the wound lines or threads have a distinguishable end point. But Naomi Lewis said if you look a little closer, they can’t be unwound at all, and she should knowshe’s the artist.
The lines often fly off the edge of the page so that there are still parts missing,` said Lewis.
Lewis, of Albany, said she’s created a series of these drawings in a style that’s abstractly reflective of her life.
`I’ve used the knot and the nest as metaphors for my role as a mother, wife and family member. The constantly winding thread can become a nest or represent an untangling of knots with all the loose ends you have to keep in order. It’s reflective in a subtle way but not directly autobiographical,` said Lewis, who has a daughter and son in their 20s.
Lewis has shared a cooperative studio in downtown Albany with five other artists for two years now, creating there a couple days a week and working hard to prepare for this exhibition. But it may have been the one week residency she did this winter at Millay Artist Colony in Austerlitz, NY. that was most useful.
`I went just to be away from Albany for a bit and to be able to draw all day every day,` said Lewis, who has spent time there before. `I was there for a whole month about five or six years ago; they give you a room and board and you just do your work. If you’ve been a resident before, you’re allowed to come back during the winter when it’s only open for short term residencies.`
Lewis said the opportunity to take advantage of this privilege came at the perfect time.
`It was a good opportunity to just focus. There’s a lot of repetitiveness in what I do and it’s sort of relaxing and a meditative experience,` said Lewis. `But it’s very time consuming and it was good not to be distracted by the hustle and bustle of everyday life.`
When Lewis first decided to work on abstract pieces, she said she started to collect photographs and Xeroxs from nature magazines or materials around her house that were accumulations of things. Working with India ink and most recently graphite pencil, she said her art focuses on the fine line between when something is a pattern and when it’s a texture.
`I use Xeroxs of coral or leaf veins or sand dunes, and from those, I sort of developed my own visual vocabulary. There are a few things I tend to use over and over and over again in different ways or combinations. I repeat and weave them together to create a bigger surface,` said Lewis. `Some things could look like a texture from a distant view but if you look up close it’s a pattern. I use a lot of little shapes that might look like beads or puzzle pieces and they came out of the shapes I saw when I was studying my elements that are directly from nature. I’m sort of organically inspired.`
Lewis said she’s been playing with the concept of patterns for awhile now, something she said makes her feel connected to many of the feminist artists who were influential when she was learning to be an artist. She said she’s always been attracted to patterned fabrics and has done quilting, knitting and painting through the years. She sees this art as an offshoot of her history.
The project she’s perhaps most excited about, she said, is a drawing she started many years ago that’s a remnant of wallpapering and silk screening she used to do. The piece, which will be part of the display in Saratoga, incorporates her son Jake’s work into her own.
`I was working with scientific-looking forms and I set this piece up so the top and bottom align and the sides can be repeated in a brick format, sort of tiled. For a calculus test, Jake was allowed to bring in one sheet with all the formulas he could fit, so he wrote in this really teeny and beautiful handwriting. I thought it would be ironic if that was the background underneath all the cellular, beady pattern, it would be like you were in a room with all the answers,` said Lewis, who used a computer to make 70- by 40-inch strips of this repeated pattern to make a wallpaper print.
Lewis has had her art shown at galleries around the region and is hoping the world will be able to see it in New York City someday. As the exhibition and outreach coordinator at the SUNY Albany art museum, she said the exhibition was a good goal for her.
`It’s been good to put a lot of focus on completing a body of works and to take a step back and objectively look at it. In this particular case, I’ll probably shift what I’m doing, after I take a little break,` said Lewis.
Working at the museum with publicity and programming has afforded her a different look at her passion.
`I get to see art from all sides; as an artist and an administrator,` said Lewis. `Because I see a lot of art it pushes me to make work that is more personalized and speaks from my point of view.`
Lewis will have work displayed along Ryan Parr, another artist and colleague. The exhibit is open at Saratoga Arts Center at 320 Broadway in Saratoga Springs from April 3 to May 29. There will be an opening reception on Saturday, April 3, from 5 to 8 p.m. and a discussion with the artists on Thursday, April 22, at 7 p.m.
“
