{"id":34759,"date":"2016-08-18T11:35:51","date_gmt":"2016-08-18T17:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=34759"},"modified":"2018-09-06T02:03:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T08:03:57","slug":"i-would-change-it-susan-makovs-prints-and-paintings-at-a-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/i-would-change-it-susan-makovs-prints-and-paintings-at-a-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"All Paragraphs in the Same Story: Susan Makov’s Prints and Paintings at A Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fog<\/a><\/p>\n

After a game of cribbage and a glass or two of Cointreau, my grandfather was apt to rise and recite from \u201cAs You Like It\u201d:<\/p>\n

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,<\/p>\n

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,<\/p>\n

Sermons in stones, and good in everything.<\/p>\n

I would not change it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Susan Makov thinks of her work as a discussion between herself and the trees she paints, but there is plenty she would change about this world of ours. Her paintings and woodcuts at A Gallery show a deep concern for what is happening to the forests and oceans and the creatures residing therein. You can see for yourself at the opening Friday evening.<\/p>\n

Walking down a narrow corridor you\u2019ll find half a dozen of her woodcut prints \u2013 the first, the stellar \u201cCoral Reef Debris,\u201d (14\u201dW x 18\u201dH) depicts a sort of oceanic junkyard, old tires piled high, aluminum cans with pop tops carefully rendered, a KFC paper cup, stacks of lumber with a tiny tree emerging from the rubble. It\u2019s an environmental message, yes, but so beautifully drawn one could easily live with it hanging on a wall.<\/p>\n

Makov explains that she uses elements of the built world and employs architectural forms and objects represented by cast-offs from the world\u2019s material culture. \u201cThese are dream worlds: of fantasy and of science fiction, where perspective is uneasy and animals no longer appear in their expected environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another excellent and complex woodcut print, also 14\u201dW x 18\u201dH, \u201cLeftovers in the Woods\u201d again has an environmental theme: A Kingfisher surveys a trashy realm, tail feathers tipped up to the sky. It has an unexpected charm.<\/p>\n

Some woodcuts like \u201cIs It All in Your Head?\u201d (14\u201dW x 18\u201d H) are almost purely political. The piece is about dealing with global warming, Makov explains, when \u201ceveryone says it\u2019s \u2018all in your head.\u2019 It is a question. And a lot of it is architectural elements. I\u2019m not doing just decorative beautiful pieces.\u201d It is an uncomfortable work that takes effort to comprehend \u2013if that is possible in a gallery setting.<\/p>\n

Two more woodcut prints grace the center gallery. The intriguing \u201cRising Water Levels\u201d features whales, dolphins and some abstracted fish crowded together in a lessening sea. This was clearly meant to make one think \u2013 and it does.<\/p>\n

The colors pop in the 12 paintings presented in Makov\u2019s exhibit, with trees a major theme\u2014trees with twisting vines in a variety of colors wrapping around trunks. In her artist statement, Makov tells us she paints in calligraphic lines, their density speaking \u201cin paragraphs about their history in the fierce weather\u2019s winds of many winters. Oblivious to world events, speaking about their rooted growth, they are unable to move from the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStill Growing\u201d (40\u201dW x 30\u201dH) (oil on canvas) is tremendously appealing in its depiction of bare trees following a fire, a few quite charred, many apparently survivors. Smoke rises before the mountains at the back while human presence is made evident by a toppled trashcan in the foreground.<\/p>\n

\u201cCobalt Tree\u201d (24\u201dW x 36\u201dH) is reminiscent of stained glass with fabulous blues, yellows, greens and browns making up the work \u2013 it flows. Next to it is \u201cMessage from the Vines\u201d (30\u201dW x 42\u201dH) (oil on canvas) with a similar stained-glass effect that, however, seems a little forced.<\/p>\n

\u201cFog,\u201d oil on canvas on panel, just 18\u201d wide x 24\u201d high, feels like one is taking a walk in the woods. Gnarled tree limbs in oranges, purples, pinks and greens emanate from an orange trunk with Makov conveying a mist in grays floating behind and through the branches. One understands about tongues in trees; about trees speaking an unknown language. There is great effect and affect achieved here.<\/p>\n