Tangent XCVI by Catherine Skinner
One Triptych
About the author:
Sophia Lee is a high school sophomore who loves the literary and visual arts. When she’s not reading, writing, or editing for several corners of the internet, she’s either spoiling her dog or relieving her existential stress on a cello.
In the artist’s words:
Earth, fire, water, air and space. The red color of energy. Textures, color, simplicity and complications. These inhabit and fuel my work.
Our cultural memory lies within the physicality of place as we continue to find ways to understand and bond not only to our environment, but most importantly, to each other. Marking methods that have been used by peoples to indicate presence and to construct a deeper relationship to place and nature draw me in. Exploration through art is a pilgrimage to further these connections. My work is centered on the balance of opposites, as well as methods of numerical systems and patterning we use to construct an order to our world.
As a multidisciplinary artist, I work in painting, encaustic, photography, printmaking and sculpture. The media employed are beeswax, resin and oil; stones and wood; lead sheeting and precious metals; textiles and natural dyes; old book pages and collected papers; and cast glass and bronze.
Much of my work encompasses repetition and multiplicity – moving from the simplicity of tantric forms to the complexities of grids. The color red encases the memories embedded in our homes and selves and often represents a powerful ley line if horizontal and, if vertical, the axis mundi connecting the energy between the earth and sky. Stones are gathered and used in the art. All of these are reminders – we are linked to the earth; we are to cherish the clean water that ensures our survival; and to look with our souls upwards to the trees sky and light. See the corvids and crows and ravens that grasp the essential pattern from whence all things proceed. See the trees – standing beneath a tree, the tree becomes the meeting point all directions, functioning as the omphalos (navel), the world’s point of beginning.
I am committed to learning, traveling and working with a curious mind. My various series of works give expression to my journeys through many cultures over the years.
Catherine Eaton Skinner (Seattle/Santa Fe) illuminates the balance of opposites, reflecting mankind’s attempts at connection.
Skinner has an extensive global museum/gallery exhibition history, including Pie Projects, Las Cruces Museum: Branigan Cultural Center and upcoming International Art Museum of America. 150+ publications have featured her work. Radius Books published her monograph 108.