Night Writing by Alina Gallo

GNITIRW THGIN

NIGHT WRITING

Dedicated to Hasket Hildreth who loved to sail at night.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or copied without permission from the artist. Copyright ÂŠ 2010 by Alison HIldreth Essay ÂŠ 2010 Dana Sawyer Essay Dana Sawyer Photography Jay York Graphic Design Alina Gallo Bakery Studios 61 Pleasant Street Portland, Maine 04101 www.alisonhildreth.com

GNITIRW THGIN

NIGHT WRITING

ALISON HILDRETH

CONTENTS “ T h e Wi s d o m o f W h a t L i e s I n - B e t w e e n : C o m m e n t s o n A l i s o n H i l d re t h ’s ‘ N i g h t Wr i t i n g ’ S e r i e s ” a n E s s a y by Dana Sawyer

N i g h t Wr i t i n g P a i n t i n g s , 1 9 9 9 - 2 0 0 3

Appendix

102

The Wisdom of What Lies In-Between: Comments on Alison Hildreth’s ‘Night Writing’ Series Dana Sawyer

Creatures at the shank of night travel undomesticated pathways of the dark. In this somber territory the common bat is my nocturnal teacher and guide, stitching together shadow and light. 8

-Wendy Johnson

fact, they are deeply loyal to their young and they play critical roles in all ecosystems north of Antarctica. There are many curious things about bats, for instance, birds fly with their arms but bats do not. They flap only their hands, and hence their Greek name chiroptera, “hand wing.” Like painters, bats ‘fly’ with their hands, and this series is, more specifically, about flight. Canvass #2: And so we find not only bats but biplanes, bees and Da Vinci-like diagrams for do-it-yourself wings. Alison points out in her artist’s statement that the theme of flight

Alison Hildreth’s series of paintings, “Night Writing,” provide a potent and perplexing plunge into the world of ‘shadow and light,’ the world of spaces that exist in-between what we know and what we don’t. She created this world in seventy-four canvases; and I’ll comment on it in nine canvasses – nine attempts to canvass for the meaning of this work. Canvass #1: It’s about bats! At least twenty of the paintings have bat imagery in them. Sometimes the bats are very representational, as in “Night Writing” #s 5, 35 and 57. But more often they’re pushed into the abstract, as in #s 3, 55, and my favorite, 27. Twenty percent of all mammalian species are bats. We tend to find them creepy and associate them with evil, but, in

ABOVE LEFT: Night Writing 55, oil, collage and encaustic on linen, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003 ABOVE RIGHT: Night Writing 35, oil, encaustic and mixed media on linen, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

appears in myths of all cultures as a symbol for our desire to “subvert the weightiness and gravity of everyday existence. […] the idea of floating up beyond the constrictions of fixed ideas and the imprisonment of language in order to achieve an invention of the imagination.” This sounds heroic, but the imagery in the series is not generally triumphant and the tones are not mostly bright, for the simple fact that flight, though freeing, is also dangerous. We leave the world behind but then we are no longer grounded; there is fun but there is also risk. Like Icarus we may rise too high and risk too much. But what if we succeed? Something new could be born. In each canvas, in each flight, Alison risks something - takes a chance, lets her mind work on automatic, accessing the unconscious to suggest the subliminal - to give birth to a changed view, the potential for another canvas and another flight.

Night Writing 60 (detail), oil, collage and encaustic on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

Canvass #3: And so this series IS about bats – specifically as symbols of change and transformation. Alison points out that numerous world cultures, including Native Americans, have viewed them this way, and she adds: “Myth, fairy tale, legend all suggest that perhaps we live in a continuum of changing form and shifting narratives, which can lead us to discovery and connection. Bats at night, in their free fall of erratic flight, seem to make all things possible.” Words can betray us and memories can falter, but this is because they are malleable things, filled with potential. They can be our friends or our enemies, depending how they’re used, and so they, like bats and paint, have transformative potential. As if to emphasize this point, Alison often includes text in these paintings, and on more than one occasion (but note especially #s 26, 28, and 60) she covers bats’ wings with written text to the point where they morph into flying books. And now we’re closer to the general content of the series; it’s about gambling everything we think we know in order to find out something new, even if that awakening is only into more mystery and deeper uncertainty. Alison puts

forth a dare in this work, and for me the dare is this: can we embrace the idea that ‘impermanence and uncertainty’ may be a closer approximation of truth than either ‘knowledge’ or ‘fact?’ Canvass #4: And, while on the topic of flight, this series also includes bold, high-contrast images of planes (e.g., see #s 18, 23, 61 and 66). In these paintings Alison reminds us that we are the only other mammals besides bats that fly. Our first major push in aviation was for liberation from the earth, but quickly we turned this instrument of freedom to the purposes of war, and so we, like bats, twisted in the air. In painting #23 the planes are accompanied by a falling bomb. Will it kill the “bad guys” or the “good guys?” There are no markings on the planes to tell us which country they represent. We must live with the mystery. We must sit in the space between.

but they also speak to the fact that during Buddhist mediation, often performed with a mala (rosary), one struggles with the mind’s desire to take flight from the present. One experiences the malleability of thought and the difficulty of controlling it. One is free to realize whether they are free or not. These paintings contain a meditation on the same theme. Canvass #6: Alison has long been fascinated by puppets and I find puppet references in this series. The figure at the bottom right in #63 strikes me as a definite puppet, his hands pulled upward by strings.

Night Writing 49, oil, collage and encaustic on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

Canvass #5: The “Night Writing” series is about things that overlap and interpenetrate, as well as the things that shift and morph. It’s about how malleable paint is and how malleable we are. How we become like centaurs of the sky, jumping into biplanes with human heads and wheels for feet. How we live in fluid dimensions of time, with our bodies trapped in the present while our minds float off to the future and past. We strap on our batwings (#58) and take flight into new aspirations while also running away (again, taking flight) into nostalgia and delusion. We live in a moment that contains all moments, and yet contains none of them permanently. All times overlap, as do all things. There are prayer beads pictured in several of the paintings (e.g., #s 12 and 14). These beads suggest many things, including the erratic flight patterns of bats (e.g., see #44),

All of us are puppets of forces we can’t control, whether we’re talking about the stock market, our own unconscious motivations, the winds of karma, or the kismet of fate. Alison reveals that we may use ‘string’ to build our batwings but there are also strings that bind us, for good and ill. In painting #41 we find a bound figure, a ‘puppet’ who is no longer suspended but wrapped in its strings. What it thought might pull it upward has now only bound it. How are we puppets? How do our powers and aspirations also bind us? What are our deepest motivations? Do we ever really know? Canvass #7: The word chance can mean both ‘risk’ and ‘fate,’ and imagery in the Night Writing series is filled with both. The most pregnant paintings that overlap and cross-pollinate these two meanings, for me at least, are the ones with the chessboards (e., #s 38, 47, and 56) that seem to have morphed out of grids (#19). When we play a board game we are at once constrained by its rules while also free to make whatever choices we want (or are capable of). The game constrains us, as do the choices of those with whom we play, but it is possible to win if we take a chance. Take a chance. Risk and fate. We need only to accept both.

Canvass #8: Bats again. Their erratic flight is a symbol for change, but the notion of transformation is also suggested in that we see them in the late evening, in the liminal zone between day and night. Twilight is that time when day and night overlap; it is both day and night and neither day nor night, and as such it calls to us of what lies in-between, the timezone of transformation, which has its own potential and power. In Hindu mythology there is the story of Narasimha, one of Lord Vishnu’s ten incarnations. The story goes that a demon was threatening the world of the gods and this demon could be killed by “neither man nor beast,” and to make matters worse, he could be killed at “neither day nor

Night Writing 51, oil, collage and encaustic on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

night.” All seemed lost until Vishnu, in his infinite wisdom, transformed himself into a being that was both man and lion (Narasimha means, in Sanskrit, “Man-Lion”) and then he killed the demon at sunset, when it was neither day nor night. Canvass #9: In 1909, Arnold van Gennep was the first anthropologist to point out that transition rituals (e.g, rites of passage), across cultures, have three sequential stages: (1) the person is separated from ordinary social life, (2) he or she is pulled into a stage of marginality between what they were and what they will be when their initiation is complete, and (3) he or she is reincorporated, as a changed individual, back into society. While in a transformative phase, instigated either by biological aging, pregnancy, illness, or a petition for initiation, people are pulled into a liminal zone of risk and power. Transformation isn’t guaranteed to them but the opportunity is ripe. This is the case for us today. Have we, as a species, ever lived in a more liminal period with greater risk and greater uncertainty? Today we are uncertain about our world and our place in it. We’ve come to see that we’ve made huge mistakes in our dealings with the Earth, and in our dealings with each other. This series, created over a handful of years, from 1999 to 2003, bridges two centuries and two millennia, and it dares us to embrace that uncertainty of our times in order to find the potential in them. Alison urges us to embrace our free-fall (like the man in the last painting of the series) in order to fly free from what we’ve foolishly and selfishly been certain of. The tones are somber, the message is sweet. In Essays on His Own Times (1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge once observed, ‘The great majority of men live like bats, but in twilight, and know and feel the philosophy of their age only by its reflections and refractions.” Alison Hildreth takes what Coleridge meant as a condemnation and twists it to a source of power.

GNITIRW THGIN

NIGHT WRITING

Bats seem less like creatures of flesh and blood than emanations of the night, blobs of darkness, soft-edged; if you touched one your hand would go right through it. - Alfred Alvarez

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Night Writing 2,, oil and collage on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

Night Writing 3, oil and encaustic on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

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Night Writing 26, oil and encaustic on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

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Night Writing 49, oil, collage and encaustic on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

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Night Writing 8, oil and collage on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

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Night Writing 35, oil on linen, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

Night Writing 36, oil, collage and encaustic on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

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Night Writing 66, oil and mixed media on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

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Night Writing 55, oil and collage on linen, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003

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Appendix SOLO EXHIBTIONS 2010 2008 2005 2003 2002 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996

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1994 1993 1992 1990 1987 1985 1982 1980 1977 1976

The Art Gallery at the University of New England, Westbrook, ME June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland ME June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Center For Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME University of Maine, Farmington, ME June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Arden Gallery, Boston, MA Kouros Gallery, New York, NY Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME Clark University Gallery, Worcester, MA Arden Gallery, Boston, MA Rothenfeld-McDermott Gallery, Cleveland, OH Kouros Gallery, New York, NY The Painting Center, New York, NY Condeso-Lawler Gallery, New York, NY Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Portland, ME Barridoff Galleries, Portland, ME Barridoff Galleries, Portland, ME Barridoff Galleries, Portland, ME Chroma Gallery, Portland, ME Open Book and Art Forum, Portland, ME University of Maine, Forum A, Augusta, ME North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, ME St. Josephâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s College, Windham, ME

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2009

2008 2007

Spineless Wonders, Atrium Gallery, Lewiston, ME The Business of Art, The Art Gallery at the University of New England, Westbrook, ME Early Summer Group Show, New Era Gallery, Vinalhaven, ME Animal Houses, LC Bates Museum, Hinckley, ME Black and White, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Drawings from Maine, Nancy Margolis Gallery, New York NY Boston Printmakers, 60 Years, Wiggon Gallery, Boston MA Graphite, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Graphite, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Fusion, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME

2006 2004 2003

2002

2001

2000

1999 1998

1997

1996 1995

1994

1993

1992

North American Print Exhibition, Boston University, Boston, MA Year of the Print, L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, ME Naked, June Fitzpatrick Gallery, Portland, ME Exquisite Corpse, Walker Art Gallery, Bowdoin College, ME North American Print Exhibition, Boston University, Boston, MA ICA Gallery, Maine College Of Art, Portland, ME Four Vinalhaven Artists, University of Maine, Orono, ME Composition Notebook, Center For Maine Contemporary Art, Rock port, ME 50 Year Anniversary Exhibition, Center For Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, ME Site Specific Installations, Vinalhaven, ME Ingredients For Peace Exhibition, United Nations, New York, NY North American Print Exhibition, Boston University, Boston, MA Rosemarie Frick Curates, Maine Art Gallery, Wiscasset, ME Bruce Brown Collection, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Artists Books, Boston Public Library, Boston, MA Three Artists, Blum Gallery, Bar Harbor, ME Island Artists, Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, ME Print Exhibition, Treat Gallery, Bates College, Lewiston, ME New Acquisitions, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Portland, ME Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME Kouros Gallery, New York, NY Rosemarie Frick Curates, Robert Clements Gallery, Portland, ME Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Triennial Exhibition, Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA Kouros Gallery, New York, NY Two Artists, Vassar Center Gallery, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY North American Print Exhibition, Duxbury Museum, Duxbury, MA Kouros Gallery, New York, NY Two Artists, Arden Gallery, Boston, MA Kouros Gallery, New York, NY Print Fair, New York, NY Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME Metropolitan Museum of Art Mezzanine Gallery, New York, NY Condeso-Lawler Gallery, New York, NY Foreman Gallery, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY The Painting Center, New York, NY Michael Walls Gallery, New York, NY Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ 40 Years of Maine Art, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME

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1991

1990 1989

1988 1986 1984

1983 1982

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1981 1980

Drawing Show, Boston Center For The Arts, Boston, MA University Place Gallery, Cambridge, MA Frick Gallery, Belfast, ME Perspectives, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Island Portfolio, Dean Velentgas Gallery, Portland, ME Chicago Biennial Exposition, Chicago, IL Alison Hildreth, William Manning, Toni Wolf, Barridoff Galleries, Portland, ME Condeso-Lawler Gallery, New York, NY Barn Gallery, Ogunquit, ME Unity College, Unity, ME Baxter Gallery, Portland, ME Mainers Away, Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Portland, ME Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Maine Painting, Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME Baxter Gallery, Portland, ME Jurors Award, Hope Sound Gallery North, Portland, ME Painting and Sculpture, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME Portland Art Building, Portland, ME Ellsworth Wiley Gallery, Hartford, CN Works on Paper, Maine Coast Artists, Rockport, ME Maine Festival, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME Works on Paper, Joan Whitney Payson Gallery of Art, Portland, ME Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME

PUBLICATIONS Maine Art Scene Online Magazine, “Printmaker: Alison HIldreth,” Interview with Brenda Bonneville, May 2009 The Maine Sunday Telegram, February 22, 2009 The Maine Sunday Telegram, November 16, 2008 The Maine Sunday Telegram, April 13, 2008 The Camden Herald, June 9, 2005 Portland Phoenix, “Golden Horde: Center for Maine Contemporary Art’s 50th Anniversary,” Christopher Thompson, August 23, 2002. Bangor Daily News, “Exhibition at Farnsworth a compelling study in con trasts,” Kristen Andresen, March 23-24, 2002. The Courier Gazette, “Art inspires poetry at the Farnsworth,” 2002. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Linked by their pursuit of unsullied visions,” Phillip Isaacson, June 9, 2002. Maine Times,“Intellect and intuition in Rockland,” Edgar Allen Beem, April 4, 2002.

The Ellsworth Weekly, “Views from the Edge,” Nan Lincoln, June 15, 2000. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Accepting an invitation to muse on challenges of flight,” Phillip Isaacson, April 2, 2000. Maine Times, “Soul and sisterhood on paper,” Edgar Allen Beem, May 2000. Portland Press Herald, “Alison Hildreth’s show good excuse for getting down to Boston,” Ken Greenleaf, March 18, 1999. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Hildreth’s dark creatures of the night fascinate, repel,” Phillip Isaacson, July 6, 1997. Maine Sunday Telegram,“Rooted in Maine, grown to fruiting on Vinalhaven,” Margot McWilliams, February 18, 1996. Art in America,“Review: Alison Hildreth at Arden,” Carl Little, February 15, 1996. Maine Times, “Frost Gully show displays the best of Vinalhaven,” Paul Karr, February 15, 1996. The Worcester Phoenix, “Mother Nature: Alison Hildreth takes from her own backyard,” Leon Nigrosh, March 15, 1996. Maine Times, “Belfast shows four female visions, Haines Sprout Tate, July 28, 1995. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Art Review: Four Women Four Visions,” Phillip Isaacson, July 16, 1995. Maine Times,“Maine printmakers make their mark(s) at Round Top,” Haines Sprout Tate, June 23, 1995. Maine Sunday Telegram, “If they can make it here (in NYC, at Thos Mo ser)…” Ken Greenleaf, April 16, 1995. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Vision, decision lom large in Maine artist’ abstrac tions,” Phillip Isaacson, April 23, 1995. Maine Times, “Stop Look Listen,” Haines Sprout Tate, July 14, 1994. Maine Sunday Telegram, “The artists of Vinalhaven offer a dynamic display,” Phillip Isaacson, July 17, 1994. Maine Sunday Telegram, “A little help for seekers of fine art,” Phillip Isaac son, February 21, 1993. Casco Bay Weekly, “Painting the inescapable lightness of being,” Margot McWilliams, March 12, 1992. Kennebec Journal, “Journeys through land, sea, soul entice Maine artists,” Donna Gold, June 15-16, 1991. York County Coast Star, “Keeping the protagonist off-guard in the art world,” Stuart Nudelman, April 18, 1990. Portland Evening Express, “Payson show links 2 artists,” Bob Niss, April 5, 1990. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Island artwork comes ashore to Portland gallery,” Bob NIss, December 1990.

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Maine Sunday Telegram, “Show reflects mind/paint struggle,” Sherry Miller, November 25, 1990. Casco Bay Weekly, “Island Collaboration,” Margot McWilliams, 1990. Maine Times, “Alan Magee and Alison Hildreth in pursuit of depth,” Edgar Allen Beem, April 13, 1990. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Journeys of introspection and fantasy.” Phillip Isaacson, April 29, 1990. Art New England, “Regional Reviews,” Shirley Jacks, March 1989. Camden Herald, “Eight Artists featured at Maine Coast Artists,” Susan Sulz er, August 10, 1989. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Coasting Along: Three Shows for Summer,” Philip Isaacson, August 20, 1989. Maine Sunday Telegram, “The Show of Shows: Maine Coast Artists’ 10th An nual proves, as usual, a stunning attraction,” Phillip Isaacson, June 19, 1988. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Jurying at two galleries, and a critic’s verdict.” Phillip Isaacson, June 28, 1987. p. 46 A. Art New England, “Regional Reviews: Alison Hildreth One Woman Show,” Pat Reef, 1987. Maine Times. “Maine Coast Artists’ annual rite of discovery,” Edgar Allen Beem, 1986. Art New England, “Regional Reviews: Alison Derby Hildreth at Barridoff Gal leries,” William Barry, December 1985/ January 1986. Portland Evening Express, “Hildreth shares exhilarating journey,” Patricia An derson, October 25, 1985. Portland Press Herald, “Barridoff displays a local sampler,” William Barry, November 22, 1984. Portland Evening Express, “Portland Pier Gallery boasts top selections,” Wil liam Barry, October 19, 1983. Camden Herald, “Art Review: MCA Gallery,” Susan Stump, August 18, 1983. Portland Evening Express, “Two shows spotlight School of Art,” William Bar ry, March 4, 1983. Portland Evening Express, “Offerings present contrast,” William Barry, June 18, 1982. Vision: A Journal of the Visual Arts in Maine, “Portland Artists Showing,”Larry Hayden, Vol. III No. 3. Dec/Jan/Feb 1980-81. Camden Herald, “Art Review: MCA’s Works in Paper,” September 3, 1981. Portland Press Herald, “Paperworks: Payson Gallery of Art’s latest show packages with a rare sensitivity for provoking thought,” William Barry, December 10, 1980. Maine Times, “Art Review: Finding talent at Maine Coast Artists,” Sandra Garson, 1980.

The Wise Guide, “At the Galleries,” May 7, 1979. The Wise Guide, “Public Hanging at Gallery Music,” December 13, 1977. Maine Sunday Telegram, “Receive Art Awards Here,” March 31, 1963.

EDUCATION 1976

B.F.A., Portland School of Art, Portland, ME

1956-57 National Academy of Art, New York City, NY 1955-56 Art Students League, New York City, NY 1955

B.A., Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

SELECTED AWARDS 2009 2008

La Napoule Art Foundation Artist-In-Residence, France Art Honors for Leadership in the Arts, Maine College of Art, ME

SELECTED COLLECTIONS New York Public Library, New York, NY Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME Union Mutual Life Insurance Company, Portland, ME Bates College Museum, Lewiston, ME Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME Elizabeth Noyce Collection, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME Walker Museum, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA Smith College, North Hampton, MA Boston Public Library, Boston, MA Offenbach Foundation for Graphics, San Francisco, CA

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FRONT COVER: Night Writing 3 Oil, encaustic and collage on panel, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003 BACK COVER: Night Writing 38 and 45 Oil on linen, 16 x 16 in, 1999-2003