ARTS | CULTURE | EVENTS
PREVIEW Fall 2015 | Vol 4 No 2
by TeMahoa Love
“Self-Portrait,” TeMahoa Love
The Enigmatic TeMahoa Love By Sheila Kelly Vertino
T
he art of TeMahoa Love is at once gentle and fierce, reflecting her deeply held belief in “the power and peace of the natural world and the profound value of our interactions with that world and with
each other.” A mix of bold solid lines and whimsical details (especially in her
black and white work) infuses her linocut prints with a subtle blend of East and West. Curved lines and elongated shapes, like Love’s vine tendrils and sinuous Italian greyhounds, call to mind Beardsley prints and elements of Art Nouveau. And the almost medieval folk style of her tiles reflect a traditional craftsmanship and simple forms like the Arts & Crafts movement. But in the end, TeMahoa Love’s art is all of this and none of this. Like her background— an exotic mix of Tahitian, English, Spanish, American—TeMahoa the woman and the artist simply defies categorization. For more than 60 years, Love has consciously chosen to isolate herself from others’ artistic influences. As a young woman in London, she dropped out of Central School of Arts and Crafts because “I didn’t ever want to be influenced….And then I always worked alone. I have never not been a working artist.” u
Photography by Judy Olsen
Teaching herself linocut and tile techniques made it difficult for Love. “I didn’t know that was what I was doing. I was not surrounded by wood carving people.” She recalls that it took her longer to learn how to do things on her own than it would have with a teacher. On the positive side, it enabled her to forge an iconic style that is both unique and instantly
TeMahoa Love’s work reflects an almost magical connection to the flora and fauna of the natural world.
Above photo provided by the artist.
The Terribly Precious Tools In a small room, with a single window and a humble desk, Love’s prints come to life. She uses the same carving tools [below] that she bought in London’s Bleeding Heart Yard when she was 22. “They are terribly precious. I’ve carried them all over the world,” recalls Love. “The problem is that you have to sharpen them,” and Love didn’t want to trust that task to just anyone. She knew she had found the right person when she brought one of the tools to Shepherdstown blacksmith Dan Tokar. “He took it like the Crown Jewels. He looked at it and said, ‘TeMahoa, these have not been made in 50 years. I will treasure it.’ ” More than satisfied with Tokar’s skills, Love now relies on him to sharpen all of her tools.
Granny’s Spoon After many preliminary sketches, Love carves the image into a lino block [above]. She applies ink carefully to the block, sometimes with a roller, sometimes with a cloth or even a finger tip to get it into small spaces in the design. Then she carefully positions a sheet of BFK Rives printmaking paper over the inked carving. This specialty paper is made to withstand the pressure of transferring the image, but also delicate enough to capture the fine elements of a design. Love has always used the bowl of “her Granny’s spoon” to burnish the paint and print the image onto the paper. Reflecting on the art of linocut print and what she calls its “physicality,” Love muses, “It’s interesting to make something modern using a process that has been around since the Middle Ages.” u
Self Portrait Riding on Horse Next to River Love recalled: “Thinking of cooler days and of when there was a big flood [below]. Going along beside the river was so exciting until I realied the water might be able to jump its bank behind us and then we would have to swim.”
What Do the Dancing Birds Say Looking Down Upon Burnt Meadows The dovecotes that dot the roofs of Palestinian homes form the subject matter for one of Love’s linocuts [right]. This piece is also remarkable because it shows Love’s ability to “see” images and letters in reverse when she is carving them. “It’s become part of who I am, so I don’t think about it. But when I’m writing, it sometimes goes wrong. I have to look at it in the mirror to make sure the letters will appear correctly in the print. “When Israel and Palestine had their most recent set-to, besides all the other heartbreak I kept wondering what happened to the doves on their broken roofs.…” The words around the picture are by the 14th Century Iranian poet Hafiz.
To watch a slide show of “Tem’s World seen through her B&W prints,” click on the View Button. www.temahoa.com
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Peace and Plenty Using traditional Spanish symbols of abundance— the pig and grape vines—to tell a story on this tile [right], Love creates a charming vignette of prosperity. Tile making requires time-consuming effort, as Love takes designs and sculpts the image, then fires the tile a first time, applies paint and glaze, and then fires it a final time.
Feather “I made this print [left] in the time of snow. I wanted to make a vase of flowers but there was not a flower around so I chose a small vase of feathers. Who knows what memories feathers keep in themselves? The tall one is from a wild turkey in Australia and the flat-topped one is from a wild turkey in this land. The little vase was sitting behind Granny’s spoon with which I have printed pictures for fifty years. I thought I should honor it.” Deer and Hare Love prefers to work with muted tones in her color prints [right]. Although bold in shape, the pale gold shapes still create a quiet background, and allow the eye to focus on the deeper-toned doe, at the stream’s edge. Although Love’s linocut design is quite complex, the overall effect is restful. fluent