Autumn Fair at the Fond
The Autumn Fair, an art salon showcasing three local emerging artists at the sold-out French restaurant Fond, was inspired by American novelist and poet Gertrude Stein. TACA (The Arts Community Alliance) commissioned three new works of art, each auctioned during the dinner. Katherine Covarrubias’ piece inspired by American novelist Gertrude Stein’s poetry and life, Lauren Fleniken‘s work by based on Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven”, and Sara Cardona’s piece by Flor y Canto poetry. Erin Cluley of Erin Cluley Gallery moderated an interview-style conversation with both artists about their commissioned pieces and artistic practice, which were revealed one by one over each course of the dinner.
Parallels In Steins Work
Reading Gertrude Stein’s work can be a challenging endeavor due to its rejection of conventional narrative rules, with Tender Buttons serving as a prime example.
Stein attempted to parallel avant-garde artistic movements’ theories like Cubism and Surrealism by concentrating on the written illumination of the present moment. I chose to represent a portrait her life in a similar manner, leading with expressionism and portrayed with a Baroque composition to enhance the emotional aspect around the overlap of her internal and external wars.
Within her poetry, Stein’s words paint pictures that evoke beauty and emotion, often requiring the same approach as appreciating an abstract painting in an atypical manner. By letting go of the typical structures her work inherently rejects, one can allow this piece to access their emotions through its unique language. Similarly, Gertrude Stein attempted to reach the reader's consciousness in ways most writers did not.
Stein described her literary quest as searching for an exact description of inner and outer reality.
In an effort to create a painting that reflects Gertrude Stein's distinctive literary style, I incorporated abstract qualities using acrylic and charcoal on a 3 x 3 foot canvas. This piece explores the rhythm, repetition, and blurred boundaries between text and image found in Stein's writing to honor her legacy.
On Steins Life
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Wars I Have Seen
Published in 1945, Wars I Have Seen is the story of what the people of France endured during the First and Second World Wars.
Stein gives an account of her life in France during two world wars as a Jewish person under the Nazi occupation. Stein was openly feminist and involved in a sapphic relationship in France in the early 1900s with her partner Alice B. Toklas from 1912 until her death.
Reflecting on the hardships of her life in this time period the title of this piece “Wars I Have Seen” pays tribute to her memoir.
Wars I Have Seen
2024
As a pioneer of postmodernism and contemporary literature, Stein helped artists find their voice on page.
Her influence is encapsulated in the quote often associated with her work:
In both her personal life and body of work, Gertrude Stein is a symbol of strength when facing the unknown, and a totem of resilience in searching for the undiscovered.
“The creator of the new composition in the arts is an outlaw until he is a classic.”
Behind The Process
My work incorporates ecclesiastical themes influenced by my experience of growing up in the Catholic Church, reflecting on the religious experience and related facets of the soul such as philosophy and mortality. Often portraying scenes of divine intervention, the work engages in a conversation and analysis of perpetuated cycles of abuse and, contrarily, the sense of purpose a belief in the divine can provide.
Using a fusion of Baroque composition paired with abstract expressionism to convey intense emotion and movement between figurative subjects, a fundamental question about where these experiences overlap is posed to the viewer, prompting a reflection of the complexities that may underpin your own personal beliefs.
Pictured: Michael Meadows, Emma Vernon, Katherine Covarrubias, Lauren Fleniken, Erin Cluely, Tara Lewis