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The Mended Canvas by Monika Burman, MAG Mass Art Guide, Toronto ON CANADA / September 2010
An artist statement that references Eminem in the first sentence is bound to be interesting. According to artist Karin Doleske, she and Eminem share a desire to probe into intentions and motivations that are born of deeply affecting emotions. Doleske's "Algoma Paintings: Memory and Metaphor at Play" is about discovering those intentions in the physical act of painting, and in the symbolic nature of her imagery.
Becoming physically involved with her canvasses, Doleske cut, tore, ripped and burned the material until, as the artist describes, "I had exhausted my need to perform these actions." This was the initial violence at the start of a cycle where Doleske then spent time mending the canvas, stretching it and finally painting it.
The resulting works show the evidence of these prior wounds: incongruous shifts in the surface, and the stitched patterns suggesting an underlying reality. Works like "threading through" and "own" have a bright quality both in colour, but also in the fact that the mending work appears like quilting. Other works including "float" and "surprise" have healed with what looks like a centipede trapped beneath the surface. While, "prefer" appears with a fossilized pathway of radiating slashes and irregular patching that draws the viewer's focus.
Like Eminem, Doleske is is highly influenced by sense of place and it plays a large role in her work. Trading the rough streets of inner-city Detroit, Doleske paints from Sault Ste. Marie, in the Algoma district of Northeastern Ontario. The area is well known for appearing often in the paintings of the Group of Seven.
Developing her images from drawings, Doleske has found a minimal stroke, in angular patterns of varied colour expresses her understanding of this environment. A sense of movement, not just linear, but a flow exists: sometimes meditative, and sometimes, as in "play", very animated.
Looking at the landscape from a contemporary point of view, with all the weighty art history of the Group of Seven behind her, Doleske's paintings are part self-analysis and part investigation into ideas of regionalism, nationalism and community.
Algoma Paintings: Memory and Metaphor at Play by Karin Doleske, September 11th to October 2nd. Studio Vogue Gallery, www.studiovoguegallery.com
Page 17: play, Oil on mended Canvas, 48" x 48". Page 18: float, Oil on Mended Canvas, 36" x 36". Page 19: prefer, Oil on Mended Canvas, 48" x 48".
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