"Mix" Works!

Submitted by: Stephanie Canning, SCC Exhibitions and Education Coordinator, on behalf of Mel Bolen

After a year of innovation and hard work Paula has succeeded in blending an exhibition of clay and other materials into a coherent statement. 

De La Mer 2

This is a daunting task to undertake and at times it feels like you're completely alone in the studio with the unfinished, evolving concepts and pieces. Paula's determination and good eye for design enabled her to challenge herself to incorporate steel, found objects, and glass into very strong pieces.

I often think of a breakout exhibition like this as a gift, a birth, a celebration. We are treated to someone's inner-self, their bravery and vulnerabilities. Paula gives us this gift. Clay drawings I call them, open vessels with their extremities flying off in a brush stroke shielding hidden treasures. Amorphous clay shapes struggling to free themselves from steel and wire. 

Seed

Seed pods blossoming from a tangle of metal stems under the watchful sentinels of flat steel and colored glass coddled in raw and ochre clays. The entire west end of the gallery is filled by a huge assemblage of steel and translucent clay cylinders that mimics our Prairie cloud formations, snow flakes, and northern lights as the sun sets and light changes behind the piece.  What a kinetic surprise!  

Lucent (detail)

To complete this inter fusion we have constructs that make statements about the fragility of our environment, and the restorative power of nature.  This is the Mix that I feel Paula has cultured, nourished and successfully presented to us.

Mel Bolen, Curator

Mix can be viewed at the Affinity Gallery, 813 Broadway Avenue, from September 5-October 18.

Reception: Friday, September 12, 7 - 9 pm.