Photograph by George Sakkestad
Artist Margaret Michel's "Airborne" is among her pieces on exhibit at Montalvo through Aug. 18.
By Shari Kaplan
In "Drawing to Object," a multimedia exhibit on display through Aug. 18 at The Gallery at Villa Montalvo, Santa Clara artist Margaret Michel uses sketches, monotypes and tangible objects to convey the transformation from two- to three-dimensional art as well as the sensations of diving, dreaming and flying.
In the artist's statement mounted on the wall, Michel explains: "As we move through space, we displace air or as it may be, water ... in diving and in flying, when this surrounding substance is able to sustain the weight of our bodies, we are free to glide through a continuous expanse. We experience unusual perspectives and forms and sense the space, as well as the objects with a fresh vision."
Mounted on another wall are excerpts from Serge Bramly's book Leonardo: Discovering the Life of Leonardo DaVinci, as DaVinci's artistic and mathematical ideas and great flying machines number among her influences. Her two main inspirations, she said during a telephone interview, include her frequent scuba diving in Monterey Bay and her dreams, which she keeps notes on.
"I vividly remember the viewpoints I had in those dreams," she says, particularly reminiscing about her dreams of flying.
"Basically, my work has to do with new sensations that I want to communicate or express: the type of space you move through in a dream, or the surroundings you experience when diving. Things are presented in a different way [underwater]: You're weightless, and it's like you're moving in a three-dimensional space."
The three-dimensional piece of art that dominates the gallery is "Airborne," a 15-foot creation of wood, bamboo and plexi that hangs from the ceiling in two equal pieces like a kayak cut in half. Although it looks like a boat, which Michel said is one of her favorite motifs, the title is suggestive of a craft that could also take to the air, which is definitely appropriate based upon the angle of the two pieces and the airiness of the light wooden structure. Viewers peering inside the piece may notice mirrors, which add an element of the infinite when looked into the right way.
"I like to work with the inside space as well as the outside space of an object," she says. "There are so many new ways of seeing and perceiving that are available to us."
Among her other 3-D displays are a series of eight maquettes, which are small models or prototypes of larger pieces she may someday create, and "Echo." The latter is a group of aluminum, polyester resin and goldleaf-on-wood creations that resemble translucent wall sconces. Shaped almost like butterflies perched for flight, they contain drawings of somewhat androgynous human forms on acetate, which would no doubt glow softly if the pieces actually were sconces holding candles or torches.
The small maquettes comprise materials and shapes as varied as their names, including dried maple seeds glued to a wooden framework in "Presenting the Organic," stiff gauze and a wooden stick in "Whispers of the Wind," a computer chip housed in a tall wooden pole in "Reliquary" and a box containing an iridescent abalone shell next to a sculpted model of an ear in "Soundwaves."
Among the most striking of Michel's 2-D works is the graphite-on-paper "Diving and Dreaming Series," which consists of three rows of three sketches each, forming a square. The interplay of white, gray, black and gentle smudges create a perspective that is almost three-dimensional. Some sketches resemble decks of ships, while others resemble the shadowy cabins and chambers of a sunken ship visible only to an intrepid diver--or perhaps a dreamer.
Michel is both.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, July 31, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved