Mnemosyne is the Greek goddess of memory. She gave birth to the nine muses to whom Greek and Roman artists and scholars looked to for inspiration. Without her, there could be no memory, and thus there could be no culture. Without memory words would be forgotten as soon as they were spoken, stories could not be told because the beginning would be lost, and society could not advance, because none of the gains of our predecessors could be recalled.
The Wellsprings of Memory is an exhibit in the Glickman library dedicated to the soul of remembering, and Mnemosyne is to be the patron goddess. The exhibit displays the work of six women artists from New England whose work has been selected from the Astrachan Collection, presumably by Gary Astrachan himself. The artists are: Camille Cole, Tanja Alexia Hollander, Buzz Masters, Merle Mainelli Poulton, Pamela Sienna, and Cheryl Warrick.
Cole’s work uses a blend of colors and shapes to create feelings that are as varied as the human heart. “Alone at Last” creates the sense of a wilderness setting and the solitude that naturally extends from that, while “Face to Face” shows two human beings conjoined at the arms, which form the symbol for infinity, against a dark background.
Hollander’s photography is a series that looks as though it was taken through a window, or perhaps even the lens of the camera, that has been smeared in Vaseline. The subject matter seems to switch between what looks like impressionist images of small foothills in the distance, to the patterns that were formed in smearing the Vaseline, or whatever it is, on the window.
Warrick’s solitary contribution to the exhibit is a 36″ x 36″ acrylic titled “Winter Garden.” The border of the painting is framed by a mixture of leafy vines, and white, jagged, briar-looking entanglements that I thought of as the spirits of winter. These same spirits, or some close relatives of theirs, had driven me into the library not moments before. The actual painting is a depiction of trees on the edge of either a pond or a frost-bitten field. Warrick had also written: “Winter garden, the moon thinned to a thread, insects singing,” on the top and bottom of the painting. I was only able to decipher her handwriting through the use of a sign next to the painting telling me what it said.
Buzz Masters’ paintings seem to have a running theme of resonance within them. Appearing in a number of her works were images of a spiral, a small rowboat, and an orange pot. In “Conception,” Masters has painted the orange pot tipped over, with spilt water on healthy grass. The pot is located in the middle of a brick spiral. I blush at the idea of saying what I thought it meant.
Poulton’s paintings seem quiet and simple next to Masters’ on the left and Sienna on the right. Often only using a few colors, white is a popular one; the paintings seem to be understated. Poulton also likes to use what I thought of as a “books in flight,” motif in several of her works. Her paintings have a simple elegance to them that I admired.
Sienna’s work differs greatly from the other pieces in the exhibit. All of her paintings consist of an unknown object, wrapped in cloth and tied with string, sometimes with a skyline and sometimes not. It may sound boring, and a little odd, but her paintings caught my attention. I will not, however, disavow their being odd. My favorite piece of hers “Hot Fallout Corral” shows a cloth-wrapped object surrounded by a rope corral with a mushroom cloud rising in the background. Her paintings are different from the others in that she strives to be realistic and detailed, particularly in portraying folds in fabric.
The Wellsprings of Memory is on display on the seventh floor of the Glickman Library in the Unum Provident Reading Room. The artwork is on display until March 15 and it is free and open to all who are interested in taking a look.