From June 19 through September 4, 2010, True North Gallery presents “When the Animal Holds a Space: A Celebration of Zoomorphic Vessels,” a group exhibition featuring the work of Martye Allen, Melissa Brown, Tina Buchs, Tim Christensen-Kirby, Kim Lust, Tricia Messenger, Wendy Morgan, Ann Morris, Misun Rie, Ann Schunior, Sandy Shaw, Joan Slack, and Adrienne Speer.

The inspiration for the exhibition comes from an ancient and universal human tendency to create vessels that embody animal, or “zoomorphic,” forms.  “Animals have been ‘holding spaces’ for humankind since Neolithic times,” explains Belinda Recio, owner of True North Gallery. According to Recio, archaeologists have found utilitarian and ceremonial vessels incorporating zoomorphic forms in nearly every part of the world, dating back thousands of years.

For this show, True North Gallery has assembled a collection of contemporary zoomorphic vessels—cups, bowls, urns, jars, teapots, boats, and other containers—by local and national artists. The work presents a wide diversity of animal species, ranging from ravens, owls, herons, and dragonflies to bears, rabbits, wolves, otters, and undefined species.

“Crab Boat” and “Heron Bowl” by Washington artist Ann Morris are bronzes from the artist’s “Bone Journey” series. In both pieces, Morris represents the talismanic remains of existence—shells and bones—in a light that reminds us of the power of these natural artifacts, and the animals to whom they once belonged.

Mythology and archeology inspire the work of Wisconsin artist Joan Slack. The animals that perch on the rims, lids, and edges of her stoneware vessels are reminiscent of Zuni fetishes and other indigenous animal effigies.  Slack’s vessels have a sacred and ceremonial presence, evoking a mythology all their own.

“Totem” by Massachusetts artist Tina Buchs is a massive four-legged ceramic basin that departs from the artist’s usual practice of giving her animal vessels necks and heads. In addition to “Totem,” Buchs has several smaller pieces in the show, including a “herd” of tiny giraffe-like vessels. Juxtaposed against the plurality of these small, individual zoomorphs, “Totem” rises as a singular, archetypal form, suggesting origination and emanation.

The show includes work by three ceramic artists who use sgrafitto techniques: Sandy Shaw from Massachusetts, Martye Allen from Wisconsin, and Tim Christensen-Kirby from Maine. Each uses a process in which imagery is etched through black slip to the white clay beneath.  Both Shaw and Allen are inspired by Mimbres pots from the American Southwest. Allen also credits prehistoric cave paintings in France and Spain, and Inuit carvings, as inspiration. Christensen-Kirby refers to his work as drawings on porcelain. Striking black and white images of ravens, wolves, whales, caribou, and other predominantly northern animals adorn the surfaces of his porcelain vessels.

Massachusetts artist Ann Schunior is also inspired by the animal imagery in petroglyphs and indigenous art, as reflected in her stoneware “Owl Urn,” which evokes the stylized owls of Inuit art.  Also informed by indigenous sensibilities are the richly textured terracotta “bird jars” by Tricia Messenger from Connecticut. According to Messenger, the birds that sit on top of the jars are both decorative and talismanic, in that they “protect” the objects stored within the egg-like jars they guard. For Messenger and many of the other artists, zoomorphic vessels evoke a distant time when animals captivated our imaginations and held a larger space in our hearts.

“When the Animal Holds a Space” takes you back to that time.  From June 19 through September 4, 2010 at True North Gallery, 25 Woodbury Street, South Hamilton, MA. 978-468-1962. Regular hours are Wednesday through Saturday 12 to 5 and other times by appointment. www.truenorthgallery.net

Jon Turk has kayaked around Cape Horn and paddled across the Pacific Ocean to retrace the voyages of ancient people. But, the strangest trip he ever took was the journey he made as a man of science into the realm of the spiritual. In a remote Siberian village, Turk met an elderly Koryak shaman named Moolynaut who invoked the help of a Spirit Raven to mend his fractured pelvis. When the healing was complete, he was able to walk without pain. Turk, finding no rational explanation, sought understanding by traversing the frozen tundra where Moolynaut was born, camping with bands of reindeer herders, and recording stories of their lives and spirituality. Framed by high adventure across the vast and forbidding Siberian landscape, The Raven’s Gift creates a vision of natural and spiritual realms interwoven by one man’s awakening.

Jon Turk is the author of twenty-five environmental and earth science text books and two previous adventure travel books. He co-authored the first environmental science textbook in the United States, which spearheaded the development of environmental science curricula in North America. Jon is also a world-class adventurer who has kayaked across the North Pacific, mountain biked through the Gobi desert, made the first climbing ascents of big walls on Baffin Island, and the first ski descents in the Tien Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzia.  Jon has chronicled his adventures in three books: Cold Oceans, In the Wake of the Jomon, and, most recently The Raven’s Gift.

The Yup’ik are a group of indigenous peoples native to western, southwestern, and south-central Alaska and the Russian Far East. Most Yup’ik Carvers live in the St. Lawrence Island area.

St. Lawrence Island lies off the northwest coast of Alaska, 32 miles from the Siberian coastline. The villages of Gambell and Savoonga are located in this remote corner of the Bering Sea. The Siberian Yup’ik Eskimos who live in these villages still hunt walrus and whale for a few short weeks every spring and fall, just as their ancestors did for thousands of years.

The Yup’ik and other indigenous peoples of this area are allowed to hunt walrus and whale in order to maintain their traditional subsistence lifestyle. This part of the world is very remote, and hunting is still vital to their existence. They make use of every part of the whale and walrus. The meat is dried and frozen to be consumed throughout the year, hides are used to cover boats, and the ivory tusks and whale bones are carved into art and sold. The carving and selling of walrus ivory and whale bone sculpture is an important source of employment on St. Lawrence Island.

The Yup’ik Cavings sold at True North are made of seasoned walrus ivory or fossilized ivory. Sometimes inlaid whale baleen is used for details.

Seasoned Walrus Ivory
After the walrus harvest, the ivory is dried for several months before carving. Note: The Pacific walrus is not endangered or threatened. Nonetheless, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service oversees and manages the limited hunting of walrus by indigenous peoples.

Fossilized Ivory
Prehistoric walrus ivory and mammoth ivory is harvested from the beaches of St. Lawrence Island. As much as 10,000 years old, fossilized ivory has a wider range of color than fresh ivory. Only theYup’ik and other indigenous peoples are allowed to harvest the fossilized ivory from this area.

Baleen
The black eyes, claws and other inlaid details in ivory carvings are usually created from baleen, which are the feeding plates of the bowhead whale. The plates are used to filter food from the sea.

On-going through January
Wednesdays through Sundays, 12 to 5
25 Woodbury Street, South Hamilton, MA 01982

True North is pleased to present a selection of work by North Shore
sculptor Sarah Seabury Ward. For the past twenty years, Sarah has
exhibited widely throughout New England. Sarah’s sculptures of polar
wildlife were recently featured in the exhibition “Polar Attractions”
at Peabody Essex Museum in Salem.

Sarah is also the founder of The Nature Connection, a non-profit
organization that brings animal and nature programs to people with
limited access to the natural world.  Sarah’s work reflects her deep
affinity with animals, as well as her years of experience as an
accredited wildlife handler and nature educator.

Jackie has won international acclaim for the numerous books she has written and illustrated. Her work has been exhibited widely in galleries throughout the U.K. and Australia. She has also exhibited at the Swansea and Edinburgh Book Festivals, and has work in the public collection at the National Library of Wales.

Jackie has won several awards for her illustrations, including; the Tir na n-Og Prize awarded by the Welsh Books Council, 2005, for The Seal Children; the Tir na n-Og Prize for Best English Book of the Year, Welsh Books Council, 1997, for Cities in the Sea; the Children’s Book Federation Award shortlist, 1997, for The Snow Whale; and in 1988 she was Highly Commended in the Australian Women’s Art Award.

Here are some of the things that inspires Jackie (in her own words): ” Blue, cats, the smell of honeysuckle, rose petals, birds, words, fires, good books, crayons and paint, the smell of a new book, polar bears, moonlight and moonshadows, stars, sunrise, sunset, dew on the grass, poetry, red, random acts of kindness, long gold grass of late summer, the sound of the wind in the trees, the brush of a butterfly’s wings, the fragility of bone, wasp’s nests, washing on a line blowing in the wind on a sunny winter’s day, the patterns the sea draws on a beach each day and night.”

SELECTED WORKS WRITTEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY JACKIE MORRIS
The Snow Leopard, 2007
The Seal Children, 2004
Bears, Bears, and More Bears, 1995

SELECTED WORKS ILLUSTRATED BY JACKIE MORRIS
Starlight, Starbright by James Mayhew, 2008
Singing to the Sun by Vivian French, 2008
The Barefoot Book of Classic Poems, Barefoot Books 2006
Can You See a Little Bear? by Mayhew and Lincoln, 2005
Lord of the Forest by Caroline Pitcher, 2004
Mariana and the Merchild: A Folk Tale from Chile, 2000
How the Whale Became and Other Stories by Ted Hughes, 2000
Lord of the Dance by Sydney Carter, , 1999
The Time of the Lion by Caroline Pitcher, 1998
Grandmother’s Song by Barbara Soros, Barefoot Books (Brooklyn, NY), 1998
Out of the Ark: Stories from the World’s Religions by Anita Ganeri, 1996
Going Fishing by Juliet Partridge, 1996
The Snow Whale by Caroline Pitcher, 1996
Cities in the Sea by Siân Lewis, 1996
The Barefoot Book of Stories from the Stars: Myths of the Zodiac, 1996
Jo’s Storm by Caroline Pitcher, 1994

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, November 27, 28, and 29, 2009
Noon to 5 PM

Refreshments, Sculptural Needle-felting Demonstrations, and more! Our art collection includes Native art from Inuit, Yup’ik, Northwest Coast, and Sámi artists, as well as art inspired by the North, northern furnishings, and handmade crafts and gifts.

Current Exhibition: “Navigating by the Stars: Art Inspired by the Night Sky.”

Visit our online catalog at: http://truenorthgallery.net/catalog/

“The show offers an intriguing and diverse response to the night sky theme,” explains Belinda Recio, owner of True North Gallery. “Star patterns, astral myths, night migration, light emerging from the darkness—all of these ideas find both archetypal and personal expression in the body of work included in this show.”

Constellation patterns are a recurring motif, appearing in the hand-embellished aquatint etchings of Oregon artist Tallmadge Doyle. “Cassiopeia” and “Celestial Mapping II” reflect Doyle’s alchemical approach to the printmaking process, in which she allows for unexpected transformations, resulting in imagery that feels both spiritual and scientific at the same time.

The concept of transformation also appears in “Two Copperheads,” a digital photograph by renowned Massachusetts’ photographer and digital artist Olivia Parker. In this piece, a pair of biological snakes appears to be shape shifting into the celestial dragon Draco, a constellation in the northern sky. Other classic constellations, such as Scorpio and Orion, are the subject of large ceramic tiles created by Marc Lisle, also from Massachusetts.

For Illinois artist Peter Olson, the constellation motif in his silver ink etching, “Hummingbird Nebula” serves as a reflection of his interest in ornithological night migration. “I have long been fascinated by the reliance on the night sky by birds to navigate on their long journeys of migration,” explains Olson, the assistant director of the Northern Illinois Art Museum. “What better subject to become a constellation—frozen in the sky as if motionless in the air, hovering before a flower.”

In “Cassiopeia / Ice Study,” by Connecticut artist Julie Fraenkel, a woman lies frozen in the ice under the night sky. A constellation map is layered over the sky, as well as the woman, whose figure embodies the stars that create the constellation Cassiopeia. Fraenkel’s work often addresses the physical embodiment of psychological states, and in this piece, the vastness and timelessness of the night sky is both external and internal.

For others in the show, such as Icelandic artist Gudrun Benedikta Eliasdottir, the night sky theme inspires explorations of light. Eliasdottir’s “Aurora Borealis” is an acrylic seascape in which the play of auroral light is reflected not only by the sea, but also by a vibrant formation of luminous beach stones. The otherworldly light seems to animate the sea and stones in ways that recall the supernatural legends about the northern lights.

In “I never saw the northern lights 2,” Brooklyn artist Randall Stoltzfus uses raw pigment, pastel, and gold leaf to create a somewhat more abstract play of ghostly auroral color that emerges out of a matrix of darkness. Winnipeg artist Elizabeth Delgatty also explores the northern lights in three monochromatic watercolors. Using only transparency and shades of blue, Delgatty captures the mystery of the aurora and the austere beauty of the winter landscape.

Lynda Goldberg, a Massachusetts artist, focuses on a different kind of celestial light in her monotype “Perseid Meteor Shower Over Gloucester Harbor,” a sensual and vibrant celebration of this astronomical display.

Another response to the night sky theme is one in which artists explore the relationship between night and narrative. “Ulluriat,” an aquatint etching by Inuit artist Germaine Arnaytauyok, illustrates an Inuit star story. Ulluriat is the Inuktitut word for stars, but this piece illustrates the legend associated with the star the Inuit call Nanurjuk, which translates as “having the spirit of a polar bear.” With a limited palette of blue and white, the etching depicts a defiant polar bear holding his ground against a pack of dogs. The bear and dogs appear as images frozen against the night sky in a pattern that represents Nanurjuk’s constellation.

Another Arnaktauyok etching is inspired by an Inuit legend relating to the creation of darkness and light. In “Night and Day,” Arnaktauyok presents the raven, which represents day, with the light of the early sun behind it, and an arctic hare, which represents night, with dark, starry background.

For Allie High, an Alaskan artist whose heritage is Aleut, Haida, and Tsimshian, the night sky also inspires work with a sense of story. In her Northwest Coast formline style serigraph “Evening Star,” an otter sleeps under a glowing star, embraced by a circle of night. In another serigraph, “Wolf Crescent,” a sleeping wolf is curled under a crescent moon.

Jackie Morris, the celebrated Welsh artist and children’s book illustrator, has two watercolors in the show, both depicting mythical hares leaping through the night sky. High’s serigraphs and Morris’s watercolors both evoke associations with ancient stories about animals, dreams, and the magic of night.

True North Gallery is open Wednesday through Saturday 12 to 5 and Sundays by chance and appointment. We will have extended hours during the winter holidays. For additional information call (978) 468-1962 or email gallerydirector@truenorthgallery.net.

Night and Day

July 15 through September 1, 2009
True North Gallery
25 Woodbury Street
South Hamilton, MA 01982
www.truenorthgallery.net/catalog

About the Artist
Born in 1946, near the village of Igloolik in the Canadian Arctic, Arnaktauyok is well known for her drawings, etchings, and children’s book illustrations, as well as for her designs for two Canadian coins. Arnaktauyok’s drawings and etchings have been shown throughout Canada, the U.S., and Japan, and are in the permanent collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Musee d’art Inuit Brousseau, the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center, and other museums.

About the Exhibition
The richly textured and colored aquatint etchings in this exhibition reflect Arnaktauyok’s love of story, as well as her devotion to her traditional Inuit culture. She brings a perspective both mythic and intimate to her interpretation of stories that include shape-shifting polar bears, how caribou came to be, the origin of the sun and moon, and how, in the old days, igloos could fly.

Even Arnaktauyok’s object studies have a narrative essence. Her images of items such as kayaks, ivory combs, and a shaman’s coat have the sacred presence of artifacts that tell stories about a people and a place that most of us will never know.

Like the traditional Inuit shaman who mediates between worlds, Arnaktauyok’s powerful imagery can take us to a far away Arctic land in which the old, magical stories are still alive.

In addition to art from the far North, the physical gallery features gifts, décor, and antiques from or inspired by the far North. We have sleigh tables made by Richard Dunbrack from Concord, Massachusetts, snowshoe chairs from Quebec, bronze antler candlesticks (cast from shed antlers), toboggan shelves, antique sleds and ice skates, reindeer leather bracelets from Lapland, and much more. Please visit us when you’re in the area.

Hours are Wednesday through Saturday, noon to 5PM, and Sunday by chance or appointment.

True North Gallery, 25 Woodbury Street, South Hamilton, Massachusetts and at www.truenorthgallery.net