Charon Luebbers
Images
About the Artist
Artist Statement
Critical Essay
Poindexter
Critical Essay
Pratt
Q&A
About the Artist
Born in
Cincinnati, Ohio in 1957, Charon Luebbers
is an award winning multi-disciplinary artist and independent curator
living in New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Charon has shown her work
both indoors and outdoors in museums, galleries and alternative spaces
throughout Florida, in New York City, elsewhere across the country and
abroad.
In 1999, Charon
created a large-scale environmental work mowing her Urban Fossil
(sidewalk crack) designs into acres of grass for the Fields Project in
Oregon, IL. In 2000, Charon installed her “Urban Fossil Footbridge”
at the Empire Fulton Ferry State Park Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition in
Brooklyn.
Charon earned a
BA, cum laude in Psychology from Northwestern University in 1980 and
she began to pursue studio art after studying and traveling during her
Junior Year Abroad at Sussex University in Brighton, England. During
the mid-eighties, Charon worked in New York City and studied sculpture
and painting at the Art Students League and the New School for Social
Research in Manhattan. Since moving to Florida in 1991, Charon has
participated as a four-time Associate Artist-in-Residence at the
Atlantic Center for the Arts, where she worked in residence with
painter Ed Paschke, interdisciplinary artist, Guillermo Gomez Pena,
sculptor Aiko Miyawaki and sculptor Ursula Von Rydingsvard.
Charon served two
years on the board of the Volusia County Cultural Alliance, and three
years as independent curator for exhibitions at the Peabody Auditorium
in Daytona Beach. She gives artist
talks and conducts workshops for both children and adults.
Charon is
represented locally by Arts on Douglas Fine Arts and Collectibles in
New Smyrna Beach where she has shown her sculptures since the
gallery’s inception in 1996.
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Artist Statement
Cracks in the
sidewalk—
universal hieroglyphs—
pause to decipher.
---Charon
“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till
it’s gone/ They paved paradise and put up a parking lot”
---Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi
“Step on a crack, you break your mama’s back”
---Children’s Rhyme
Sundancer dance into the light…that we might dance through the crack
between the worlds.
---Native American Prayer
As visual artist, I work both in and
between the worlds of two and three dimensions. In 3D, my touchstone
is stone. I have carved stone for over twenty years, working my
material using primarily hand tools---hammer and chisels. Over the
years, my forms both representational and abstract, have retained a
certain minimalist simplicity, an almost elemental quality.
My most recent series of abstract
stones Graven Images, documents my spiritual quest for the lost
goddesses. I have moved away from high polish, choosing instead to
leave my mark on the stone with my chisel and bush hammer resulting in
a rough textured finish. Sometimes I include elements of mixed
media, by anointing my sculptures with paint and adorning my stones
with “leftover” chips of marble or slate and nails.
My ongoing
Urban Fossils---a
series of low-relief carvings into slate and mixed media paintings on
canvas or tarpaper---are inspired by cracks in the sidewalks near
where I live, work and travel. I have long been fascinated by the
seemingly random and yet somehow orderly, almost systematic designs of
cracks found in sidewalks. The cracks are to me Nature’s way of
asserting herself—earth energy pushing up through the cement—to form a
sort of universal, yet undecipherable hieroglyphics. This particular
grouping of
Urban Fossils comprises a sub-series called
Anatomically Incorrect--- based upon cracks in the sidewalks that
resemble human-- albeit, anatomically incorrect-- figures.
When working in 2D on canvas or
tarpaper, I often recycle my “leftover” marble dust (from my stone
carving) and mix it into gesso to build up a near low-relief rough
texture or “tooth” ground on which to apply my paint. This 2dx3dx5
exhibition marks the debut of my Urban Fossil Cutouts, in which
the crack-in-the-sidewalk designs are torn away from the background
tarpaper and are wall-mounted as objects released from the rectangular
picture plane.
I began my series of
Urban Fossils
years ago in New York by
sketching my favorite sidewalk cracks on the way to and from the
subway. Now, I use my camera to take quick snapshots of the sidewalk
cracks. Back in the studio I recreate the cracks on canvas or
tarpaper and carve them low relief into slate. I continually expand my
inventory of cracks by taking photos of sidewalks wherever I visit.
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Critical Essay
by Carla Rossi
Poindexter
Painter and Associate
Professor of Art
University of Central
Florida
“We spend a whole lot of time
looking for something we call truth. And there is no such thing,
except in each activity of our life”, states the American Zen
Master, Charlotte Joko Beck.
Indeed, there are few of us who are
able to concentrate our attention in the moment, vitally engaged in
the nuances of living life in a considered and compassionate way.
When Charon Luebbers is writing, teaching, curating or expressing
herself through her intensely public art or her highly personal
paintings and sculpture, she is one of us who is.
In her immensely compelling public
works, Luebbers speaks from the heart. When an issue touches her,
whether environmental, social, political, or cross-cultural, her
empathy compels her to construct artworks and public installations
with clarity, humor, and insight that ask her audience to confront
wrongdoings and engage in solutions.
Charon Luebber’s elegant
two-dimensional works on canvas that are the subject of this essay and
collectively entitled, “Urban Fossils”, are visual poetry. In
these highly intuitive pieces, Luebbers weds her personal need to
respond creatively to provocative social issues, with a more personal
need to wrestle and engage in the basic physical activity of making
images. In this case, it is the process of carving slate, and
painting with sand and pigment on tarpaper that intrigues her. The
surfaces of these works are seductively tactile while the elegantly
spare pictorial representations that emerge from the surfaces are more
of the spirit than physical. Titles such as, “Urban Fossils: Lincoln
Center No.3 NY, NY” and “Urban Fossils: St. George St., St.
Augustine, FL” reveal that these works record specific places in
specific cities and states. One is reminded of a personal journal and
the processes of mapping memories. With time, the viewer realizes the
images in these artworks reference a simple aspect of the visual world
one sees when walking in contemplation in an urban environment -
sidewalk cracks.
Luebber states, “The cracks are to me
nature’s way of asserting herself – Earth’s energy pushing up through
the cement to form a sort of universal yet undecipherable
hieroglyphic.” When we are embedded in life, there is simply seeing,
hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting. In these works, Luebbers is
inviting us to see what she sees. To see something we may overlook,
simple things we may never consider. We attempt to name the things
that are unknowable and to explain the things that are
incomprehensible with complex narratives and representations. But in
these works, Charon is visually and metaphorically sharing with us her
record of the subtle fissures she encounters along the pathways of her
contemplative life journey.
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Critical Essay
by Dr. Allan Pratt
Professor of Art
History
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Charon Luebbers’
exhibit entitled Urban Fossils, reveals her close relationship
to the natural world and her suspicion that we post-moderns may be
losing that connection. In the 21st century–more than at
any other time--we are bombarded by a variety of media: radio, cell
phones, television, computers--and now in classrooms, PowerPoint.
Accordingly, in our contemporary milieu the impact of pictorial art–in
this instance, painting--has diminished. When is the last time you
contemplated a painting? It’s a rare opportunity, then, to experience
this form of creative expression first hand–and to appreciate the
magnitude of its expressive power.
I was waiting
for that elevator when I had my first look at a painting from Urban
Fossils. It’s called Walk Like an Egyptian. Highly
abstract, I didn’t recognize anything, but I still enjoyed the warm
metallic colors and the texture. And I thought is was cool that it
was done on tar paper. Urban Fossils? “Urban” has to do with
cities; “Fossils” are remnants, preserved artifacts from the past.
Are these unrecognizable images things from our present seen in the
far distant future? That made me wonder: What will future
generations find? What bits will be preserved? And what will they make
of it? What will be the legacy of our civilization? Is that
a basketball?
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Questions and Answers
Q: Whether working in 2D
or 3D, do you begin your art making process by sketching or just work
directly with the material and see where it leads you?
When carving stone, I do not make sketches prior to carving. I
start right in with hammer and chisel walking around the stone to get
a feel for what the stone is wanting to become. After a bit of stone
has been removed, I start to draw on the stone with pastel chalk.
These chalk marks are less like temporary sketches than “tailor marks”
indicating where to chip away. The “lines” give me a sort of outline
to follow as I carve, while chalk “X”es denote areas or planes in need
of adjustment. I work my stones in the round—from all sides and
sometimes draw with chalk on 4 or more “sides”.
For my 2D “Urban Fossils” I work from photographic sketches—digital
photos of cracks in the sidewalks. I then sketch these designs large
onto canvas, tarpaper or slate, again using pastel. On slate, I
incise the pastel lines to form the crack design and then chip away
the outer portion to raise up the fossil design; on canvas or
tarpaper, I use the pastel line as an outline and then build up
texture on both sides of the line with marble dust and gesso—forming a
pastel “crack”.
Q What relationship if
any do you see between your 2D and 3D work? Are your 2D works
offshoots of sketching/design process for 3d work, or are they their
own pieces, planned and executed separately?
I view my Urban Fossils (2D) and Graven Images (3D) series as
separate in that one is not a sketch or direct result of the other.
That said, I do think that the two series are related in feeling,
content and form. In the past few years I have been consciously
thinking of ways to bring the two series closer: I imagine ways to
make the Urban Fossils into gallery sized installations that you could
walk through; I imagine how I could use computer imaging to take the
2D photograph of the crack and create a 3D form to carve into stone.
Thinking about this question, made me realize that the rough
texture on my stones is related to the rough texture of the Urban
Fossils—the marble dust removed from the stone is now incorporated
into the gesso ground of the paintings.
Working on mounting my tarpaper Urban Fossils onto wood frames for
this exhibition and talking about the installation with the curator,
led me to a breakthrough in my work: I started to tear away the
“background” painted tarpaper from the “crack design” leaving only the
Urban Fossil to be mounted on thin wood backing. Now these Urban
Fossil cutouts stand on their own as wall hung objects instead of
rectangular paintings of the cracks. The process of tearing away the
tarpaper, is directly related to the process of carving away the
excess block of stone.
Q: What design elements
do you feel are most important in your work - the execution of line or
the application of color, use of texture, space, shape?
I think my Urban Fossils are dominated by line, texture and shape;
my Graven Images in stone are likewise dominated by texture and form.
Q: How important is color
to your 3d work - do you feel your work would/could be complete
without it or is it driving other compositional elements?
In my stone carving, color is a given, that is the stone possesses
its natural color that is enhanced if polished to a high luster. In
Graven Images, I have chosen not to polish the stones, and sometime I
apply color as an additional element, an adornment, an anointing of
the finished piece.
Q: What do you feel
constitutes or defines 2d and 3d works? Do you feel your works are in
between, like a low relief, or is there a clear boundary between the
designations?
My Graven Images carved in stone are definitely 3D in that they are
objects carved in-the-round. My Urban Fossils on canvas and tarpaper
are 2D even though they have a built-up texture. My Urban Fossils
incised in slate and painted are sort of in between in that they are
low relief carvings and paintings as well. My recent cutout tarpaper
Urban Fossils are also in between dimensions.
Q Do you want the viewer
to get a sense of movement from your work? How do you accomplish this
in your 2D/3D?
Creating movement is not a conscious decision for me, although I do
think that gesture plays a role in my 3D carvings. In the 2D Urban
Fossils, I use color to encourage the viewer’s eye to move throughout
the composition.
Q How do you decide on the
color palette you will use for a piece? If your color palette is
repeated in many of your works, why do you choose those particular
colors; what do they convey?
In the Graven Images, I use the natural color of the stone,
sometimes enhanced by the burnt sienna/blood color to create a sense
of mortality/spirituality.
In the Urban Fossils, I use primarily metallic acrylic paint
directly from the jar, sometimes mixing them to create a hybrid
metallic color. I use this palette to create a sense of the holy ---a
la illuminated texts or stained glass. The shiny metallic paint
raises the lowly crack to inspired heights.
Q What is the most joyous
part of the artistic process for you/what is the most frustrating?
Same or different in 2D and 3D?
I really enjoy starting a new stone—chipping away and seeing what
develops. The most frustrating part of stone carving is of course
when the stone sheers off or cracks---I usually put it aside for
awhile and wait until I can see a way forward. In 2D I love the
chase---finding compelling cracks to photograph on sidewalks where I
travel. The process of building up the texture is a bit like
polishing stone, time consuming prepping for the color to arise.
Adding color to the built up gesso and sand on tarpaper is like
putting the icing on a cake!
Q Is there a spiritual aspect of your
work or artistic process? Do you feel that the viewer can sense or
appreciate that by interacting with your work?
There is a definite spirituality in
both the Graven Images and the Urban Fossils. Both series invoke the
goddess/mother nature. I intend both series to communicate the
eternal feminine to the viewer.
Q Why do you make sculpture? Why do
you paint or draw? Why do you make art?
I make art not to make a living but
rather to live. I make art because if I don’t I feel crumby.
Specifically, I carve stone because it is hard laborious work and when
I am done I feel a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes I feel I paint
and draw as a quick diversion from stone carving. There is a more
immediate gratification to my 2D creations.
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