Pursuing Lines, Curves and Abstract Language

“Pursuing Lines, Curves and Abstract Language” is a new exhibit at Gualala Arts, featuring the works of Mirka Knaster, Paula Haymond and Michael Connor.

The exhibit opens Saturday, July 3, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Coleman Hall at Gualala Arts. Members may preview the exhibit on Friday, July 2, from 11:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m. The exhibit continues through Sunday, August 1.

Michael Connor is best known for his abstract paintings. His work examines the relationship between form and fluidity. Born in Minneapolis, Michael attended the Minneapolis School of Art before moving to California where he worked as a Creative Director in the Silicon Valley advertising industry. Following a near-death experience, his body of work took on a lucid form of storytelling. His non-linear narratives illustrate his experience navigating what he candidly describes as “going somewhere else.”

Coastal artists Mirka Knaster and Paula Haymond are keen on abstract art. They offer beautiful and engaging works that appeal aesthetically and arouse curiosity. Presenting new ways of looking at what’s all around us and inviting viewers’ imaginations to roam freely is what makes their abstract art so intriguing. Both artists work with a mixture of media and techniques. Haymond sculpts, burns, pierces, and paints wood, metal, and stone to create three-dimensional objects. Knaster combines textiles, handmade paper, thread, paint, dye, and ink in her 2-D and 3-D pieces.

Abstract art often triggers pareidolia, our tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. Like the magic of seeing an animal in a cloud or discerning a face in the moon, abstract art stimulates our capacity to create a story. Our mind takes over when the artist does not provide a mimetic representation of a place, person, or object. Abstract art encourages us to go beyond what reality presents and interpret the shapes, lines, colors, and designs through a different filter. We can get lost in the abstract images. Then, as we fill in the gaps ourselves, feeling and thinking what the artwork means to us, we’re gifted with finding something unexpected in the relationships between the shapes and spaces.