Gallery II will see not one but two exciting solo exhibitions this March – Marcela Cadena’s ‘Colores del Corazón’ is showing from March 1 – March 22, after which the work of award-winning Canadian artist Lynda Pogue will be featured in an exhibition entitled ‘The Persistence of Color’ which will open March 25 and continue until April 15.
Regular readers of ARTisSpectrum will be familiar with Lynda Pogue from the articles she contributes to our contemporary art magazine. These often show connections between other forms of art, such as music or acting, and visual art – a link Pogue explores herself in her own life. With diverse interests and a talent that cannot be confined to a single form of expression, this is an artist who soaks in the world she lives in and creates works that combine all those experiences with something unique from within, to produce constantly evolving, ever-intriguing and intensely emotive art. To find out how she does it, read on!
What is the most important thing you would like people to know about you as an artist?
Lynda: How I communicate my passion for creating begins as a new journey each time I face down the blinding whiteness of a blank canvas. The voyage begins through my relentless exploration of color and light and how they combine to tell a story… this thrills me beyond description.
I’ve come to understand that it’s a fallacy when one says that a true artist has “found her or his voice” because this often means that every painting the artist has completed has identical recognizable and repetitious qualities. I pride myself in the eclectic, expansive artworks I have created and continue to paint. The downside of this is that I can be difficult to market if a gallery owner wants an artist to have one identifiable quality. That will never be me.
When a viewer walks into a show of mine, they know that there will be something for everyone because of the breadth and scope of the paintings.
I began as a ‘literal’ painter and have now moved into representational and abstract works …although I must return to watercolor every once in a while to soothe my soul. I’ll be an emerging Canadian artist until the day I die because I believe that, with each canvas, I discover something fresh, innovative, exciting… My art will never be “established” but always new and inventive.
And, because I’ve given myself permission to continually change styles, I grow exponentially. For example, what I might have learned as a beginning watercolorist on paper I now take into the way acrylic paint or encaustic wax moves and combines and jumps across a canvas.
Everything is everything. Learning one thing continually affects the other. Doors open for the open mind.
Your work has been appreciated all over the world, by a wide-ranging audience. What do you think it is in it that speaks to so many different people?
Lynda: Every artist dreams of making their mark.
I believe that each of my paintings expresses a different meaning, a different tone, and a different (dare I say it?) spiritual quality that moves different viewers in diverse ways.
I’ve watched and heard from so many people as they experience my art that, at some level, whether they are collectors, artists, or those that are just discovering the power of real original art, they respond to honesty and genuine passion. They immediately feel what I felt while painting.
I always hear how people want to touch my work (that’s a big fat no no in a gallery) and, to me, that equates with people wanting to climb right into one of my paintings. How electrifying is that for an artist?
Your work is often influenced by other artistic experiences in your life – from music to plays. What kinds of things play that role, and what sort of an impact do they have?
Lynda: One of the critical influences of my artistic journey has been through the support and nurturing from Angela Di Bello, the director of the Agora Gallery in NYC. When I showed and sold works from this gallery, Angela encouraged me to do my first ‘series’ of works that had a similar theme. This advice has stood me in good stead for several years. Also, my relationship with Agora has stayed consistent through my writing articles for the past 6 issues of ARTisSpectrum magazine. I learn so much when researching for the articles that I’m forced to look at my own works with new eyes every time I write. This has all led me to create a solo exhibition for Agora from March 25 to April 15 this year. HOW COOL IT THAT FOR AN ARTIST?!?
A different influence was a play that has deeply impacted me as an artist, John Logan’s multiple award-winning play “Red” in NYC. Alfred Molina brilliantly became the intrepid artist Rothko who was fascinated by the color red because of its emotive power and the way that it could evoke emotional associations. His work is meditative, and requires the viewer to spend time with it, in contemplation and reflection requiring us to be active participants. I long for people to experience this with my own art. While sitting in the theatre, drinking in every moment of Red and soaking in the color red that was on ‘Rothko’s’ canvases, I mulled over how I might explore the multiple layering of colors in a more profound way. That’s where I am right now. Who knows what will evolve tomorrow?
Another consideration for artistic experiences that impacts my art comes from my teaching Integrated Arts (visual arts, dance, drama, music, media arts) at the Faculty of Education at York University in Canada. My students and I live and breathe all the arts and it’s my job to hook one art form into another so everyone experiences both the distinctive qualities of each one of the arts and those qualities that are common to all. This concept spills over into my studio when I might hear a piece of music whose rhythms integrate themselves into a piece of art; while other times it might be a dance that has made me blissfully agitated and this might show itself through jarring colors in a painting.
Most recently I attended an aboriginal drum-making workshop and I have yet to know how appreciably this will affect my work.
What is the main thing you would like your art to accomplish in the world?
Lynda: I want my art to move a person to smile, cry, laugh or nod with agreement while climbing into my work… then we will have had a common experience together. Honest art has that kind of power.
You have talked about the ‘wow’ factor in the past. Can you tell us a bit about that?
Lynda: On my website I’ve been quoted as saying:
“I’ve always admired people who reach beyond their grasp.
Passion and gutsiness are the hallmarks of innovation.”
I’m crazy about the moments when the colors and textures unfolding on a canvas provide me with an emotional reaction. And, if I’m experiencing this response, I know that a viewer, who’s seriously interested in art, will enjoy the same reaction because they are “into it”… They can sense that I do not painstakingly sketch or labor over photographs but begin my painting journey with explosions of energy, color, and interesting surfaces; and whatever form the painting takes will reveal itself to me and open up as I respond to the moment.
Anyone who’s been moved by a piece of art knows that tiny moment of breathlessness: the internal ‘wow’ factor.
What advice would you give to someone considering a career in art?
Lynda: You must find a way to polish your own star!
Remember Lisa singing “What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play. Life is a cabaret old chum.” The message to anyone serious about their art is to be actively involved rather than passively waiting in their own artistic journey… to get out there and let the world know about your passion in as many ways as possible… and for goodness sake, PLEASE don’t continue to do the same the same the same art.
If you just keep repeating something, you’ll be spinning your wheels. And you know what’s under those wheels? Ruts! Don’t go there. Keep learning. Keep growing. Keep building one idea into another. Keep experimenting.
Creating art is one of the most exciting, honorable and important professions on earth.
Always has been. Always will.
Truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.
William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, Act 5 Scene 1
Lynda Pogue’s dazzling and diverse artworks can be purchased online at ARTmine.com and through Agora Gallery.
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WOW!
This looks AMAZING!
I’m totally honored!!!
Thank you for your insightful questions and your clever formatting…… very cool!
I always love attending a show of Lynda’s work. I leave feeling uplifted and empowered. She creates a union of color and texture that impacts emotionally on me. When I stand back and look at her work I can feel my emotional response immediately. She talks about wanting people to touch her work… sometimes I want to eat it!
Lynda Pogue’s passion for her art is also reflected in her tremendous vision in the arts. She connects so nicely across a range of media.
I have attended her shows in the past and am really excited about this one in New York.
Take a close look at “I AM I AM”
Better be there when I am!
Simply STUNNING work… I know… I’m a frequent buyer!!! You should be too!!! Lynda’s pieces never fail to exude joyous “AHHH’s” from anyone whose eyes are lucky enough to alight on them… KUDOS to you, Lynda… BRAVA la Diva of the Canvas!!!! May your brush forever move the hearts of those with whom you share your work… as it consistently does mine!!!
Lynda IS the colour red, both in life and in the art she creates. Never one to sit back, she is always “out there” experimenting, challenging herself and taking her art to the next level and beyond.
She is amazing and I’m anxious to visit her show. I know it will be nothing short of dazzling!!
Lynda is as delicious as her paintings. Though I have not known her long, we are kindred spirits in a myriad of ways, and I think of her as a ‘soul sister’. I wish her gobs of luck in her exhibit. Love ya, Lynda!
I am sooooo thrilled that Lynda’s having a solo show in New York and that her work is getting such good exposure. The art that she creates is passionate, compelling…her heart and soul is embedded in each of her pieces. My husband and I were in awe when we attended her last show in Toronto – the range, the scope; the depth, the breadth…
Can’t be at the show in NYC, but I know it will be incredible!!!! So proud to be an owner of a few “Lynda Pogues”!!!
Congratulations once more, Lynda ! I cannot help but see you in a painting of RED OYSTERS…….to reflect on that time-worn expression about the “world being your _ _ _ _ _ !” I can see you, the beautiful blonde with the gorgeous smile , slipping and sliding on a beached -up pile of absolutely stunning oysters of every shade and hue of RED, reflecting the sunlight and deflecting the grains of warm sand perilously sticking to the gunmetal grey shellcases, just recently unloaded by an ocean wave. You are laughing outloud as every other mountainous wave roars in with its cache…..its gift of abundance just for you. May it always be so that this abundance follows.
May this be as wonderful a success as previous shows, and may you bask a little in the appreciation you are receiving for your courageous work. It is just so YOU! With every good wish and great affection! MC
Lynda’s work is as passionate as she is: about life, about colour, about picture words. I am a fan!! Good luck with the exhibit in New York, Lynda – I know you’ll wow them!
Hey babe! Love your work. This is so you. Your passion for love and life shines through. So happy for you. Susan
WOW and Congratulations!! Your work is truly wonderful. You have followed your dream! All the best with your exhibit in New York. Wish I could be there… Betty
I attended Lynda’s show at Todmorden Mills recently in Toronto — simply blown away by the breadth of the work and enormously pleased to see sold dots on much of it after only a couple hours at the opening – I am very lucky to have two of Lynda’s works in my home — they bring me joy everyday and each time I look at them I see something new — not only does she give herself to her work but also to the arts and culture community in Canada — wish I could be in NY
Greetings, Lynda.
I have several of your paintings, and each time I walk into my living room, their energy surrounds me and strengthens me. Keep painting your life on canvas.
I am forunate to possess some of Lynda’s work, so alive with colour.
On the dark days they “light up my life”.
Congratulations Lynda on your exhibit at the Agora Gallery. Your amazing work is where it should be: in the Big Apple, the heart of the art world in North America. As the Chair of the Halton Hills Cultural Roundtable, where we strive to connect all art forms, I appreciate your efforts to show connections between other forms of art, such as music or acting, and visual art. You are an inspiration to all of us in the cultural network in your home town.
We are all thrilled that Lynda has this opportunity in New York, and that her paintings, achieved through her hard work and passion for art, will be seen by many.
Thanks for remindng me that your adventure really is WORK for you and Ray, and not all pleasure and fun, full of accolades and champagne!
Nevertheless, you go woman,and work hard getting to know not only those who help you with this exhbit, but those who choose to come to see it and you!
Enjoy what you can of New York and remember there are lots of us back home cheering you on with “little cries of encouragement” . May all the pleasures of ths success be yours, and not solely monetary. Hugs to Ray for his support and enouragement. Best, Margaret
Lynda is one heck of an energetic artist. Her pace of production amazes us. Viewers to her new show will be treated to an experience of dense and complex color, mood and subject matter. Enjoy!
Lynda is the real deal! We have 4 of her works on our walls and they add meaning to our lives everyday. Congratulations Lynda on another great showing.
Wish I could be there for this opening but I’m stuck here at my own (figurative) easel. What paintings! Even the little images on the computer screen grab my attention in wonderful, diverse ways. I love what Lynda has to say about spinning wheels and digging ruts. Those canvases of hers are arresting, and they weren’t done by the truckload. Awesome.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.”
Aristotle
So keep on doin’ it lady. Wow! Don’t you ever stop, or even slow down. Congrats on the New York show.
Lynda’s work is so HER! Passionate and “gutsy” and thoughtful and energetic and quiet (well sometimes loud!) and varied and colorful and filled with meaning and connections.
I have several of her pieces in different media…and each time I walk by they make me glad I have them! AND I see something NEW almost every time.
She works hard, she plays hard…and those who will meet her for the first time at her exhibition are in for a treat.
Yup, H S indeed!
Really great paintings. and so different yet all have “you” in them and go together. Love the richness of colour, want to lick some of them to see if they taste like they look!!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations on a great show!
Un abrazo
Nigel
See ya in New York City!!!!Wow –I’ll follow you anywhere to bask in your light! Love you and Ray Sandy Quinn
Lynda you are truly an amazing woman. I love our engergy; I love your enthusiasm; I love your compassion; I love your art; I love you. Anyone who goes to the show, will know exactly what I mean. Congratulations on your solo exhibit.
Ciao Bella
I bumped into Lynda last fall at Stratford after not seeing her for almost 20 years. I ran home to check her website and I’m absolutely overwhelmed by what I saw. Now in my mid 60s have just started to paint for the very first time and Lynda’s work thrills me. I live 6000 miles away and hope in September when I’m in Toronto to visit her studio and see her work ‘for real’.
Lynda, you’re a great motivation to me ! You give me hope that I’ll be able to break through from beginners’ tech to reaching inside for something meaningful and exciting.
Tzipora Ne’eman Feder [ who is also Fern Kay ]
Hey Lynda,
I am so proud of you! You have worked so hard to become the inspiring artist you are today. I love how you magically hide subtle images in your paintings. You’ve taught me how to look at each painting individually to appreciate the texture, brush strokes and shadowing that you so mindfully enfold onto each new canvas. You ROCK GIRL. Congratulations my friend.
You are certainly one of my Women with Vision!
Lorraine
Lynda’s paintings are alive, vibrant and AWAKE, just as she is!!!!!
Liz