Fine Lines: Cynthia Alexander, Linda Sue Price, Elsie Dye Sims

Tues. November 24th - Sat. December 19th, 2015

Reception: Saturday, December 5, 5-8pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 12th, 1 p.m.

Cynthia Alexander
ATTITUDE

Cynthia Alexander, She Has An Attitude, Mixed Media, 32.25 x 26.25"

“A strong man can handle a strong woman. A weak man will say she has an attitude.”

Cynthia Alexander’s latest series of work – ATTITUDE – reflects her own attitude as an artist at this point in her career. Alexander acknowledged it was time to stop making art to please others and begin to suit herself. In the studio, she challenged herself to discard old habits and allow a new voice to emerge.

While Alexander remains a figurative artist, her new body of work introduces a greater sense of play; it’s freer, more arbitrary and abstract. Using collage as a jumping off point into the unknown, Alexander explores themes of randomness and serendipity in her latest pieces. With a constant wrestling between the figurative and the abstract, the recognizable and the random, she challenges her audience to find and navigate their own way through each piece.

As Alexander worked on this series, the woman she was painting became an alter ego -- direct, opinionated, sprawling, and hard to contain in the confines of the page. From splashes of red to figures with bold strokes, this exhibition is a chance to let that voice speak.

Linda Sue Price
Change is the Only Constant

Linda Sue Price, Change Is The Only Constant, Neon tubes, texture paint, wood, pulsing transformers, 20 x 20 x 10"

Linda Sue Price’s latest body of work incorporates common phrases and abstract neon shapes to facilitate a dialogue, creating unexpected relationships between the two. Price first absorbs the words then instinctually reacts to them, concentrating on repetitive gestures that reflect the commonality of the words found in each phrase. These mixed media neon sculptures use free-form bent abstract shapes to convey their message. While the circular pieces were inspired by the idea of a medallion—a button to be worn as a reminder – works such as One Side of the Story, The Other Side of the Story, Sweet and Sour—Don’t Suffer for A**holes and It’s A Small World represent Price’s personal responses to witnessed events.

Price draws upon her interest in how people make sense of the world. Seeing change as the only constant, her work combines the physical transformation of the medium (the bending of neon tubes) with the challenges of the imagery (the curving, abstract forms). The process that connects these relationships represents the mental process Price is interested in, a visual manifestation of a system of thought. While inspired by artists Alexander Calder, Frank Stella, Laddie John Dill and Judy Chicago, Price also is influenced by elements of historic neon signs, abstract expressionism, pop art and graphic design.

Elsie Dye Sims
Pure Joy

Elsie Dye Sims, Sea Dhalia, Woodcut, 17 x 17"

Elsie Dye Sims’ upcoming exhibition at TAG Gallery, entitled Pure Joy, incorporates drawings and large-scale woodcuts that reflect the flora of the Southern California coastline. Sims notes the truth she uncovers in Albert Einstein’s quote “Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.” For her, nature is a constant inspiration, that illuminates each of her exquisitely detailed pieces.

When speaking about her work, Sims says, “California’s sage and wildflowers persevere in the most adverse conditions, growing out of the windswept, sun scorched bluffs. My bold, gestural woodcuts show the strength in these delicate flowers; twisted and blown, yet blooming.” Pure Joy illustrates Sims’ desire to more deeply ascertain just how our coastal landscape endures."