Feelings of
plenty, a sense of awe, and mimetic replacement for what we love and need in
our lives are a few of the standard functions provided by art. You can probably
find “mimetic replacement” in your house. It can be seen in wallpaper, carpets,
household objects, bed spreads, teenage posters, paintings, and your curtains.
Take curtains for
example. Are yours depicting fruit or leaves or trees or butterflies or birds?
These curtains help to block the view of five months of winter while
simultaneously providing imagery that reminds you that spring and summer will
return. This kind of imagery can also give you feelings of plenty; similar to
the feelings you get when you view a fridge or pantry full of food.
So it is no
surprise that Sharon Godwin, the director of the Thunder Bay Art Gallery, got
the response she did from a patron when asked what she thought of the work of
George Raab. The patron loved the show, but even with all the artistry
involved, she didn’t like the few images of snow.
The patron’s
reaction may have involved more than simply being tired of seeing snow. George
Raab’s work reveals a personal love for the peaceful and somber moments one can
have standing alone in a forest. We share his view of real places, places we
rarely visit, bogs, marshes, and lonely landscapes that are subtly interpreted
to create a sense of mystery and awe, yet can make a big impression. For all its
beauty, being alone in a forest is not for everyone. The sense of awe and depth
in a world with no paths or footprints can also illicit worries and fear. It
can depend on your personal experience and imagination as well.
Unlike a lot of
art that is deliberately flat, the perspective depth in George’s work is a powerful
quality, furthering the duality of beauty and the unknown. The mix of drawing,
painting, etching, aquatint and the photographic process that Raab employs make
it difficult to know how much interpretation was involved, so the places become
both real and imaginary, further creating a sense of wonder.
It’s also nice
that after five months of winter you can go to a gallery and get a little
“mimetic replacement.” Visiting the gallery a bit like going for a walk in the
woods.
George Raab employs
both traditional techniques, the kind Rembrandt used and modern photography.
Raab might start by drawing an image on a clear film using pen and ink as
opposed to drawing directly on a plate with etching tools. The photo itself
might be altered on a computer using Photoshop, employing a program to create a
softness he enjoys. The photographs are always his own.
Raab commented
during his talk last week that digital art wasn’t taken seriously as an art
form for the longest time. “But now, digital art is as perfectly a valid form
of self-expression as painting is.”
Far from digital, yet very detailed is the
Intaglio process. Intaglio is a traditional process where the basic image is
burnt or drawn into a zinc or copper plate. Ink is rubbed into the areas of the
plate bitten by the acids, allowed to do so by either the drawing or the photo
emulsion. The plate goes through a press with wet paper on its surface forcing the
ink and paper to combine. Peeling away the paper from the plate results in a
negative image that becomes the art, reproducible, generally 15 to 25 images
for an edition, sometimes up to 50 images, which explains the numbering system
you see penciled beneath the images.
Raab spent a
couple years working with the process searching for a personal style, something
he says, “has atmosphere with stillness and peace.” He wasn’t looking for
spectacular landscapes and drama. “Some of the images are ethereal, not morose.
There’s something very evocative about some of them.”
George Raab is
also a rare bird in that he’s been a full time artist for forty years, managing
his own career without relying on the gallery system and managing to represent
himself, occasionally spending months away from his art to do the office work
required to make sales and organize shows. “It’s a big schlep,” he says, “but
it’s worth it.”
He also commented
that he was tired of subsidizing galleries. Galleries generally take 50%
commission along with charging for the framing services. Raab hosts his own art
shows to sell his work and does his own picture framing, which is excellent, by
the way. As for the art, he obsesses over the images, and the images are so
detailed and the process so finicky that he produces only about eight new
images a year.
Raab says
submitting his work to public galleries is a bit of a crapshoot because there
are juries involved. But he’s been very successful at showing his work despite
the representational nature of the work, less contemporary in approach and more
popular. Although he does play with contemporary approaches as with the hanging
Mylar piece in which patrons can make themselves disappear.
“I
thought it would be nice to have something other than another flat object on
the wall,” he says. However, Raab’s imagery is far from flat. There’s a lot of
depth to be seen in his work.
George Raab’s
show, Into the Woods, is at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery till June 15.
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