Seascape (Winter Sea Prose), Chizuko Yoshida

Exhibition Label: “Textures of Interpretation: Meaning and Materiality in Global Contemporary Art," Jan-2010, Sooa Im Like many young artists did in the years following World War II, Yoshida Chizuko experimented with abstract art. As seen in this work, she had an ongoing interest in merging Japanese aesthetic sensibilities with modernist styles from Europe and America. Lively lines and geometric patterns represent both the surface of waves and the underwater environment of the ocean. Overlapping colors symbolize gently splashing waves, and thin flowing strokes of painting combined with scratched lines across the surface of the canvas evoke fanciful images of creatures such as sea urchins and hermit crabs skittering across the ocean floor. Exhibition Label: "Dreams and Portals," Jun-2008, Kris Ercums and Susan Earle Intro Label: This summer display features selections from the Spencer’s permanent collection, including works that may evoke dreams and ideas of place, near and far. The works range in media from painting and watercolor to collage, textile, and video. Some may transport you to other places, such as the lyrical "Blue Door (La Porte Bleue)" by French artist Pierre Lesieur. Reflecting the artist’s travels to North Africa, this painting evokes the sea or an open door in a way that suggests a dream, or a portal. Many works feature abstract imagery, at times suggestive of dreams, or passages to other landscapes, be they of the mind or actual places. Others combine abstraction and figuration, like the William T. Wiley drawing "Feeding Time." Others teeter between realism and abstraction, such as "Foam Chrome II" by Gary Pruner. A portal can be defined as a door or gate or entrance, especially a grand or imposing one. Paintings themselves are like portals. They allow us to enter worlds and spaces like nothing else can. Let your mind wander and see what dreams you might recall, or what new perspectives you might gain.