SF Guardian Review
Huge thanks to Stacy Martin from the SF Guardian who wrote a really lovely review of my show at Park Life.
I copy and pasted the review below...you can also look it up here:
The Guardian Weekly Picks (Monday, June 11th)
-----------------------------------------
ART
"I Would Give Everything"
REVIEW
The 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love is upon us, but finding traces of the mass grooviness that supposedly filled San Francisco back in ye olden tyme could prove fruitless. Still, one can't deny the power generated by a gathering of like-minded individuals. For Michelle Blade, that free-flowing force emanating from a shared consciousness manifests in places real and imagined.
"I Would Give Everything," Blade's solo show at the Park Life gallery, includes large-scale paintings on Dura-Lar (vellumlike acetate sheets) and several framed works on paper, all exploring group dynamics. In the nearly six-foot-long Canoe Race, a flotilla of vessels filled with red-vested sightseers ventures out in the moonlight toward mysterious icebergs in a bay. In Reparations, olive green parachutes with small faceless soldiers rain like jellyfish from above, collapsing near the only sign of civilization on a bleak horizon, a cathedral under repair. In Nudist Hippie Village, a colony of bare wooden shacks and campfires nestles between deep brown and black mountains devoid of greenery. While a few dozen naked people work together installing crossbeams in this spare Shangri-la, a blue cloud blows out from the encampment, like incense vapors flagging an epiphany to come.
Blade has also created a series of scenes from spiritual revival camps, focusing on the trust-fall activity in which the faith of an individual is tested as he or she hurls backward from a platform and into the arms of believers below. The teenage campers are caught at the start of their falls — energetic bursts of spiritual ecstasy are depicted as a swirling, psychedelic goo emanating from the converted. Like the Holy Roller youth gatherings, the hairy hippie masses in Concert Crowd also have a magic effluvium whirling above — the blues, greens, and earthy browns indicate a stoniness perhaps, though the vibe remains righteous. Similarly, the blissed-out endorphin high that rainbows around thrill-seeking skydivers in Let's Hold onto That Feeling would make a shaman cry. According to Blade, the group aura is a thriving thing, not just for those lost in nostalgic musings. (Stacy Martin)
Through June 25
Daily, 11 a.m.–8 p.m., free
Park Life
220 Clement, SF
(415) 386-7275
www.parklifestore.com
I copy and pasted the review below...you can also look it up here:
The Guardian Weekly Picks (Monday, June 11th)
-----------------------------------------
ART
"I Would Give Everything"
REVIEW
The 40th anniversary of the Summer of Love is upon us, but finding traces of the mass grooviness that supposedly filled San Francisco back in ye olden tyme could prove fruitless. Still, one can't deny the power generated by a gathering of like-minded individuals. For Michelle Blade, that free-flowing force emanating from a shared consciousness manifests in places real and imagined.
"I Would Give Everything," Blade's solo show at the Park Life gallery, includes large-scale paintings on Dura-Lar (vellumlike acetate sheets) and several framed works on paper, all exploring group dynamics. In the nearly six-foot-long Canoe Race, a flotilla of vessels filled with red-vested sightseers ventures out in the moonlight toward mysterious icebergs in a bay. In Reparations, olive green parachutes with small faceless soldiers rain like jellyfish from above, collapsing near the only sign of civilization on a bleak horizon, a cathedral under repair. In Nudist Hippie Village, a colony of bare wooden shacks and campfires nestles between deep brown and black mountains devoid of greenery. While a few dozen naked people work together installing crossbeams in this spare Shangri-la, a blue cloud blows out from the encampment, like incense vapors flagging an epiphany to come.
Blade has also created a series of scenes from spiritual revival camps, focusing on the trust-fall activity in which the faith of an individual is tested as he or she hurls backward from a platform and into the arms of believers below. The teenage campers are caught at the start of their falls — energetic bursts of spiritual ecstasy are depicted as a swirling, psychedelic goo emanating from the converted. Like the Holy Roller youth gatherings, the hairy hippie masses in Concert Crowd also have a magic effluvium whirling above — the blues, greens, and earthy browns indicate a stoniness perhaps, though the vibe remains righteous. Similarly, the blissed-out endorphin high that rainbows around thrill-seeking skydivers in Let's Hold onto That Feeling would make a shaman cry. According to Blade, the group aura is a thriving thing, not just for those lost in nostalgic musings. (Stacy Martin)
Through June 25
Daily, 11 a.m.–8 p.m., free
Park Life
220 Clement, SF
(415) 386-7275
www.parklifestore.com
posted by michelle at 12:06 PM
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