-
PAWS | PAUSE
BY JANE ROSEN -
"Is it possible to give a sense of the inner life of a form through the outward form of the gesture?" -Jane Rosen, journal entries
-
-
Tayloe Piggott Gallery is pleased to present Paws | Pause, a survey exhibition of sculpture and drawings by artist Jane Rosen, on view from August 5th through September 26th. Rosen describes the exhibition as a series of vignettes gleaned from the arc of her life, which has, in a sense, been defined by the dogs by her side. Beginning with Tartuffe, a stray rescued from the train station while studying at Cornell, Rosen’s story relies upon supporting characters with tails. The title piece, Paws | Pause, presents a series of elongated stone, marble inlay and glasswork paws that hang, punctuated at intervals, and casually arranged in tribute to late artist Susan Rothenberg upon the wall. Without words, Rosen pays tribute to each of the animals who have guided her and sat by her side through the years. Each of these sculptural paws allots a pensive pause in time.
-
There’s an unconscious melding of her world with her art. The two are justly inseparable: Jane Rosen is always working. Within walking distance from her home, her naturally lit studio is home to a veritable menagerie of animal forms. An enormous marble raven commiserates with handblown glass bucks perched along the wall; a 7-ft. limestone Barred Owl looks out to his neighbor, Egyptian Man in Horus. It’s as though these beings compel the artist to bring them forth, whether in stone, or handblown glass, or in intimate, painted mixed media works on paper she playfully calls her “drawings.” Truly, Jane Rosen encapsulates the image of an artist in the prime of her career. And through her work, Rosen is the ultimate storyteller.
-
A few years ago, in a conversation with Richard Whittaker, Jane Rosen spoke about art in a way that gets to the heart of Paws | Pause: “I would say art is the language of the body and feeling trying to make a relationship between the disconnected part of my mind that is desperately trying to understand. That, as a possibility, is what art does. It’s informing and transforming another part of myself and showing me what’s really going on.” That is also, it so happens, what dogs do.
-
-
“We found beautiful rough sides of marble, and carved into the smooth front areas, finding subtle turns, curves, and colors, which were like spires, birds, shells and animals. Working outdoors with the sun following us, and shifting our gaze on the stone from morning until night, led me to the deep wish to work outside year-round in the face of the sun.”
-
-
-
-
