The Madonna of the Unidentified Flying Objects is crouched, frowning under a crown of stars, her torso a gestural tangle of lines sweeping across the canvas, her disembodied arms grasping at fighter planes mid-flight.
She cuts a striking figure, the central character in a fantastical gouache drawing executed frenetically in bold ink lines and dashes of color. Figures fly across the screen as her body dissolves in a blur of tears and robes. The only words of explanation come in a tight scrawl in the corner of the piece, providing her with the memorable name.
The Madonna, by Bay Area artist Julie McNiel, is now on exhibit at the Mohr Gallery of the Community School of Music and Arts. CSMA is hosting a solo exhibit of the work of McNiel, known for her vivid, surreal pieces inspired by the magical realism of Salmon Rushdie, the feminist fictions of Margaret Atwood, and a host of myths and fairytales the artist holds dear. A reception with the artist is scheduled for Friday.
Literary influences aside, McNiel cites turn-of-the-century children’s book illustrations and German Expressionism as major influences on her visual style, and said the “disturbing, dreamlike quality” of expressionist Max Beckmann’s paintings had particularly resonated with her as a youth, shaping the course of her artistic development.
“There’s something very sensual to his work,” she said. “The engraved lines, ink bleeding out onto the paper, brush strokes moving across the surface … it’s as if all of humanity were on display.”
The graphic, psychological aspect of Beckmann’s work is something she sees reflected in her own. But McNiel said she does not approach her works with a conceptual frame in mind for the finished piece. Her artistic process is more akin to stream of consciousness.
“Drawing, for me, begins simply by looking into an unmarked expanse of a sheet of paper,” she said. “I look into that emptiness and allow myself to fall into it, making marks against it and seeing how they take shape.”
In making art, she said, she comes to grips with an aspect of her self which is difficult to describe in words or any other way. Her notions about how or why to draw fade into the background, and she sifts through the layers of her imagination, calling forth what resonates within her.
As a result, her exhibit is a collection of phantasmagories — the lines anxious, dark and deep, the colors bright and unbridled. The few words she leaves are muddled, cryptic and sometimes illegible. Some of her sketches seem childish and cluttered, while others suggest a tempered sophistication, their composition somehow, chaotically, complete.
McNiel’s works resemble dreams in that they are neither linear nor obvious. This makes many of them difficult to digest. But, also like dreams, they are at turns beautiful, absurd, and nearly always affecting.
INFORMATION:
What: An exhibit of the work of Bay Area artist Julie McNiel
When: Through Sept. 24. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10 a.m.-7 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-1 p.m.
Where: The Community School of Music and Arts’ Mohr Gallery, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View
Info: Call (650) 917-6800 or visit www.arts4all.org
Also: A public reception and talk by the artist will be held Aug. 10, 6-8 p.m., at CSMA. McNiel will also hold a one-day Large Scale Drawing Workshop for teens and adults at the school on Sept. 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
E-mail Melody Dye at mdye@mv-voice.com
