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StatementTerence McKenna famously said: ‘The Artist’s task is to save the souls of mankind and anything less is a dithering while Rome burns. Because if the artists, who are self-selected for being able to journey into the ‘Other’, if the artists cannot find the way, then ‘the way’ cannot be found.' ... 'Art is not merely a decorative pursuit but a fundamental and essential human endeavour, particularly when informed by altered states of consciousness.' (Terence McKenna, writer, philosopher, mystic (1946 - 2000)).
McKenna's words resonate deeply within me as my art practice is closely aligned with concepts surrounding consciousness, the known, unknown. As an explorer of the "Other," I courageously delve into the unseen realms of consciousness and imagination. These powerful sources of inspiration and altered states of awareness continually fuel my creativity and insights. A new beginning inspired by life and historical frescos exhibited at the Orillia Museum of Art & History in 2024, the title, coined in Ted Fullerton's Essay ... 'The Process Informs Me' is an accurate summation of my art practice ... Every aspect of this new body of work captures the joy of exploring an uncharted process, transformation, identity, authenticity, and resilience while finding new footing and foundation in my new life and art practice through my heritage and culture.
Immersed in abstraction, this new body of work marks a departure from my current work through their material process of Fresco, wet pigment on wet plaster, using Italian slaked lime putty, sand, marble plaster and natural earth pigments, paralleling the 14th/16th Century traditional Italian Buon Fresco painting process. The abstracted expressions are absorbed into the medium as the wet earth pigments infuse into the layered wet lime/marble plaster, bonding, causing a chemical reaction when dry, resulting in a crystalline surface that appears illuminated due to the lime/sand particles responding to light, making the work come alive. Working with this ancient process is exhilarating. But how did I get here? In reflection, two distinct happenings germinated this crazed adventure. First, a trip to Italy in 2013 to meet family I never knew I had. What I learnt created a lot of questions about heritage, heredity, culture and nationality. Then, in 2019, another trip to Italy: a master class with OCADU Toronto to their Florence Studios with a trip to the Venice Biennale. However, the stop in Padua sewed the seeds that cemented this new direction. Although I had previously seen frescos in person, when I visited the Scrovegni's Chapel, walking into that space was surreal; it was wall-to-wall, wall-to-ceiling frescoes, and every inch of the room was painted. I was mesmerized; a thousand questions ran through my mind, and the colours vibrated as I breathed in the scent of history from the 13-century fresco created by Giotto di Bondone — Giotto, noted as the most important painter of the 14th century: You will find his use of pinks, blues, greys and yellow ochres pigments reflected in my new works. Fresco (Italian for fresh) is the oldest known painting medium. I do love the medium of fresco despite the extraordinary challenges and demands. I am prone to experimentation and feel most comfortable in the beautiful chaos of abstraction. A practice of seeking and learning in an experimental space of inclusion immersed in abstraction, creating contrasts in colour, line form, space and time in multiply visual dimensions. A passion towards risk, pushing past boundaries, an unwavering dedication to truth, authenticity, beauty, embracing change and diversity. The continuous line is the thread that binds and the foundation of my practice, I tend to cross-pollinate disciplines ... my practice is a journey 'to know myself' rooted in art materials, and emotions. It is informed by the process, driven by questions of identity, purpose, destiny and fate within a keen interest in the deception of perception: the contrast between what is seen/known to what is understood. Absorbed by experimentation, I create within a simple, spontaneous process that gambles on each mark and meandering gestures, triggering pattern-seeking and meaning within the randomness. The marks and gestures reveal inner landscapes experienced through outward happenings resonating beyond itself, transforming the unknown visible, similar and different. Each piece comes in and out of focus in a balancing act that blurs and questions as I capture beyond the limited forward view from the peripheral far frayed edge where the magic happens. Lifting the veil uncovers the layers that connect us within the flow of this vibrant, vibrational energy that governs this great entanglement. |
Bio |
Jeanette Luchese is an Italian - Canadian settler, visual artist, graphic designer, illustrator, educator, director, curator, rooted in abstraction creating within the disciplines of drawing, painting, fresco, printmaking, sculptures, and sound. I attended the School of Design and Visual Art, Georgian College (Barrie) and Sheridan College School of Design (Oakville), furthering studies include: 2019 Florence, Italy, OCADU's Summer Studio Master Class [June] with Nicole Collins and Anda Kubis. I live in Innisfil, Ontario Canada. Exhibiting Internationally at the Palazzo dell’Annunziata, Matera Italy and Fondacione Opera Campana-Dei-Caduti, Rovereto, Italy and regionally at numerous public galleries including the macLaren Art Centre (Barrie), Quest Art Gallery (Midland), Orillia Museum of Arts & History (Orillia) and Campus Gallery, (Barrie). A grant recipient of the Ontario Art Council and the City of Barrie Culture Department, with numerous awards. Recipient of the 2014 "Great Visual Arts Golden Eagle Trophy - Award of Honour, Salerno, Italy and 2015 the Kandinsky Award of Creativity, Salerno, Italy. Published in Abstract | Ext, A first approximation to abstract literature¹ by David Quiles Guilló: 'Gone Once,' page 76 (April 2015 45 authors. Printed in Spain). Short Listed for the 2015 Gwendolyn MacEwen Exile Poetry Competition 'From there to here,' published in ELQ Exile: The Literary Quarterly July Edition 2016. Ending 2018 with The Focus and the Fray, a regional public gallery solo exhibition held at Campus Gallery, curators Sarah Elizebeth Leonard and Cory Van der Vliet - The Helen and Arch Brown Centre, Georgian College Barrie, Canada and honoured to of created the 2018 Barrie Art Awards Sculptures (statuettes) Public Art: 2019 Participating in #ISDAY International Sculpture Day, Innisfil Sculpture Group partnering with Innisfil IdeaLAB, 'Sculptures in Uncommon Places" . "What day is it? resides in Port Huron, Michigan USA: The Gathering #8. The Verandahs Bed & Breakfast by the Lake in Oro, Ontario and "Easy Rider" in Barrie, Ontario, Canada — , ending the year with a solo exhibtion of experimental printmaking "Surviving Death : Ressurecting Memories at the PRNT Collective Barrie, ON.
2020 ... Opened a gallery in the Town of Innisfil, then there was a pandemic. Finding solace in the words of Alan Watts "The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” which we all did, now on the other side. Be Contemporary Gallery survived the pandemic and closed in 2022 after the death of my husband of 37 years. Picking up the pieces: Winds West, was installed (Public Art) at the Ontario Water Centre, Clearwater Farms Georgina. Ontario (2024). 'Winds West', three pieces combined to speak to migration and farming of the early settlers. I participated in the 2024 Women's Art Show ... OMAH, April 27 to July 2, 2024 and concluded 2024 with a Solo Exhibition: The Process Informs Me: Contemporary Abstract Frescoes. July 27 to October 12, 2024 at Orillia Museum of Art & History, Orillia, ON, — Curated by Tanya Cunnington, Review from Mentor, Ted Fullerton. |
AN ODD CHILD
Odd as a child, I recall happenings that awakened my curiosity and serendipitously influenced modes of creation, like playing in my Nono's orchard under a canopy of fruit trees bearing two to three different fruits in each tree, climbing to pick pears and finding plums with a branch of apples nearby. Helping him spliced and taped branches together of varied fruit and seeing the magic in the spring evolved to an interest in cross-pollinating disciplines. Although, realizing I was not in Italy when I first attended kindergarten was a shock that took years to sort out inspiring an art practice rooted in investigating the visual deception in perception, an interest in alternate possibilities, multiverses where all possibilities coexist beyond this time and space, qthe power of transcendental meditation, and the vibrational energy that governs this great entanglement. Life is a beautiful ride apparently even after death.