Linda Colsh
Ashes, Ashes, 2021
cotton & linen fabric, paint, dye, batting, thread H48xW24inches
Ashes, Ashes reflects Dante’s journey through the circles of Hell. Superimposed numbers refer to the levels & sins described in the Inferno. The labyrinth travels deeper and deeper into Hell.
Linda Colsh
Wander, 2021
cotton fabric dye, paint, ink, batting, thread H58xW48inches
The solitary introspection of watchers and thinkers creates silent islands of thought amidst the background noise as their minds wander. I began portraying creeks and the meandering movement and force of their currents in my work as a metaphor for migration, including my own many years living in Asia and Europe.
Linda Colsh
Gesture, 2020
Cotton fabric: whole cloth art quilt painted by the artist using natural materials (broom plant brush); machine quilted H56 x W18 inches
Seeking extreme simplicity, I found the muscle memory from my oriental calligraphy studies from 40 years ago to paint big strokes with the branch of a broom plant across a plain white field. My goal was minimalist, meditative, whole body movement marks as an expression of quiet and solitude.
Linda Colsh
Nocturne, 2022
cotton fabric, dye, discharge, thread, batting H56xW22inches
Before science explained what causes an eclipse was understood, the inexplicable “night” that occurs during a solar eclipse brought fear and confusion. The brief “night” during an eclipse was seen as an omen. To design Nocturne, I stripped away all unnecessary imagery to achieve a meditative simplicity. The single, negative shape and paired the eclipse-like form with one vertical zip is both quiet and foreboding at the same time. Nocturne continues my non-figurative, minimalist series of pared down compositions with minimal elements.
Linda Colsh
Danaë, 2020
Cotton fabric painted and printed by the artist; machine pieced & machine quilted H48 x W12 inches
Inspired by the myth of Danaë, whom Zeus visited disguised as a shower of gold coins, I reinterpreted the Greek princess as a gentle, stooped woman walking along a path in the autumn woods. As morning mist lifts, the bronzed and golden colors of autumn trees signal the break from summer’s heat. Each year, I look forward to first frost, when fields sparkle and the morning sun shines silvery gold. The wind floats leaves from trees to fall to earth like gold coins. I call these my “Danaë Days” – days that remind me of Titian’s painting of Danaë with the princess looking up at gold coins raining down.
Linda Colsh
Fog & Veil, 2015
used coffee filters, paint, thread, stiff batting, monofilament H30xW24x18inches
My work examines relationships between the individual and society. I am intrigued by the idea of edges and margins—specifically, people living on the edge or in the margins. Fog & Veil includes imagery associated with refugees, exiles and those who move to countries not their own. Migrants are metaphorically and sometimes really separated from the culture they inhabit as if they are veiled or existing surrounded by a fog.
Linda Colsh
Caryatids, 2021
used paper coffee filters, cotton fabric, paint, thread, stiff batting H8xW22xD7inches
The women on this double scroll represent caryatids, stone architectural supports carved in female form of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis. The two volutes replicate the form of an ionic column capital. I screenprinted images of 32 women I photographed in the streets onto paper coffee filters onto the paper-filters side of the double spiral. I save and repurpose the filters as memories of friends and conversations shared over coffee. The other side is printed with stone patterns on fabric. Drawing from the concept of caryatids as strong women, I chose the elderly women because of my interest in how experience and stamina enable people to cope with the often-overwhelming world they navigate.
Linda Colsh
par hasard, 2020
Standing Scroll: Side 1 printed used paper coffee filters; Side 2 cotton fabric painted, printed, inked & dyed by the artist (includes screenprinting with screens made from her digitally altered photographs); machine pieced & machine quilted H9 x W120 inches (installed as single scroll: H9 x W21 xD14 inches; double scroll H9 x W28 x D14 inches)
Rock-paper-scissors, a game of selection played around the world. The game depends on chance (par hasard in French) and relies on hiding, then showing one’s choice. Used paper coffee filters screenprinted with images of scissors overlap on the outside of my scroll. The filters I save are memories of friends and conversations shared over coffee – friends who have been cut from my life when we moved away to new places. The inside is printed images of creek stones on fabric. Stone screens are made from my tracings in paint and ink of the creek stones to represent both the presence and absence of stones moved along by the current – a metaphor for those who migrate and move on. Like the selection game, the standing scroll form hides and reveals.
Linda Colsh
Once Belonged, 2018
Cotton fabric: screenprinted, inked & dyed by the artist with screens made from her digitally altered photographs; machine pieced & machine quilted H12 x W120 inches (coiled into a single or double spiral scroll)
With drawers, doors, shelves and slots, a cabinet of curiosities is a piece of furniture in which to keep objects for contemplation and study. Mystery and exclusivity are heightened by the secret, hidden places. Once Belonged presents two of my collections: numbers & people. Finding inspiration in the streets, I collect images of real people who are anonymous to me and I develop them as personalities, creating stories around them. I admire idiosyncratic, graphically interesting house numbers and I collect photos of these too. Installed as a single or double spiral, the scroll conceals many of the numbers and people, provoking curiosity about what is hidden. The wonder about what else is there, but not seen in the coiled scroll creates a cabinet of curiosities, a wunderkammer.
Linda Colsh
Elsewhere (detail), 2021
cotton fabrics, dye & overdye, paint, thread, batting H72xW58inches
With the onset of the pandemic, we disappeared behind facemasks and closed doors. When COVID imposed lockdowns, I wanted to develop a process to make figures vanish as if walking into fog and was able to do so with watered printing. The mystery of a rückenfigur (figure seen from the back) walking into a dark space and vanishing into the mist intrigues me. Stitching black fabrics, many overdyed, is difficult, but the resulting variations of shade, reflectivity and absorption make the artwork’s surface softly shimmer, reinforcing the effect of seeing through a thin mist of suspended water droplets.
