Artist brings California flair to women’s exhibition

By Larry Nichols
PGN Staff Writer
© Philadelphia Gay News

Edge Gallery is highlighting the work of its female artists for “A Woman’s View,” an exhibition featuring work by Linda Luise Brown, Mimi Cahalan, Monika Dalkin, Marilyn Kuksht and Noelle Stoffel through Aug. 31.

Out artist Cahalan was chosen for the exhibition after the gallery’s curator saw her work in an ad she had placed in Dwell magazine. Based in Santa Cruz, Calif., her works consist of wall-mounted constructions in painted metal and wood.

“I started out as a painter but it was kind of too passive for me,” Cahalan said. “I’ve always had some sculpture stuff on the side, but I started playing with cutting metal. Then I developed this style where I take pieces of aluminum and put them down making a palette of colors. It’s like having giant flat colored pencils at my disposal. Once those are dry, I use those cutouts and I piece and nail them on the background board. I’ve been doing mixed media since 1990. It evolved into this type of thing that I’m doing now — from being more mediums on the surface to doing what it is now.”

Cahalan’s painstaking use of color and texture in her work gives her finished wood and metal creations an almost quilt-like appearance.

“A lot of people say that,” she said. “It’s the kind of work where, when you see it in person, it’s very obvious that it’s not a quilt. One of the things people do think when they see it, because of the texture of the acrylics and the sheen, sometimes they think it’s leather. When you see it in person, it’s way more physical looking. The pattern of it and the nails remind people of stitching. But then when you see it in real life, you can tell it’s not a soft medium.”

Cahalan admitted that some artistic traditions of the cultures in and around her home base of Santa Cruz have influenced her work.

“It’s more influenced by Mexican folk art in the sense of the colors,” she said. “I like to do it in a way that shows the process. A lot of people ask me if I’m influenced by Southwest Indian art. It’s more about Mexican folk art and being in California and having an environment of simplicity and contemporary Asian influences. What I’ve done is taken my ideas and streamlined them down. So even though they have the sensibility of the metal and nails of folk art, the simplicity and the colors are more influenced by the pan-Asian influences of California.”

Cahalan also said she tries to create a sense of depth when she arranges the shapes and colors in her work.

“What happens is I play around with 3-D shapes and I play around also on artwork where I start with a linear idea,” she said. “After that, the composition and color relationships come. I put a lot of thought into color. I guess I consider myself a colorist in the sense of being interested in that part. That’s No. 1 critical for me, the combinations of colors. The way I think of color is frequently in terms of putting them up against each other and using them in a composition in a way that your eye can create a harmony at the same time. I may say to myself that I want to be strong in the use of primary colors or at least tell myself that I want to see what I can do with highly saturated colors and grayed-out colors. I might use that as kind of a challenge. The color choices take the most time. That’s really what it’s all about for me, how the colors and the shapes interact.”

“A Woman’s View” will be featured through Aug. 31 at Edge Gallery, 72 N. Second St. For more information, call (215) 413-7072 or visit www.edgegalleryllc.com.

Larry Nichols can be reached at larry@epgn.com.