"The Lay of the Light" presents a body of new work by two well-known Nova Scotia artists, V.L. Maclean and Anna Syperek. It is about two artists being present to their world and bringing new meaning to the experience of realism.
Plans for this exhibit began over eight years ago in a small room in the basement of Mt. St. Bernard College, where V.L. Maclean, Anna Syperek and I gathered once a week with an inquisitive Catholic nun to discuss art, reality, and what rings true to the heart. The dialogue continued years after the sister passed away, laying the groundwork for an exhibit that would highlight the work of V.L. Maclean and Anna Syperek at a pivotal time in their careers and articulate certain sensibilities about realism and art that all three of us shared.
It goes without saying that realism is a long-standing artistic and literary tradition in the Maritimes, dating back to conventions of l8th century Europe. This region has a history of long settlement, austerity and earthbound realities of weather and sea, farms, forests, towns and roads. In other words, as the writer Janice Kulyk Keefer has expressed, the Maritimes "is a place in which one's fundamental human qualities can be tested and realized." Just living here gives one an appreciation of what is real. Both V.L. Maclean and Anna Syperek were part of an influx of idealistic young people into this region in the 60s and 70s who were seeking a receptive place to settle that still harboured qualities of permanence, relationship with the land and the intimacies of human community. They chose to be subjected to the same environmental struggles and financial uncertainties that have always characterized this region. Today they live in the same county, share the same community and participate in the same rural environment. Their friendship has grown out of this proximity but they are very different people. As their individual lives unfolded, they applied their considerable talents to capturing the experience of being deeply touched by the emotional and spiritual weight of this place. Living off their wits, creativity and spirit has infused their art with a rich enigmatic depth that goes beyond the mere familiar.
True to its Maritimes influences, the art of V.L. Maclean and Anna Syperek is straightforward and accessible, grounded in earth, water and sky and the particulars of daily life. Laying without bias on all of our experience, both inner and outer, light relies on the human eye to translate its revelations. The artist's task is thus to work with the inner perceptions born out of their experience in the outer world and the form her creative expression takes must serve that inner voice as best it can. Vicki Maclean's immediate view from her home overlooks a wide turn in the West River, where maple and other mixed hardwoods mingle on steep banks and meet hay meadows by the river's edge. Anna Syperek lives out the winding Harbour Road, looking east over St. George's Bay, with rock and sand beach below, Cape Breton on the horizon and a nearly constant wind. Their daily perception of the energy and profundity of this alive world is their choice of subject matter. It informs all of their images because it is always informing them.
Waking up to the extraordinary nature of the ordinary world is the truth seeking of engaged realism. This telling of riches requires full engagement of heart, mind and hand with the here and now. By working with possessions ultimately held in common by us all, these artists connect with the natural world, partner with the human community and come to terms with an emerging global awareness that says we need to pay attention to the wisdom of the real world. Beauty does not have to be suspect in this process. In the face of a sure and rising tide of materialism, land use and pollution, beauty's timeless ability to move hearts may be asserting an important enlivening influence at a critical time in the history of the Maritimes and the earth as a whole.
Human perception is selective but employs the complexities of all of our sensory abilities. Thus a landscape or still-life rendered by a sensitive artist can have presence in proportion to the artist's own inner acuity. A painted scene can extend out beyond its conventional boundaries and work its way around those who view it, to surround them as it were, to bring them into its multi-dimensional present. We share this "present" with the artist, thanks to her skill and attention, her ability to see into the life of things. If good art reveals a culture to itself, then there is good reason to look at realism with this kind of strength. The intensity of a Vicki Maclean painting and the subtleties of a work by Anna Syperek have significance and effect beyond the traditional pleasing confines of representational art. These two artists are revealing something about place and moment that burns beyond beauty and shines beyond paint, and the work is worthy of attention because of it.
Beth Parker
