CRITIQUE OF THE WEEK #8

Mary Teichman

No Exit

color etching, 12 X 18 inches, 2002

Mary Teichman combines a series of interrelated rhythmic sequences with a range of organizing color contrasts to produce the intriguingly balanced and emotively poignant composition, No Exit (2002).

Like a choreographer directing movements of dancers on a stage, Teichman orchestrates the movement of visual elements around this dark and confined interior. The overall movement forms a large, circular loop—one sequential repetition leads to another to form the design's unifying thread.

Begin your visual journey by finding the directional rhythm of the rectangular shapes that start in the upper left portion of the piece and continue down the left side, following a pattern that implies light diffused through an unseen window. As the movement descends to the middle of the space and below, the rectangular shapes soften and round off, and the rhythm begins to dissipate.

An implied extension of this movement occurs toward the bottom left. Here a faintly delineated rectangle hovers quietly, momentarily halting the movement, then beginning a new sequence that moves up through the lighted floorboards. These repeating lines lead your eye to a pale rectangular shape on the floor that connects to the concluding element in this sequence . . . an intensely colored orange wedge.                       

This wedge in turn acts as another directional force, pointing to the far right corner of the room. There, rows of bricks lead your eye up, while a sequence of verticals formed by elements such as windowpanes and pipes move your eye from the right edge back into the middle of the space. This right-to-left shift takes you to the red floorboards beneath and beyond the door, and up the prominent ascension of the stairs. This final movement steers you back to the origination point in the top left corner.

In addition to this rhythmic organization, the artist employs color contrasts of value, saturation, and temperature to create a hierarchy of emphasis and add richness to the piece. For example, she chooses to concentrate all the warm and pure colors, and extreme light-dark contrasts, on the right side while a large and expansive area on the left side—gently enclosing a hard-edged window emitting bright light—furnishes counterbalance.

Teichman's design choices hint at an underlying psychological narrative. The predominance of rich dark color lends the piece a somber, mysterious mood. None of the design elements engage the outside edge of the space to imply a space beyond. Even though there appears to be no exit, the sequence of cast light shapes at the top hint at freedom, but it appears to be evasive. The central steps ascend and the light diminishes, leaving the issue of exiting unresolved.

Steven Aimone

author of DESIGN! A Lively Guide to Design Basics for Artists and Craftspeople (Lark Books, 2004)

CLICK HERE for information about upcoming workshops taught by Steven Aimone

The Critique of the Week written in conjunction with Katherine Duncan Aimone

author of The Fiberarts Book of Wearable Art (Lark Books, 2002)

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ABOUT THE ARTIST

Mary Teichman was born in 1954. She attended the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City and received her BFA in 1976. Ms. Teichman worked and resided in New York City until 1991 when she moved to Easthampton, MA, where she currently has her studio. Over the past 25 years, her prints have been featured in over 175 juried and invitational exhibitions nationwide, including the Brooklyn Museum's 22 nd National Print Exhibition, and The Associated American Artists 18 th Annual New Talent In Printmaking Exhibition in New York City. She has won numerous awards, and was chosen to be The Presentation Print Artist for the Print Club of Albany in 1993. She is currently a member of The Society of American Graphic Artists, The Boston Printmakers and the Print Club of Albany. Her work is currently represented by the Old Print Shop in New York City. Mary's color etchings are in the permanent collections of the Corcoran Museum of Art (Washington, DC), the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC), The Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn, NY) and the Museum of the City of New York (New York, NY), among others.

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To see more of Mary Teichman's prints online,

visit The Old Print Shop (NYC) gallery website at

http://www.oldprintshop.com/cgi-bin/gallery.pl?action=exhibits&exhibit_id=24

For more information

about this or other works by Mary Teichmann,

you may contact the artist at: mary@mtcalligraphy.com