Kate Sullivan, Christian Heckscher: Imagining Steel

The Creiger-Dane Gallery will be showing the drawings of artists Kate Sullivan and Christian Heckscher from April 5 - 29, 2000. We will have a reception with the artists on Friday, April 7, 6 to 8 pm. Gallery hours are 10 am to 5:30 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, or by appointment.

Kate Sullivan and Christian Heckscher are both artists drawn to the infinite details of light, shadow, texture, movement and story that exist within the "lives" of various forms of transport.

What is it about a locomotive, the train?...Chasing trains down back roads, maps flapping, time tables shredding, the car bumping over the ruts of an unpaved road, smiling farmers, curious children, yapping dogs and the cat that waited until the last moment to cross the tracks. Railway yards with weeds covering the rails, buildings like large cool caves with silent men stepping in and out; locomotives standing still, ticking and dripping, soaking wet even on a dry day, warmth, dense shadow and the gleam of metal... Kate Sullivan transforms her obsession with trains into delicately rendered graphite drawings. Love for every last pipe and notch; great, billowy clouds of steam and glittering masses of metal, are abstracted into proud, silent portraits that evoke a sense of nostalgia and romance. Luscious and iridescent, the works are overridingly beautiful despite presenting a realistic slice of the world, inclusive of its imperfections. Although Sullivan's high level of skill as a draftsman is apparent in each work, there is also equal evidence of a sensitivity to her subject matter and medium that goes beyond mere copying. In each portrait, the viewer is enticed into Sullivan's world, feeling as she does that there is a story to be told, an adventure to be had that lies in the life of each of these trains.

Christian Heckscher's obsession lies with ferries. On the "Islander", a ferry boat that sails between Wood's Hole and Martha's Vineyard, Heckscher has found a world ripe for exploring the harmony with which light, color, shape and movement come together. Often focusing in on these painterly details of the ship's metal, Heckscher's drawings turn into abstractions of the sunlight and shadows shaped and changed as the ferry sails on its way. With his sensitive handling of pastel, the cold, hard metal of the ferry is transformed into soft, velvety studies of the formal qualities inherent in color, shadow and shapes. Heckscher's tendency to add a few realistic details to each work orients the viewer within the world of the sea and the ferry, thus imparting a vague sense of the ocean and the many voyages taken in it. Relying heavily on muted tones and neutral colors, Heckscher's drawings evoke a sense of moody silence and pensiveness. Beautiful and intriguing, the works invite the viewer to search and dream within the drawings' mysteries.


If you are interested in any of these works, feel free to email geeta@creiger-dane.com.

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