Turned Adventurer in Her Stanford Home Studio
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MOUNTAINVIEWVOICE SECTION"SUT&WFOUT By Rebecca Wallace now in August. Grizzly bears paw- ing the moss for food. Icebergs and Sice cliffs and a raucous river. In the middle of it all, there was Sukey Bryan, unscrolling thick rolls of paper on the ground to draw and paint Alaska. She was doing a 10-day artist resi- "SUJTU dency in the Denali National Park and Preserve, gathering sketches and quick acrylic paintings that she would later use to create her oil paintings and prints back turned adventurer in her Stanford home studio. She was also taking photos, thousands of them. “It was such a profound feeling to be alone in such wild immensity. I just can’t shake it,” Bryan later wrote in an artist’s statement. Three years later, those 10 days con- tinue to yield rich inspiration for Bryan, as seen in her prints and giant paintings of ice formations, waterfalls, peaks, rivers and snow. She’s exhibiting sev- eral works this fall at the Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View in a Mohr Gallery solo show called “Glacier Works.” Sukey Bryan The show runs through Nov. 27 at CSMA, 230 San Antonio Circle. Works will include “Ice Walls,” a trip- tych of oil paintings depicting the chilly blues of ice walls above a river floating with ice chunks. The darknesses buried in the blues hint at the cliffs’ depths, the silt in the ice and the mud in the water. “The ice has a strangeness to it,” Bryan says in her studio, a converted, comfortably large garage with natural light and sweeping white walls. “It’s quite beautiful.” To help capture her subject’s layers, Bryan starts her canvases by painting them an earthy brown. She’ll spread a canvas out on the floor and go at it with large brushes. Later, she tacks it to the wall, often waiting a few days for each layer of oil paint to dry, and still later in the process it gets stretched over a frame. When a painting gets really tall, she has to climb up and down a ladder to work on it. It’s a warm afternoon in the studio, but Bryan still seems to see Alaska vividly — in her art around her, and in her recollec- DRAMATIC, ICY IMAGES COME FROM STANFORD PAINTER’S tions of her 2008 artist residency. When Bryan, a full-time artist with a master of fine arts degree from the TIME IN A REMOTE ALASKA CABIN Maryland Institute College of Art, applied for the residency, she had never Continued on next page NOVEMBER 4, 2011 ■ MOUNTAIN VIEW VOICE ■ 21 "SUT&WFOUT Continued from previous page prising them. scale and careful use of layering. rain and snow, oceans and volca- All the while, she thought about Covello learned of Bryan’s art noes. In January, she’ll have a show been to Alaska. She certainly the pristine nature of the wild, what when the artist sent her a portfolio. at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, didn’t see herself as an adventurer. she calls “nature’s contradictory “It looked really monumental in about water. Then she wound up in a cabin in a delicacy and power,” and the worry scale ... I thought that would be And for her next project? Bryan park larger than the state of New about losing the glaciers to climate really exciting for our space,” she figures her Denali time will con- Hampshire. Bryan’s husband and change. She felt she was document- said. Mohr Gallery has exposed tinue to inspire at least a few more sons were also in Denali for vaca- ing a resource that might be lost. concrete walls, which lend the prints and paintings. Looking at tion at the same time, but the park “I hope that my work brings venue an earthiness, Covello said. one of her paintings of snow, she was so big that they were a two- to mind the importance of the “Land forms look great against says she was lucky to see a snowfall and-a-half-hour drive away. small elements in nature as well as these walls.” during her time there, in August. Park rangers would periodically awareness of its immensity, terrible Other venues where Bryan has “The weather changes really check on Bryan, but for the most strength and all-encompassing shown her art include the Palo Alto quickly: rain, clouds, rainbows,” she part, she says, “I’ve never been so import,” she wrote in an artist’s Art Center, the Hang Art Gallery says, then pauses, struck by an idea alone.” She smiles and adds, “I was statement. “I want my work to help in San Francisco and the Triton for another series. “That’s another a little lonely, but it was really good my audience to hold nature close, Museum of Art in Santa Clara. Her possibility: skies.” V for me to follow my thoughts.” to see that we are not separate in piece “The fire within,” a series of 12 Bryan wasn’t completely without our life experience from other life panels painted with blazing images, INFORMATION company. There were lots of gregar- forms.” has been displayed as a “liturgical N ious birds, and one day a small red At the Community School of artwork” in churches including The exhibition “Glacier Works: Paintings fox stood and watched her paint. and Prints by Sukey Bryan” at Mohr Music and Arts, Bryan’s audience Stanford University’s Memorial Gallery, Community School of Music and Also, her riverside cabin seemed will include students as young as Church and the First Lutheran and Arts, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain to be “right near a thoroughfare of preschoolers who attend classes All Saints’ Episcopal churches in View. The show runs through Nov. 27. grizzlies going down to the water,” and walk through the lobby gal- Palo Alto. Gallery hours are weekdays from 9 a.m. she says. Bryan developed a habit lery. Linda Covello, the art-school Fire is also a common theme in to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 to 3. For of singing to herself as she walked director and gallery’s curator, said Bryan’s art. At its heart, her work is information go to arts4all.org or call 650- in the wilderness, to alert the bears she thinks Bryan’s work will inspire all about elemental subjects larger 917-6800, extension 306. to her presence and keep from sur- the painting students with its large than life and full of life: fire and ice, Lynnette Fumiko Cummins Great Prices! Excellent Service! March 30, 1975-Oct. 11, 2011 DIAMOND BOUTIQUE BY HODJAT Lynnette Fumiko Cummins, of Stillwater, Styles; Grandmother; Ida Importer of fi ne Jewelry Oklahoma died, Tuesday, October 11, 2011 at Mary Cummins, Aunties: and Diamonds home. Christine Takigawa, Lynne Born in Mountain View, California, March 30, Haro, Debbie Takigawa, 1975, to Janice Styles & Ian Cummins. She lived Leslie Clarkson, Debbie 50 Years in Business for and loved her two little girls. Fumi was a true Hussey, and Kate Cummins. competitor at heart. From a young age she enjoyed Uncles: Allan Takigawa, BMX racing and won many trophies over the years. Steve Takigawa, Joe Haro, Robert Cummins, and Full Service - Design & Repair She also loved German Shepherds and turned that Glenn Cummins. Cousins: Kenneth Takigawa, love into a successful business breeding, raising, Nicholas Haro, Christopher Haro, Heather We buy jewelry and gold and training them. Cummins, Amber Cummins, Joshua Bruner, and Fumi is survived by her soul mate, David Jessica Dea. James Brown, daughters Alexis Kiku Cummins- A memorial service was held Oct. 30, 2011 at Watch Repair Parker, and Sumiko Rayne Cummins-Brown, the Palo Alto Buddhist Temple. 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