Dreamcatcher

A few months back, Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles, Calif. Presented an all female art show, including works by KuKula, Angelina Wrona, and Kelly Haigh. KuKula’s show, entitled Dreamcatcher, was the first solo exhibit from her at Thinkspace.  The figures in KuKula's paintings wear their heartaches on their sleeves. They are delicate but resilient dolls buffeted by the crosswinds of the real world.

KuKula had this to say about her art in this show:

“In the past, whenever I began working on a show, I tried to capture an emotion that was generated by some important experience in my life. I tried to document the feeling, not the event. This time I am attempting to catch emotional currents with no evident experiential origin. Whereas my past paintings represented the nightmare feeling of real life, here I want to depict the emotional utopia one tries to keep sheltered within.

The delicate web of the dreamcatcher filters out the bad dreams, while the feathers hanging below allow the good ones to flow freely. In this sense I used an imaginary dreamcatcher to block the fears learned from experience, which allowed me a clearer view of that sheltered core. What I am after is not some psychedelic fantasy, but an innerness that has not been scarred by the unending pushing and shoving of real life. In such a place my girls can be whole and unhurt.

Not being an American, native or otherwise, the dreamcatcher to me represents not so much a particular tradition, as a point of departure. Its metaphorical possibilities, as with other objects, are what have inspired me.”

Also on display at Thinkspace were works by Wrona and Haigh.  The twisted fairy tales that the subjects of Wrona’s paintings inhabit are brought to life in Merrickville, Ontario where she lives with her husband and two beautiful daughters in their 19th century home, all of which are endless sources of inspiration.  Haigh was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a land of intense prairie sun in the summer and bone-biting cold in the winter. These things, along with an irrational fear of grasshoppers, made staying inside to paint the only real option. Haigh received her first set of paints and canvas the summer before she turned six, and has been creating art ever since.

The art on display by all three artists was elegant, striking, and beautiful. The exhibit was a great collection of works from an impressive lineup of female artists. Check out their individual Web sites to view more of their amazing art.