Introduction by Mary Kathryn Jablonski
For TQ31, let us celebrate Water, Earth, and Sky with three artists using a variety of subjects and materials as follows: view ceramic artist Courtney Mattison’s large scale coral reefs, Jenny Hutchinson’s colored pencil and mixed media works of trees, and Allen Grindle’s woodcuts and linocuts of birds.
In some ways, one of the most interesting things about Allen Grindle’s work is the artist’s reticence, allowing the work to simply speak for itself. These timeless woodcuts, made through a physical process and often containing physical imagery, can indeed affect one physically. Their use of bird and body imagery may make the viewer long to impose story where none is in fact implied. If we stay present with the work long enough, we “get over” this western urge for narrative, and we can allow these pieces to become transcendent. Like the birds he depicts, these artworks speak to us from a different realm in a language we need not translate.
Allen Grindle Artist Statement
Why make images of birds? Do I think of them as metaphors or symbolic in some way? I must admit, I haven’t given it much thought. I find that watching them calms and relaxes me in some way. It’s probably as simple as that. The main body of my work has nothing to do with these interesting little creatures that fit perfectly into the grand design of nature. And the more I watch them, the less I know where the birds end and I begin.
Allen Grindle Brief Bio
Allen Grindle received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Maine at Portland-Gorham in 1973 and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. After graduating college, he received his Master of Arts (studio art) from the State University of New York in Albany, New York in 1978. Over the years Allen Grindle has produced many works of art including sculptures, black and white prints, and paintings.
Allen has been featured in many shows all over the world including the First International Printmaking Triennial of ULUS at the Art Pavilion at Kalemegdan in Belgrade, Serbia and the SAGA (Society of American Graphic Artists) Members’ Exhibition, Prince Street Gallery in New York, New York in 2011. The 4th International Digital Mini-print Exhibition at the Center for Visual Artists Voice in Ottawa, Canada in 2009. The Allen Grindle: Woodcuts and Sculpture at the Koussevitzky Art Gallery, Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts and the Then and Now at the Albany Center Galleries in Albany, New York in 2006.
