Bain’s works blend words and images
Artist integrates calligraphy, color and inspiration.
“The Library of Nearly Wordless Books” is one of the 27 works that Carlisle artist Ann Bain is showing at the Epiphany Gallery at South Park United Methodist Church. The eight small books on a vertical bookshelf comprise a component that is actually important to the artist ... words.
“Sometimes I see a poem and I’m inspired, but sometimes I see an image that strikes me or a color I’ve been messing with, and I know it needs something and sort of know what it is. So I dig through my file cabinet for the perfect feeling in words,” Bain said. “I collect quotes like dogs collect fleas; they just come to me.”
One of the poems she collected is by the famous regional wordsmith Wendell Berry, of Henry County, Ky. She wrote in elegant calligraphy his entire “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” for her work “Practice Resurrection.” The work, heavy in poetic meaning, has been sold.
Another work, “Everything There is to Know,” is based on A.A. Milne’s quote: “Sometimes, if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly away beneath you, you will suddenly know everything there is to be known.”
The process she used Ann Bain of Carlisle is good with words and the paintbrush. for that work, as many of her others, involves Yupo paper.
“By using the plastic paper, the end result has a more fluid feel. The color doesn’t get absorbed. The paint sits on top, doesn’t dry, and you can manipulate it,” said Bain.
In “The Movement” she used that process and collaged on top. “The movement of the form comes out of my heart and I dance it between the lines.” She didn’t need to consult her file cabinet in this case; the words were her own. The quote, in a river of cool purple, is surrounded by a sea of torn paper and warmer acrylic tones.
Another of Bain’s poems is featured in her work “Beckoned.” In part it says, “A tide will rise and fall away, unerringly we are pulled and drawn, as circled life continues on ... “The first part of the poem is surrounded by a circle of shells, and the composition includes the iridescence of bluegreen shell forms.
“I’m drawn to the sea, and I’ve been a shell collector all my life,” said Bain, who visited the Outer Banks, islands off the North Carolina coast, on vacation as a child. “Ohio doesn’t have an ocean, and it’s unfortunate that I live here. There’s something really elemental about the spiritual pull when I get there.”
Bain has been a member of the Guild of the Golden Quill since its founding in 1981.
She recently received an honorable mention from the U.S. Postal Service for their annual contest called The Graceful Envelope. To check it out, go online to www. calligraphersguild.org/ envwinners2015.html.