An opening reception takes place 5-8:00 pm at the Tayloe Piggott Gallery on Wednesday, April 18th, for Jackson artists Susan Thulin and Suzanne Morlock. The joint exhibition, currently on display, remains up through May 15, 2012. It’s a rewarding acknowledgement of Jackson’s art talent when such sophisticated venues are produced on behalf of local artists. Thulin’s highly textural, rhythmically painted canvases and Morlock’s undulating, tactile weavings are well paired.
Morlock’s show title, Pasalubong, is a Filipino word referring to the the tradition of bringing gifts when one goes to visit another person at their home. The visitor, in turn, returns to their own home bearing gifts they’ve received during their visit. The works depart from Morlock’s large installation pieces, and are more intimate in scale so as to be “enclosed” by the gallery’s space.
“The pieces are derived from recent bodies of work that come together under this theme,” Morlock says. “Materials range from yarn, to felt, to reel-to-reel tape that has been knitted. Exploration, via tactile materials, reusing cast off materials in new and different ways, seeking to engage viewers in concepts related to impermance, and the ephemeral realms of memory composition and decomposition; teetering on the edges of the world of fine arts and craft sensibilities…”
Subtle Depths, the title of Thulin’s exhibition, rightly conveys its layered commentary on humankind’s presence in the universe. “The work of Susan Durfee Thulin creates a conversation between the world around us and that of the interior,” says the gallery. “Imagery of the human figure, the natural world, and shadows weave together life and death, past and future.”
I did not immediately discern Thulin’s human form in the work displayed on the gallery’s postcard. I was completely taken up with the texture and play of the paint. My eye was pulled horizontally across the canvas; Thulin’s dark brushstrokes originate in the painting’s figure, trailing into translucent whites. It was exciting to discover what I’d not previously seen. Thulin’s process is “a journey resulting in an expression of the subtleties and richness of life.”
Tammy Christel 
