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Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Marcy Hermansader's drawings are shaped by the content of her dreams, her travels, current events and the world around her Vermont studio. She draws inspiration from such sources as Rufus Porter, the 19th-century itinerant mural painter, contemporary folk art, and women's traditional handwork. As a student at P.C.A. she was asked by teachers if she was from Chicago, so much was her work in harmony with that of the Chicago Imagists. But Hermansader's aesthetic sensibility was formed before she was ever aware of the Hairy Who. Today she regards her own work as close in feeling to the colorful mosaics and decorative embroidery her mother made as she was growing up. Her drawings reflect her deep concern with the quality of life. In The Two Realities of Vermont we are led beneath a spare winter landscape to a factory deep within the earth, illuminated by sinister, woundlike fluorescent lights. Radiation's Smile takes its name from a Hugh Masekela song which suggests that "fallout shelters cannot hide me from radiation's smile." Black Woman's Fountain is in part an homage to author Toni Morrison, whose novel The Bluest Eye inspired Hermansader's rendering. here of a walk through "the valley of eyes." What Women Know About Weaving spins connections between several images, including a Lewis Hines photo of a child textile-worker, a Navaho rug-weaver and a group of nuclear-arms protestors who wound thread around the Pentagon. Time's Beach takes advantage of both the specific geographic reference and the larger metaphoric implication of the name of the town that was recently found to be contaminated by toxic chemicals. Against a pink and blue sunset edged by spirit-shaped clouds, we see a moribund landscape punctuated with mourning trees. Two large wheels, one whole, one broken, fill the foreground. On the left a large television is tuned into the disaster, rendered as a 19th-century Deluge. A second set has a broken screen, as if the forces of destruction had escaped the boundaries of the monitor and spilled out into our lives. Two diamond doves hold out the promise of renewal. Hermansader works on both dark and light ground and varies the scale of her drawings. One of the most intimate pieces is Work Song, a veritable self-portrait of the artist. A swathe of fabric from an old garment enfolds the homey interior of a near and far room. The cloth's brightly colored geometric pattern is echoed in the hooked rug and patchwork pillow, and is set off by the undulating, Matissian line of the printed tablecloth. Here, it would seem, is the artist's "room of one's own," not a literal studio but rather an image of the conditions conducive to creativity. A treasured piece of folk art--the bottled figure of a woodsman -- is the composition's core. Engrossed in his tasks, this miniature alter ego is effectively shut off from the world, a necessary state for the creation of art. Hermansader is an artist who successfully balances this requisite isolation with a passionate concern for the rest of the world. Judith Stein Artist Statement I try to create a real feast for the eyes -- an image that is intense and mysterious. I want each drawing to feel as full and complex as a world. Within this world there is often a suggestion of a story. A running theme of these stories is the process of renewal. Renewal involves destruction, fear, and pain as well as certain brightness, magic, or spiritual power. In the process of doing the drawing I partially destroy the paper by tearing It, scratching or chewing it. I also lavish a lot of care on transforming its surface to look like other materials. Although I am concerned with human themes --people's struggle against oppression, destruction of our environment, and individual rebirth, people are not prominent in my drawings. I want the viewer to feel like the person within the drawing. I create a scene for the solitude of the viewer -- I try to create images to stir things up; for them to know what they can know from within themselves. Marcy Hermansader
1. The Two Realities of Vermont, 1978
. 2. An Open Book, 1980 3. Black Woman's Fountain, 1980 4. Small Point, 1982 5. Old and New, 1981 6. Pieceworker's Nightmare, 1978 7. Silkwood Highway, 1979 8. Factory Town, 1978 9. Trade-offs, 1980 10. Jewels of Thought, 1983 11. The Dark and the Light, 1983 12. Time's Beach, 1983 13. What Women Know About Weaving, 1983 14. Secrets of the Heart, 1983 15. Feelings That Arise, 1983 16. The Mechanics of Change, 1983 17. Radiation's Smile, 1983 18. The Tooth of Time, 1983 19. The Road Like a Snake Leads You Onward, 1979 20. Light and Shadow Horse Book, 1980 21. Work Song, 1983 22. Island Eyes, 1983 23. Sevasso, 1981 24. Main House, 1982 Artist Biography A film and sculpture major at the Philadelphia College of Art (B.FA., 1973), Hermansader studied with Rafael Ferrer, Cynthia Carlson, Don Gill, and Ree Morton. In 1977 she received a National Endowment for the Arts Painting Fellowship. The artist has traveled widely in China and the Yucatan. As an Invited Artist at Philadelphia's Fabric Workshop in 1979 she created a cape and a wall hanging. In 1982 Hermansader spent six weeks as a resident fellow in the Genesis Program on Ossabaw Island, Georgia. Her works are in the permanent collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Vermont Council on the Arts. Private collectors of her work include: Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Brad and Margery Lee, Janet Fleisher, Dr. Robert and Jill Terranova, Hope Breyer and the law firm of Deckert, Price & Rhoads.Solo Exhibitions Selected Group Exhibitions 1980 1981 1982 Folk Fantasy, Expressionism, Silvermine Art Center, New
Canaan, CT
Raynor, Vivian. "The Brightly Realistic Perspective of Jack Beal," New York Times, Sunday, 8/17/80. Stein, Judith. "Portrait: Philadelphia," Portfolio Magazine, Nov./Dec. 1980, p. 104. Donohoe, Victoria. "A Nonconformist's Beauteous Legacy," Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/27181. Katz, Jonathan G. "Around the Galleries: A Portrait Renaissance,"
Philadelphia Bulletin, Sunday, 3/1/81. Marcy Hermansader's work is shown courtesy of Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia. The Morris Gallery displays the work of outstanding artists with a connection to Philadelphia, determined by birth or residence. The exhibitions are chosen by a committee composed of area artists, museum personnel and curatorial staff of the Academy. Currently serving on Gallery Exhibition Committee are: Ofelia Garcia, Anne d'Harnoncourt, Jennie Q. Dietrich, Harold Jacobs, Janet Kardon , Jay Massey, Charles Mather III, John Moore, Jody. Pinto. Mark Acey Wolgin; and Academy staff Frank Goodyear, Kathy Foster, Linda Bantel, Betty Romanella and Judith Stein, Morris Gallery coordinator. Copyright The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1983 |