Quintessence is about how artists Lisa Calzavara and Joy Redstone explore different ways in which abstract work can depict the core essence of life and how we explore its beauty.
Embracing the energy held deep within the landscape was the inspiration for Lisa Calzavara’s current work. She begins by focusing on the rhythm of breathing, discovering the patterns of movement, which are infused into the landscapes she creates. The contemporary oil paintings reveal faint variations of light and color merging into fluid panoramic forms. By relying on the delineation of shape she can present the landscape in its purest form.
Joy Redstone's assemblage art in Quintessence showcases her love of flowers and the natural world. She uses natural, found, and discarded objects to pay homage to the beauty all around us. Her work often uses the interplay of sharp glass and soft organic shapes to speak to the tension between beauty and danger.
Joy's art can be described as process art, as each piece speaks to a memory or an emotional experience. The fragmented objects make a whole, speak as a testament to healing, and offer an opportunity for the viewer to reflect on their own intrinsic wholeness.
Joy observes, "Flowers strew themselves under my feet, thrust themselves into my awareness and populate my world and thus my art. Our lives can be hard, and my path has contained unspeakable loss and grief. But flowers nourish my heart, fill my eyes and lift my spirits. So, I share these flowers with you in the hopes that you can feel the eternal yet transient beauty created by each and every blossom. Let these flowers touch you or remind you to look at the simple flowers that line our worn streets with fresh eyes."
Joy is licensed clinical social worker. Her clinical work has focused on the intersection of mental health struggles, addiction, and oppression and has been characterized by a commitment to advocacy and social justice.
Joy uses natural objects because she finds so much solace walking and uses what she sees to tether to the here and now. She invites you to the patterns within the patterns. Light illuminates the path, and natural objects leap into her field of awareness, the spiral of a snail’s shell or a pinecone, the whirl of a burl, the mirror of mica. If you love the world enough, it presents itself to you in resplendence. Her love for the world deepens in response to every loss she has experienced.