Meighen Jackson

Meighen Jackson				Main Gallery			Feb 3 - Feb 28, 2007

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	Visionary Ecologies: Meighen Jackson In the work of Meighen Jackson, there is much nature to consider. Her Asian-inflected collage paintings represent an authentic attempt to render the beauty of the natural world, in a style that is deliberately enjoyable and accessible to the viewer. Given our intensified interest in ecology, Jackson’s art acts as a signal that our pleasures in the world around us may become increasingly fragile; her paintings remind us, however, of the openness of the artistic spirit, which enables human endeavor to consider difficulties of all kinds, no matter how desperate the conditions may seem. The beauty of Jackson’s art is essentially celebratory in spirit; it finds in the forms of blooms and flowers an underlying current of positive belief—in both the world she depicts around her and the idealized activity of art itself. Part of her lightness of touch comes from an openness to other cultures—she has studied contemporary Chinese calligraphers—as well as maintaining a Western compositional awareness. Her organic forms, often attractively outlined in black, renders the natural world in a positive light, suggesting that the pursuit and perception of luminous things are capable of being developed even now, as we face environmental difficulties. Art has long been involved in politics, often struggling in the face of fierce opposition. But there is another way, a way which Jackson embraces, that takes a positive view of the imagination and ingenuity that is always behind change, whether it be cultural or technological. This is linked to the American can-do spirit, without which we would no longer be able to address our affairs and problems directly, with an eye to a direct resolution of the problems that have been facing us. Part of Jackson’s art posits the beauty of nature as a goal in itself, reminding us of the technical possibilities brought about by a willingness to see art as a tool in the endeavor to solve our ecological problems, which deeply need an imaginative approach, as well as advanced technology, to be solved. The particularities, then, of Jackson’s art set up a series of open equations, which reach us as images of hope, that necessary emotion no matter how difficult the situation facing us. Jackson’s art radiates a belief in the beauty of natural forms, and by extension we sense her sincere belief in nature’s ability to rebound from such attacks as loss of habitat. By implication, she also points to the possibility that our enjoyment of nature may be vulnerable to attack; her fine art, in all its comprehensiveness, quietly understates the need to keep the natural world alive and well. As an artist of considerable skill, who concentrates on organic forms, Jackson offers us a visionary ecology, in which calligraphic curves, sumi ink, and rounded shapes indicative of leaves and flowers combine to attract us to the subtle language of nature. One is reminded that Jackson trained as a student in the idiom of abstract expressionism: there is a fluency in her collages that reveals a real knowledge of the movement, as well as a sense of close detail, brought about by the fact that she often goes out on a lake in a boat to draw the landscape. One of the particular pleasures of her art its particularity; the viewer senses a complete absorption in nature. By implication, the artist may be said to offer a genuine concern for the fragility of the natural world, in which the enjoyment of the landscape and natural forms inform an ongoing attitude of genuine involvement in the visionary components of nature, its positive attributes as well as its vulnerability. Jackson’s greater awareness of nature, occasioned by the fluent forms of her work, help remind us that the possibility of change may be driven by spiritual strengths that refuse to buckle under in the face of distress, no matter how grave the circumstances may be. At the same time, they graphically underscore the difficulties besetting us, with the distinct chance that our habitat may be overwhelmed by change.