The Must Do List, Swerve Magazine April 2012

Herringer Kiss Gallery Calgary

CURTIS CUTSHAW: WATERMARK

We don't know if the artist found water when he tied a pen to his dowsing rods, but he certainly created some intriguing images.

Why do you draw? Do you draw because you have to? Do you draw because your dealer asked you for a drawing for the group drawing show? Do you show your drawings? Are they private? What do you expect from a drawing? Are your drawings an end in themselves? Or do you draw as a preparatory stage for your paintings or sculpture?
Drawing is immediate. A single line can completely transform an entire sheet of paper. A single mark can give the viewer enough information on how to look and direct them at what they are looking at. Drawing can be done anywhere at any time.
I remember reading about Jackson Pollock being so broke that he would go and take the deposit slips from the bank and draw on them when he could not afford paper. You can always draw.
You can't hide in a drawing. It is all there.
I often look at master drawings and try to figure out where the first mark was made and how an entire drawing can be built around one single line.
I am the person at the large painting shows standing alone looking at the small little drawings that go unnoticed.
I draw because I have to. Every single day.  They are an end in themselves and take me to places nothing else can.

"I draw as I breathe"- Joseph Beuys.

New print as of yet untitled. I have just done the test strip and I am very happy with how it turned out. I plan on making this one about the size of the recent Close Call. 38''x 45''. It is a nice mid size. Allowing the viewer to see all the detail lost in this small reproduction. 

Curtis Cutshaw: Watermark

Avenue Magazine 

Apr 7, 2012 to May 5, 2012

Herringer Kiss Gallery
709A 11 Ave.S.W.
Calgary, Alberta

herringerkissgallery.com

Herringer Kiss Gallery presents "Watermark," an exhibition of new works by Edmonton artist Curtis Cutshaw.

Cutshaw's work is based on drawings he made incorporating the use of dowsing rods he found on his family farm.

Exhibit runs April 7 to May 5. There is an opening reception Saturday, April 7 from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. with artist in attendance.

The opening is now done! We had a wonderful time and a lovely dinner afterwards with Deborah and her husband Joseph. I am excited with the new work and so happy with the direction my series has taken. Standing in the gallery for hours I was able to see the depth of the new work and feel how they seeped into me slowly letting me see more and more the longer I looked. The color and all the layering of line. How the Dowsing Rod series has progressed and how they encompass so much more now. I am confident that people will "see" the work and that we can continue to build and move forward and expand further to let others see what I am doing.

The sun is shining. Opening day is finally here after months of preparation. My solo show is opening this afternoon from 2-5pm at the Herringer Kiss Gallery in Calgary. I can hardly wait to be with my family, friends and my art. What a great day!

Thank you so much to Mia Johnson for her article in this months Preview The Gallery Guide.

Herringer Kiss Gallery
Calgary AB – Apr 7-May 5, 2012

Curtis Cutshaw, Close Call (2012), digital print [Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB, Apr 7-May 5]

Curtis Cutshaw, Go (2012), digital print [Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB, Apr 7-May 5]

Curtis Cutshaw, North Branch (2012), digital print [Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB, Apr 7-May 5]

Curtis Cutshaw, Watermark (2012), digital print [Herringer Kiss Gallery, Calgary AB, Apr 7-May 5]

Curtis Cutshaw creates paintings that combine automatic drawing and digital manipulation. The vivid inkjet prints have an ethereal presence by virtue of their colour and composition. They gain an added sense of romance and mysticism from his “magical” practice of suspending felt pens and paper from dousing rods.

He writes: “Walking over the ground I find water deep below the surface. I search for feeling, a movement. When it is found, the pen moves creating the line… It is a delicate balance between nature and the hand.”

Cutshaw has created 15,000 drawings from the act of divination for The Dowsing Rod Collection. With pens on paper held beneath the rods, several layers of lines were recorded for each image. The drawings were then scanned into a computer, digitally reversed into negatives, colour enhanced and printed up to five feet in size. The push and pull of the divining rod causes changes in the pace and direction of the lines, while the many stops and starts punctuate the webs like polyps or buds on vines. He describes them as “large-scale double helices encrusted with salts” or “the skeletons of complex subaquatic creatures.”

Sponsored by the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design, Curtis Cutshaw was awarded an Illingworth Kerr Scholarship to attend the New York Loft Program in 1998. He subsequently earned a diploma in painting from the Alberta College of Art. In 1989 he attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. Cutshaw currently works and lives in Calgary, Alberta.

www.herringer
kissgallery.com

Mia Johnson

The new show is up!!!

Hanging day in the gallery. Show opens Saturday This is the first time I have seen the work up and it looked fantastic. I was so happy with all the work everyone has done. From the printers to the framers to the gallery assistants. Everyone did a wonderful job. I could not stop looking once again. I am so pleased with the direction my work has taken as well as the strength of the show. The space is a beautiful gallery and really shows off my work. I can hardly wait for the opening. 

Herringer Kiss Gallery Calgary