The Haggus Society presents Cohesion Collision, images from the Psychomachia* series by R.L. Gibson the newest series originally done in collaboration with Arizona-based artist Jerry Portelli. This work reinterprets the Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Holy Virtues in a series of 14 diptychs, one from each artist.  The aesthetic theme is the sideshow freak from the circus and fairs of yesteryear.

“My work habit is to explore the physical reality of my reverence for human potential with ‘self as other’ as reoccurring content.  The Psychomachia series, challenged me to not rely on facial expression.  While every face is unique, humanity regardless of culture or language recognizes facial expression as the key to discovering the true soul. Limiting use of the face allowed me to further explore the physical uniqueness upon which the Seven Deadly Sins & Seven Holy Virtues provide the crux of judgement allowing acceptance of the physical.”

Haggus Society member R. L. Gibson is a nationally-shown artist and happily-married mother of one working and “living on vacation” on top of a mountain in Tennessee. Gibson has work in galleries from New York to Texas, and now Los Angeles. Gibson recently opened her newest Xerography series Psychomachia with Arizona artist Jerry Portelli.

Gibson works, almost exclusively as a Xerographist, producing complicated layered compositions and then hand-transferring these images to a variety of substrates resulting in a unique monotype.

Xerography, as a medium, has neither a standard place in institutional art instruction nor a documented history. Gibson has spent years refining her hand-palatted technique. The “skips” are not flaws but the unique result of the process.

Digitally altering staged, original photographs, they are then printed on on carbon-based, large format printer in black and white. Gibson then floats them face down on a field of a transfer medium that has already been applied to whatever substrate she is using –in this case, canvas. The pieces have to dry completely (approx. 3 days for a 24” square. The paper is then removed by wetting it and the application of very gently, friction by hand. The removal process takes 40 to 50 hours for a 24” square. Once it is completely revealed, the edges are painted. The pieces is then varnished, usually 3 coats. The bubbles that you see are air pockets that are trapped in the transfer medium between the print out and the canvas. The “skips” or missing parts are when air was trapped between the transfer medium and the paper printout. The wrinkles are the texture of the wet printout, and they run in different directions, determined by which way the artist prints the piece (the grain of the paper).

Gibson states,“I am an Objectivist—that is, I believe in objective reality. This belief is clearly reflected in my work—from color to content. Pieces of Me is a large on-going series, and Psychomachia is my current collaborative series.  Each of these bodies of work explores the physical reality of my reverence for human potential.  Pieces of Me frequently uses self as other as reoccurring content.”

In addition to producing her own work and work in collaboration with other artists, Gibson also runs ArtAndArtDeadlines.com, a fun and quirky, food-themed art blog that offers reviews of emerging artists, shows from great galleries, and FREE Art Deadlines and Calls for Entry as an artist’s resource.

*The Psychomachia (Battle for Man’s soul) by the Late Antique Latin poet Prudentius is probably the first and most influential “pure” medieval allegory, the first in a long tradition of works as diverse as the Romance of the Rose, Everyman, and Piers Plowman.

In slightly less than a thousand lines, the poem describes the conflict of vices and virtues as a battle in the style of Virgil’s Aeneid. Christian faith is attacked by and defeats pagan idolatry to be cheered by a thousand Christian martyrs.
Source: Wikipedia

Psychomachia is a literary concept named for a Latin poem by Prudentius. The poem dealt with the inner conflict within one’s soul, between virtue and vice, through allegorical representations. This concept of an inner struggle became key to the developing Christian religion, and was refined dramatically in the medieval morality plays. Works such as Everyman, Piers Plowman, and Faust featured protagonists struggling with temptation, literally personified through the seven deadly sins (gluttony, lust, et. al). A variation of this involved the use of a “Good Angel” and “Evil Angel,” one to encourage the tormented soul and the other to push the protagonist further along the path to ruination.

This eventually developed into the popular comedy cliche wherein a character has an angel on or above his shoulder, literally, and a devil. Frequently both angel and devil are identical twins to the protagonist, clad appropriately in either halo and wings or horns and pitchfork. This motif has permeated pop culture through cartoons, comic strips, and other media.
Source: Muppet Wiki

In conjunction with and in support of the 19th Annual Arroyo Arts Collective Discovery Tour

Featuring
photography by Annie Fourgette
the cyclic fabric wrapping artist Laura Brody
ethnographic body adornments by Nina Koumachian Ehlig
the unrefined art of Terri Lloyd
the calioscopic lens of Monica Marsh
the vice of verse by Ricardo Lira Acuna
the strung out ambience of David Strother
Cucuy the wonder bird

plus other shenanigans, surprises, and delights
Guests MUST preregister.

Preorder your tix here.

10% of all studio art sales is returned to the AAC to help support this programming.

Tap image go directly to indiegogo

Not everyone has a linear
art career trajectory.
Life happens. Right?

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© 2010

A Non-Profit And Supportive Feminist Art Collective
Specifically For Women Over The Age Of 40

The Haggus Society is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.
Contributions for the purposes of The Haggus Society must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.