By Elliott Wilson
Skagit Valley Herald

LA CONNER — Look at a Margie Livingston painting and you probably won’t know what you are supposed to see.

There are grids — cleanly organized like threads in a textile — but also wild lines splashed on, like dropped pick-up sticks or spaghetti. Though the work “Large Extension” looks like no real-world view, it is actually representational, said Kathleen Moles, Museum of Northwest Art curator. 

“She is not just painting abstractly,” said Moles, who selected Livingston and four other artists for the upcoming exhibition “Representing Abstraction.”
“If you look at the painting, it is super-abstract. You don’t see anything representative,” Moles said. “Well, for the show, we are going to borrow a model.” The painting is a depiction of the model — a cube streaked with paint — handmade by Livingston, Moles said. “When you look at the painting, now you say, ‘OK, she is painting this 3-D object,’ ” Moles said.

Each of the artists in “Representing Abstraction” — one of four new exhibits at the museum — brings together the seemingly exclusive styles of literal representation and outright abstraction. They are Livingston, Mary Iverson and Philip Govedare, all of Seattle; Kelly Neidig of Portland; and John Keppelman of Bellingham.

Like Livingston, Keppelman’s painting is influenced by three-dimensional work, though in his case it was a sculpture, not just a model, Moles said. Keppelman’s “The Stockbroker,” also called “Michael,” is a 2005 painting. “It is kind of like a portrait and all the things in his life surround him,” Moles said. In it, there are a set of stairs, several other figures, a gun, house plants and lot of what Moles calls “folded space.” She dubbed it that after seeing a folded aluminum sculpture by Keppelman. “I said, ‘John, you are folding space in your paintings like you folded aluminum,’ ” Moles said.

Other artists in the show are at once abstract and representational. Their works include both styles in a single piece and don’t need a 3-D accompaniment.“I have always sort of straddled the line between interest in representation and interest in abstraction, so my work does that, too,” said Iverson, who is a professor of art at Skagit Valley College. “It seems like there is a fence and I am sitting on it.” Iverson uses ink, acrylic and magazine photos in “Flora and Fauna.” Painted cargo shipping containers, stacked and reminiscent of a Rubik’s Cube, beside a swimming hole occupied by hippos are inserted in the work.“I have been fascinated by the Port of Seattle activities for just about 10 years, and my work has focused on that for just about 10 years,” she said. Her photographs, on which she overlays port cranes and shipping containers, usually come from The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club or National Parks magazines.“So I am invading them with these containers as an environmental statement or (the) question: Where is our last frontier?” Iverson said.

Govedare’s landscapes blend faithful rendering of a topographical map with palette not seen in nature. Neidig, also a landscape artist, paints fluffy white clouds against a typical sky blue backdrop, but the terrain is represented as streaks — almost stripes — of color.“I am fascinated with abstraction,” Moles said. “I think a lot of people can be kind of hesitant there. There is a mystery about abstraction in art, and people think they should be seeing something.” Moles said juxtaposing 3-D objects with the paintings they inspired, plus the other works that blend representation with abstraction, gives people a clearer guide to understanding and enjoying abstract art. “I wanted a way into abstraction that was kind of gentle for people,” she said.