By Stuard Derrick

Vol 25.16 Provincetown Magazine 7/18/02 Page 50

“When I create art, I open up to a deep place within myself, a place of care and trust," explains artist Sky Power in an artist's statement about her work. Currently on display at the Tristan Gallery in Provincetown's West End, Power's work includes a fascinating series of little abstractions entitled "The Bardo of Dream," a reference to the Buddhist concept of the transitional state between death and rebirth. "Bardo is the interval that links the death of one state of mind and the birth of another;" Power reveals. "It is the transitional state between death and rebirth. It also characterizes the boundary between two states, marking the end of one and the beginning of another. For example, if I am feeling love and hate simultaneously, my rational mind wants to choose between one and the other as being the reality. This in-between state of uncertainty and suspension can feel frightening and confusing. The challenge is to stay with these uncomfortable feelings, and embrace the paradox that both extreme feelings can exist at the same time. Relaxing into the unknown can open a doorway to awakening in the moment. This is the bardo experience."

Quietly passionate and profoundly articulate about her work and her evolution as an artist, Power met recently for a wide-ranging interview in her artist's studio in the Truro woods. Born in the small town of Post in the Texas Panhandle, there is still the faint revenant of a musical twang to her voice as she discusses her childhood. "That part of Texas is perfectly flat, flat with a year round population of Provincetown in the winter:' she begins. Part Cherokee on her father's side, Power moved at the age of 15 to Wyoming, where she attended high school and a year of community college before going on to the Cornish School of Allied Arts in Seattle.

"I moved to Provincetown in 1976 because a friend of mine, Laurel Brooke, wanted to start a horse and carriage business," she reveals. "I was living in Kingston, Massachusetts on 100 acres with five other women harvesting organic cranberries. Laurel came to me with the idea - she had the horse savvy even though I'm from

end of '76 during the scallop boom and cut scallops out by the breakwater in the bay and started the horse and carriage business in 1977. I returned to Texas for four years to do piano tuning in Austin, where I got involved in a

Although not a practicing Buddhist, Power explains that her interest in Eastern religion and mysticism was influenced by her decision a year and a half ago to involve herself in what she describes as a "therapeutic relationship to see what drives me unconsciously. I wanted to see what motivated me in my life and what held me back. To see what illusions I had about myself. We start creating identities back before we can remember based on different experiences. The way in which we formulate these experiences - if they aren't congruent with what really happened - can be a source of tension. Over the years we create a reality about what might have happened. The incongruities between experience and perception can create this tension. I have been tracing back the tension through my art and therapeutic work.

My artwork has always  been therapeutic.

"TO ME ABSTRACTION IS THE FOUNDATION OF UNSPOKEN COMMUNICATION."

Artwork is working out tensions and conflicts.  "Therapy is about the individual digging

down deep to the fundamentals of their own core ethical nature, and the teaching of Buddhism is freedom from mental disease," Power continues. "Through my own psychological investigation, I realized what I was experiencing was the same thing they were talking about in the bardo. In addition to talk therapy I started reading psychology books and material pertaining to spiritual growth and self-awareness. I saw the connection between psychology and mysticism. Psychology is about knowing the self; mysticism is about coming to understand oneness, or selflessness, through self-discovery. The means are different but the results are the same.

"I've been painting since I was a little girl," Power explains. "I started showing my work at the age of 19- I made a decision to let go of my work. In the last seven years, I've been defining my work more for people verbally. This work is more personal in the sense that the subject matter is more personal. I needed to decide how to share it and the context of the bardo was perfect. The principles of psychotherapy and the intention of mysticism are already established. They are already there. I'm just identifying them with my work. I wanted the freedom to experiment with this work. I started off on the bardo paintings not knowing what I wanted to do. 1 knew I wanted the freedom to explore and once I got started there became more of a focus. My art always reflects what's going on in my life. It's a visual expression of me. Whereas a writer will articulate with words, I'm expressing my feelings with colors and shapes.

"All my paintings are dreamscapes, not landscapes," Power reveals. "But they have the qualities of place and atmosphere. Most of my work has the quality of the weather. I grew up in an area of Texas where the weather is dramatic. It's quiet before a tornado -there's a stillness - you tan hear the wings of a flying bird.

There's an excitement in the weather, and there's a quality in my work of the emotional impact and effect weather has on oneself. The dreamscapes highlight the ambiguity inherent in the groundless state of bardo by utilizing the form of the diptych to convey the tension caught between two opposites."

Power's "Bardo" series reveals a palette of intense oranges and blues, a contrast in color that becomes a visual metaphor for the inner journey of the artist struggling for balance and harmony through the seemingly paradoxical embrasure of opposites. "I used a primary palette for years," she explains, "but in order to emphasize the extremes of the current subject matter, it was important for me to emphasize complementary colors. A mask of deep orange covering a field of blue/black creates a sense of being enveloped in a loud stillness. The velocity of color of one creates an edge next to the subtle luminosity of another, opening the gap of bardo. The emphasis in my life, what I was dealing with while I was producing these pieces, was something that was going on internally. I could see the inner work I was doing at the time reflected in my artwork."

Locally, Power has exhibited in juried shows at the Provincetown Art Association & Museum, the Eye of Horus Gallery, the Provincetown Group Gallery, the Boathouse Gallery, and the Infinity Gallery in Boston. Her "Ikage” series was the subject of a one-woman exhibition of 30 paintings at the Foundry Gallery in Washington, DC. She started work on the Ikage series three years ago after researching."

Native-American, particularly the MY ARTWORK HAS ALWAYS BEEN THERAPEUTIC. ARTWORK IS WORKING OUT TENSIONS AND CONFLICTS."

Apache, culture. "The 'Ikage' series  was born through the investigation of  my Individuality through my ethnic origin, and my connection to humanity," Power explains. "The Ikage are circular shields. Traditionally, Native American men created individual  shields using their personal power symbols to protect them In war. As a woman, part Cherokee, existing in a  different century, I created a series of shields as an act of empowerment. The lyrical iconography reflected in my symbols are reminiscent of musical notes, cattle brands, and the Cherokee alphabet, representing my profession as a piano tuner and my Texas and Native American roots."

Between the Ikage and Bardo series of works, Power created what she describes as the "Talking Leaves," a series of paintings more lyrical in nature, using gri~work and oils. "The Cherokee refer to their alphabet as the 'talking leaves,'" she explains. The employment of a grid configuration is also evident in a powerfully moving series of abstract works entitled "The Middle Passage:' inspired by the artist's viewing of a PBS documentary on the 'middle passage' slave route to America. The triptych is composed of dadoed wood on Masonite panels covering fields of color representing various times of day as might have been seen by a slave chained to the bottom of a ship. "I used Padouck, a hardwood from Malaysia," Power reveals. "It's one of my favorite woods to work with.

"To me, abstraction is the foundation of unspoken communication: Power states. "It's not necessarily objective, but if one goes deeper into it, it can be objectified. My work has always been personal. It's part of my work in the world and it's important to share it. If I hoarded all these pieces for myself, it would limit me. I've been on a more inner journey these past several years, and the more I share my insights, the more I put my work out there, the more possible it is for me to create more:"

Shy Power's "The Bardo of Dream" series can be seen through July 23 at the Tristan Gallery, .148 Commercial St. Telephone 508.487.3939.