Works on Paper – Cathie Bleck

frAGILITY series

The lace of relationships that run through our lives and fill the natural world around us is filled with beauty and paradox. At one glance, we can be inspired by the grace and power that pulses through our grand collective world. At the next glance, in each microcosm, lay the delicate and fragile threads where we and those we love – live, breathe, work, entwine and embrace.

I began this body of work on a large scale. On a cold winter day in 2011, with both trepidation and excitement I unfurled six 55 inch wide blank bone white Stonehenge paper canvases from tether in the choir loft to the main floor of St. Josephats, 19th century Catholic Church in Cleveland, 15 feet(170 inches) below. I stood alone, looking up and feeling small, hearing the echo of each breath and footsteps in this reverent space, which was mine for two months.

This journey in pigments, kaolin clay and graphite forms drew me into a myriad of mixed natural forms. I became embroiled in the tensions of dualities: vices and virtues, restaint and seduction, loneliness and awe, the lechery of envy and hate, the eternal hope of transcendence. On this journey, what began as grand became small, and many new pieces and images emerged. The impersonal became intimate. Hate and longing, while ever present, were absorbed in a boundless and resilient world of greater spirits. Yet fragility remains-its power and beauty.

I received an opportunity to exhibit at Packer Schopf Gallery in Chicago in 2013 for a portion of this work (only one of the scrolls were on display). It was a historic, intimate space which embraced the small works on papyrus beautifully.

The “frAGILITY” show consisted of 48 works on buhtan paper from Nepal 3″x5″ , 12 works on papyrus mounted on maple panels 12″x16″ , one study “When we Became Human” 14″x18″ and one scroll 55″x170″