“Keep Watch” by Maggie Tennesen
February 18, 2020
I have to start this brief commentary by admitting that I had never seen any of Maggie Tennesen’s paintings before attending a preview showing of her current exhibit at the Michael Stearns Studio Galley in San Pedro. The experience, however, was a bit like meeting an old friend of an old friend: one immediately recognizes the alluring qualities that made you friends in the first place. In the case of Tennesen, I thought to myself, “Here’s someone who has taken the work of Agnes Martin and given it a sensuous flourish, though with the calculated restraint of Malevich very much present in the moment of composition.” I took a deep breath before I mentioned this particular duo to Tennesen, and I felt quite lucky to have her affirm her fondness of Martin’s work.
I realize that it is a long drive — and rather out of the way — for most people to go to a gallery show in San Pedro, but if you want a chance to absorb some work that will make you wish you could afford to take it home, then set aside enough time to make of this work an abode in which color in turn will wait for you to saturate your memory with its healing powers. The price of your time may feel enormous, but it will be well spent if you devote it to this encounter.
Michael Stearns Studio@The Loft
401 S. Mesa St, San Pedro.
February 9 – March 22, 2020
Call to confirm hours; the late afternoon and early evening (from about 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.) on Thursday, March 5th would also enable you to see the other studios of artists at the Loft.
Phone: (562) 400-0544
Other links worth your attention:
https://www.cbc.ca/books/toronto-poet-m-nourbese-philip-awarded-66k-pen-nabokov-award-for-international-literature-1.5461486
https://earthsky.org/space/this-date-in-science-clyde-tombaugh-discoverer-of-pluto
(Since spring training has commenced, it is altogether appropriate to mention that this astronomer is the great-uncle of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw.)
About Bill Mohr