Fiona McGuigan and the Constant Image

Some of the work created from a single image by Fiona McGuigan during the past year.
On display at Gage Academy through March 29.

Sometimes obsession can be a good thing. Want to see how to put it to good advantage? Go see The Constant Image, an exhibition of work by Fiona McGuigan, who used a single image of two Swiss wrestlers to create a large and diverse body of work. It is currently on display at Gage Academy of Art, Third Floor gallery through March 29. The opening reception is this Friday from 6-8 pm. 

Earlier today Fiona graciously agreed to answer a couple of questions about the image of choice and her process.

SD: I have to ask, why this image?

FM: I can tell you all kind of things about the image; all rational thoughts and reasons, about layout, balance, and lines, but the truth of the matter is, I saw the image and it conjured up complicated and contradictory emotions of tenderness, rawness, force, dominance, submission, beauty, and in that, I saw potential. 

SD: How did your process for creating the work for the Constant Image differ from your prior practice?

FM: I never work with a finished image in mind, but I always think about options, what would happen if ...I turned the whole painting black, what would happen.. if it's only partially black and add some red.

Well, if you are working large, ideas of change and exploration are very laborious.  I also noticed that when painting it took several weeks to truly understand the image, so I'm constantly redrawing. I end up with layer after layer of images over each other. 

In this series, in some ways it's like pulling apart one of my large paintings, each layer suddenly becomes its own thing. The parameters for this series are very strict, the pieces are much smaller, only one repeated image, only black and white, because of that I can now suddenly work fast and try out more and more ideas. My exploration became more adventurous. When working small it's fine to fail. It's fine if most of the pieces fail. Actually it's kind of fun to fail. It's very freeing. You can get more and more extreme, and suddenly something works, really works, and it surprises and delights you. 

That freewheeling process comes through in the work, which leaves me a little breathless and energized. It provides plenty to be surprised and delighted about. Besides, any true art geek has to love a show that's so process driven. Intrigued? Then be sure to make the trek up the three flights of stairs at Gage and take in the show.