Tag Archives: art

Landscapes

Figurative Works by Catie Faryl

Please view my Exhibitions galleries to see more of my figurative works.

Art and Dialogue Presentation Topics

Artist Catie Faryl will present artwork and facilitate a dialogue with your group by appointment.

With a humorous light touch, plenty of color, and deep observation and reverence for the planet and our regional efforts to sustain a lifestyle or survive any future crisis, Catie shows her artwork and engages the audience with time for their ideas, comments, questions and answers.

Some sample topics are provided below.  In order to provide this service, she requests that media equipment is made available and that a member of your group can help with the technical aspects of her presentation(s).

If possible, a monetary donation to her work would be appreciated, or permission from you to sell her artwork that is relevant to your efforts at the presentation.  Catie will provide upon request a Resource List for your particular field of interest, including films and other sources of background and action.

Sample topics:

  1.   “Mother Nature Says Clean Up Your Room” – in a visual slide show presented by Catie in the persona of Mother Nature, a basic overview of the messy room known as Earth and ideas for straightening it up
  2. “Global Weirding” – having coined this phrase back in 2006, in order get people to stop arguing about whether Climate Change was real, and get them to look at common ground, you will enjoy and relate to Caties images and comments about the “Global Weirding” phenomena
  3. “The Collapse of Cuckoo Kingdom” – artwork and dialogue about business, economies, media hype and how small business and all of us have been impacted and what steps can be taken to reclaim focus and stakeholder status for all citizens
  4. “Digging Out from the Dirty Decades” – artwork and discussion that lets us look at how we got here and what can be done about it.  An ironic and chronological review of images that can be opened to dialogue for new insights
  5. “Through a Glass, Greenly” and “Circus of the Soul” – explore the human condition through myth and better stories in this believer’s view of planetary stewardship and our responsibilities to that task
  6. “Shift Happens” –  artwork that looks ahead to the “Singularity and the 6th Extinction”, Genetic Engineering, and other cautionary observations that the artist has gleaned from what she has studied, observed and created about future trends and why we need to open our eyes to the world that’s evolving
  7. “Shadow Dance” – reclaiming the personal and global shadow, lampooning grandiosity in the world of celebrity, big business and politics, while looking at self empowerment, this  is an artist’s journey that is a cathartic experience for viewers.  Gappling with a “Gordian Knot” of societal issues, including addiction, love, exploitation, energy and economics, propaganda and misuse of media, homelessness, and difficulties of the family and individual are visited with an optimistic view of how we can cut through the problems by incorporating the Shadows in self and culture.

www.catiefaryl.net
Ashland, Oregon  February 6, 2013

Review: “Jane Austen Powers: A Romantic Wakes Up in a Match.com World,” by Bill Varble

Romance on the Internet, announcement of "Jane Austen Powers:A Romantic Wakes Up in a Match.com World," Catie Faryl's 2004 one-woman art/performance art show.

Circus of the Soul

Revisiting Circus of the Soul in 2013

This was one of the largest exhibits I’ve had and it is a theme I continue to explore. It was originally exhibited in Medford, Oregon at the Rogue Gallery and Art Center and has since been shown in a church and a gallery in Portland and elsewhere.

The large gallery in Medford was a wonderful venue; with outer gallery walls and inner panels I was able to display the work as a “3 Ring Circus” of sorts, with the outer walls holding the cosmology/theology pieces, and used the inner clusters of three circular panel configurations to present the earthly forms and figures.

Ten years later I still resonate with the importance of this theme, and continue to offer classes on the Art of the Circus. This powerful metaphor has been explored and exploited by many artists and is also at the core of much carnal entertainment we see today, as well as pageantry and sacred rituals of religion. As Above, So Below, we strive to rise to our highest potentials and continue to be tempted by the gravity of our human condition.

Soon I will present a contiguous body of work called “Eve’s Bad Rap.” In this “better story” I look at the damage done by the myth of Eden and look at new parables, better outcomes and more positive portrayals of women and their huge contribution to society, beauty, industry: a happiness and prosperity that would be impossible without them.

Through a Glass, Greenly

Polaris, watercolor by Catie Faryl, 2009

Polaris, watercolor by Catie Faryl, 2009

Art Statement

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  And now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known . . . . . . . .”
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
1 Corinthians 13, verse 11 and 13

This quotation returned to my attention in July 2009 while pondering my years of work with environmental, social and political issues.  I was questioning the human ability to see what is actually real and how often we think we know the right paths to take, but are often disoriented and become lost or disillusioned.  It seemed to me, that summer of 2009, we were at a crossroad or in a precarious balance – at the tipping point of seeing what could be done to stave off and heal the consequences of human-caused damage to the planet.

Creating art is a shamanistic duty and tradition that our culture must reclaim.  An artist guide’s role is to visit the spirit world and the future to bring back positive messages, symbols, dreams and goals, remedies and “cures” for the tribe.  In the summer of 2009, I observed the apathy, cynicism and inaction reflected in some people’s cavalier statements that “huge population die-offs were meant to be” or that “our human civilization either can’t pass or is undeserving of passing this evolutionary hurdle” and I could not let those beliefs go unchallenged.

Human beings, in my view, are noble creatures.  We can embrace our role as Stewards of the Planet and look deep into our collective conscious to find answers to uphold the best future for all sentient beings and Mother Earth.  We can think and act locally and sow seeds not of our differences but cultivate gardens where all can grow in peace and prosperity.  Like nature’s bounty, love needs little tending in hearts that are willing and in minds that dare to imagine, not despair.  Our energy can be gathered to see clearly and do the work that must be done.

“So let abide these three: faith, hope and charity.”  We have seen things through a green but cloudy glass – confusing, disturbing, inconclusive – and now we are ready to move forward with courage in illuminated passages through these interesting times.

Catie Faryl
January 2012

Global Weirding, Global Warning

Art Statement

In 2006 I had this “epiphany”: People needed to stop arguing about whether Climate Change was real.

Instead of arguing about “Global Warming,” we could suspend our disbelief or zealous defense of the cause and simply call these weather and climate phenomena a more descriptive and encompassing name: GLOBAL WEIRDING!

GLOBAL WEIRDING cannot be refuted! You don’t need to believe anything, just observe what is right in front of your eyes. SEEING IS BELIEVING and the acceleration of disasters is the clearest message we have that Nature is not up for business as usual. The stakes have changed and reading our new situation is imperative.

The real challenge is to move in ways that are effective in restoring balance. Granted, it is difficult to convince people to change their habits or mitigate carbon releases into the atmosphere if they see no connection and, in effect, feel no personal power to impact or control their fate. Preaching to the choir, I showed this work to the Scientific Summit on Climate Change held at Southern Oregon University in 2007.

It was interesting to attend that conference and use the artwork for a colorful conversation starter during breaks and conversations with the scientific community. A key point of the conference was what could be done about the “gag order” that had been imposed by the Bush Administration, which had threatened to pull all grant funding from scientific studies who viewed climate change as real. Another was the problem of mainstream media, where the issue was rarely mentioned.

It’s interesting to write a current statement about my artwork. What I painted in 2006 was a forward look at what was about to happen. Truth makes a believer out of everyone, given enough time, and I feel proud to have done a small service in telescoping what I saw then in order to be just a tiny drop added to a raging torrent of publicity and activity directed at solving the problems of Global Weirding.

Catie Faryl
January 2012
Note: Beneath the image gallery is a reproduction of my original comments to this exhibition.

Hype, Holocaust, Hoax or Happening