Between the Lines, 1991-2006, paintings (oil on masonite and mixed media on paper), installation, soft sculptures

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About this work:
This series of work began in the summer of 1991 in the Queen Charlotte Islands while I was in the 3rd trimester with my first child. I had lots of time to work but I would learn soon enough the fragility of time and stamina - the need to stay focused however remotely at times, on the rhythms coming through the images. The title "Between the Lines" is meant both in a literal and figurative sense and suggests that one's perception of meaning is necessarily subjective and according to each individual. Our communication and understanding of the world is mostly unvocalized; meaning is filtered through gesture, symbolism, language, colour and form - all uniquely informed by one's frame of reference created through past experiences. The geometry of the lines defines pictorial and story telling space while also representing how layered our thought and memory processes are. There is no such thing as stasis - we sort, store and retrieve information and memories continually, even simultaneously. In “Between the Lines” the result is an ongoing dialogue between the images that eventually
comes off the wall to become a three-dimensional incarnation through sculpture and installation.

In essence everything has meaning if we choose to read, see or feel it. A simple mug can contain personal references to the morning table or an afternoon break. It can embody the notion of a universal vessel that returns us to a contemplation of the soul - if we choose. The images make references to things that have happened but are also a deconstruction and re-invention of things that have happened, and a desire for things that can never be, except through art. At the same time there is a desire to present a very realistic sense of how layered our thought and memory processes are. There is no such thing as stasis - our minds sort, store and retrieve information and memories continually, and it seems simultaneously. In “Between the Lines” the result is an ongoing dialogue between the works that eventually comes off the wall and becomes a three-dimensional incarnation through sculpture and installation.

For me, this work is also about process and allowing evolution to take place, however long that may take. I started working on the drawings while my (now two) children were napping. The oil panels were becoming more difficult to work on and the paper allowed me to set up and work quickly. I intended to use them only as working drawings for the oils but came to recognize them as finished works on their own. Looking back now I realize that the organic looseness of the works on paper were really a foreshadowing of the eventual creation of the velvet frames, just as the velvet remnants left over from that process eventually became the sculptural ‘siblings’. The artefacts attached to some of the paintings were likewise a result of creative evolution. While rummaging through thrift stores for the velvet dresses I picked up some grab bags in the notions area that contained everything from pin cushions to bits of fabric, threads and ribbons. As I looked around my studio one day I saw a connection between some of my grab bag bits and pieces to the paintings and started to attach them. I subsequently found other things in abandoned jewellery boxes and even in a bench that goes with a loom that was from my sister-in-law. In this way found objects and personal history have made their way into the work in a quite natural way.

In the end it is my hope that the viewer can contemplate and find value in what it means to him or her and less about what it means to me, although there will be points where we cross over and points where we diverge.

Heidi Bergstrom
March 2006