WILLA COX
Abstract Narratives
June 25 – July 31, 2022
Opening Saturday, June 25, 12pm
with Artist Reception, 5-7pm
Artist Talk, Saturday, July 16, 5pm
Nature-Based Abstraction, Book One, 2018, mixed media on paper (partial view)
Working with multiple panels has fascinated me since my graduate school days, when I fell in love with the work of Joan Mitchell. My fascination grew as I also came to love Japanese folding screens. I enjoy the challenge of creating individual panels that stand as compositions on their own and also relate to their adjacent panels in a variety of ways, creating a balance of flow and surprise.
In my new body of work, Abstract Narratives, I increased the number of panels from three or four (as I have often used in the past) to fourteen. Working across fourteen panels gives me the opportunity to make many shifts, for example: near to intermediate to distant spaces; subject matter to a lack of subject matter; light to dark; and black and white to color.
I make the panels by cutting up works on paper that I had previously made using monotype, marbling, watercolor, and acrylic gouache. Sometimes the cutting is random, sometimes I select a particular composition. Each panel is 4-1/2 x 2-3/4 inches, the smallest size I have ever worked in. I am often surprised and delighted by how much space can be implied within a very small area.
I generally begin with a single panel that evokes a remembered or imagined landscape. Then I look for other panels which suggest ways in which that landscape might appear at different times of day or in different seasons; or if it was seen from different vantage points; or if one traveled to, through, or beyond it. I develop the fourteen panels with acrylic gouache to enhance the flow through the sequence, often switching panels in and out as my work continues. I always remain open to exploring unexpected developments as they occur. Some of the completed sequences are framed, for immediate panoramic impact. Others are bound into handmade accordion-style books, for more intimate hand-held viewing.
My idea of these sequences being narratives comes from the continuous evolution from the first panel through the fourteenth. I feel I am telling a story, but instead of there being characters who act, there are attributes of painting, drawing, and printmaking that interact and evolve.
~Willa Cox
ABSTRACT NARRATIVES
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Two, 2021
monotype, marbling, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels mounted 3/8″ apart, (9½” x 48″ framed)
$2300
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Two, 2021
monotype, marbling, acrylic gouache
panel 1 of 14, 4½” x 2¾”
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Two, 2021
monotype, marbling, acrylic gouache
panel 14 of 14, 4½” x 2¾”
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative One, 2021
monotype, marbling, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels mounted 3/8″ apart, (9½” x 48″ framed)
$2300
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Three, 2021
monotype, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels mounted 3/8″ apart, (9½” x 48″ framed)
$2300
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Ten, 2021
monotype, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels mounted 3/8″ apart, (9½” x 48″ framed)
$2300
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Sixteen, 2021
monotype, marbling, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels mounted 3/8″ apart, (9½” x 48″ framed)
$2300
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Eighteen, 2021
monotype, marbling, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels mounted 3/8″ apart, (9½” x 48″ framed)
$2300
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Twenty-one, 2021
monotype, marbling, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels mounted 3/8″ apart, (9½” x 48″ framed)
$2300
BOOKS
Willa Cox
Nature-based Abstraction, Book One, 2021
monotype, marbling, acrylic gouache, embossment
variable dimensions – 18″ x 120″ when opened flat
$6600
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Five, 2021
marbling, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels
variable dimensions – 4½” x 54″ when opened flat
$1200
Willa Cox
Abstract Narrative Eight, 2021
monotype, acrylic gouache
fourteen 4½” x 2¾” panels
handmade accordion-style book – 4½” x 54″ when opened flat
$1200
SINGLE PANELS
Willa Cox
2017, No. 5, 2017
embossed and cut paper, acrylic gouache on watercolor paper
14½” 10½”
$1125
Willa Cox
2016, No. 16, 2016
marbling and acrylic gouache on Twinrocker handmade paper
14½” x 11″
$1125
Willa Cox
2016, No. 19, 2016
marbling and acrylic gouache on Twinrocker handmade paper
14½” x 11″
$1125
Willa Cox
2000, No. 9, 2000
wax resist, watercolor, tissue, gouache, collage on Rives BFK
30″ x 22″
sold
Born in Montana, Willa Cox grew up in Hawaii, graduated from the University of Hawaii with an MFA in painting, and has lived in New York City since 1983.
To see more videos of Willa Cox’s works on paper and her process, visit her website here.