Students and locals alike flooded the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art for its grand re-opening Aug. 26. Floor-to-ceiling pieces of dreamlike Icelandic landscapes greet guests.
The exhibit exclusively features the artist Hildur Ásgeirsdóttir Jónsson who grew upin Iceland. The beautiful landscapes around Jónsson inspired her to recreate them in the form of loom paintings and watercolor paintings. Nowadays, Jónsson lives and works in Cleveland using photos she took in Iceland as reference.
Her mission as an artist, Jónsson said, is to capture what Iceland looks like in a representational manner while also capturing the energy and feeling of these places using abstraction.
“I translate the feeling that I felt in the landscape in the work,” Jónsson said. “I capture the energy that’s around us and under us, in outer space and in the earth. I’d like that invisible energy to come out in the work.”
Becausethis “invisible energy” is impossible to reproduce, Jónsson said she makes her art relatively abstract to convey the energy that she felt in these spaces.
Although she has a section in the Weisman dedicated to watercolor, Jónsson’s primary medium is watery dyes painted onto woven material. Jónsson said creating small-scale loom paintings takes three to six weeks while the large-scale paintings featured prominently in the front of the gallery take about six months to create.
Despite the amount of labor and time required, Jónsson said she still prefers creating loom paintings.
“[The way] the colors bleed and how the threads move gives it that kind of atmospheric look that I’m after,” Jónsson said.
Although creating watercolor paintings is much faster than loom paintings, Jónsson said the process is surprisingly similar for her.
“It’s kind of the same thing as watercolor because I use wet on wet [the process of wetting the paper before applying the paint],” Jónsson said. “They’re very similar though with very different results because of the whole weaving process.”
In addition to capturing the energy and feeling of places, another common theme in many of Jónsson’s works is rainbows. The rainbows in her loom paintings are especially striking because they appear almost blurry due to how the watery ink spreads across her canvas during the weaving process.
Because of this process, the rainbows illustrate the way that Jónsson views rainbows: “puzzling yet magical and beautiful.”
Not only is this exhibition Jónsson’s first time showcasing any of her work at Pepperdine, but it is also her first solo museum show in the United States in almost a decade, according to the Weisman Museum website.
“This is just an amazing place to show it; the space is very nice for my work,” Jónsson said.
She said she also loves the University aspect of the space, because she loves interacting with college students since they remind her of her own college-aged children.
Jónsson said that aspiring artists need to weigh the pros and cons of pursuing art as a full-time career for themselves.
“Yes, you do need the bare basics — food, shelter, et cetera — but it’s important to do things you love to do,” Jónsson said. “Just do what you love doing, and hopefully things will work out.”
For those who missed the opening reception, or for those who are eager to see it again, the exhibit will remain open until Dec. 10.
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Email Perse Klopp: kellie.klopp@pepperdine.edu
