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A Gift of A Moment: Lila Shaw Girvin
| Place: | Gallery C |
|---|---|
| Date From: | 10/7/2022 |
| Date To: | 3/12/2023 |
| Summary: | In 1958, Lila Shaw Girvin (b. 1929) and her husband, George, moved to Spokane from Denver, Colorado by way of Seattle, Washington. Although Girvin had studied painting formally at the University of Denver, the Frye Museum (Seattle), and Fort Worden State Park (Port Townsend, Washington), it was the construction of her home studio in 1966 that allowed her to more deeply explore a life intertwined with art. Surrounded by artifacts like Buddhist iconography, travel photos, children’s drawings, political cartoons, calligraphy, collages, and books, Girvin has quietly cultivated a physical space that reflects an interplay of many roles: artist, thinker, activist, mother. Growing up at the base of the Rocky Mountains, Girvin was fascinated by the convergence of landforms with sky–the transitional spaces–that would later become central to her practice. Eastern Washington’s Palouse became a favorite subject. Recalling dreamlike states, Girvin’s paintings blend imagery from both memory and instinct. Influenced by Eastern philosophy, Jungian psychology, and surrealist literature, Girvin views the external environment as a prompt for spiritual growth–an opportunity to strip away the earthly conditions that inhibit one’s direct experience of the divine. Some works show human constructs, but most highlight a primordial relationship to the landscape. To Girvin, artmaking is not a reflection of planning or forethought, but a spontaneous response to the deepest recesses of meaning. |
| Related Objects: |
1987.1 (Painting, "Red Mountain", 1966)
4489.1 (Painting, "Here", circa 2000-2010)
4489.2 (Painting, "Everything Overlaps", circa 1980-2000)
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