Get a Look-See at the Tinney Contemporary (on view through December)
A BRIEF PAUSE BETWEEN TWO MYSTERIES
Nashville Artist Wendy Walker Silverman invites viewers to pause, reflect, and inhabit the present moment.
With its rich fields of color and quiet emotional charge, A Brief Pause Between Two Mysteries invites viewers to slow down and look closely. On view at Tinney Contemporary from November 22nd through January 3rd, the exhibition by Nashville painter Wendy Walker Silverman explores the spaces between what we know and what we can only sense. The show takes its title from a line by Carl Jung—“life is a luminous pause between two mysteries that are yet one”—which wonderfully captures the contemplative tone of Silverman’s recent work. Known for her intuitive approach to abstraction and her sensitivity to color, Silverman reflects on memory, emotion, and the passage of time, offering painting itself as a moment of stillness within life’s constant movement.
MCR: The exhibition takes its name from one of your paintings, A Brief Pause Between Two Mysteries. What drew you to that title, and what does it capture about the spirit of the show?
Wendy Walker Silverman [WWS]: The title is based on a quote by Carl Jung, “Life is a luminous pause between two mysteries that are yet one.” So the pause is what we are experiencing as this existence, and the mysteries are birth and death. Not to be too cheeky, but I thought that should cover everything I would like to in this show, right?
MCR: Was that particular painting a starting point for the series or something that emerged later — a piece that helped everything else fall into place?
WWS:I’m always working on several paintings at one time, and they all kind of feed off of one another, and have a certain thread of continuity whether I realize it at the time or not. Over the years I’ve been painting, I’ve learned to trust that it will all form a narrative that makes sense (at least to me). It may sound strange, but the titles of my exhibitions and paintings just come to me as I am working.
MCR: How do the other works in the exhibition speak to or expand on the ideas behind that central painting?
WWS: My work for the last several years has really been inspired by my meditations on the human experience. Specifically, I’m thinking of emotional states, memory, and the passage of time. I think a lot about what we inherit in an intergenerational way–that means trauma and strengths, as well as emotional and physical traits. I’m very interested in patterns and repetition in every sense, too, and that comes through in my work, I think. So all of that to say that all of my work is driven by the idea of how we experience this existence we are in together right now.
MCR: Your paintings often seem to hover between abstraction and something nearly recognizable. Do you think about that balance as you work, or does it happen more intuitively? What does your painting process look like— are you someone who plans carefully, or do the images unfold on the canvas as you go?
WWS: For the last few years, anything recognizable in most of my work is unintentional, and the work unfolds intuitively as I paint. I begin with an idea of a palette and maybe a central shape…but I have learned that I cannot get too attached to the beginning shape, and it usually doesn’t even remain in its original state–if at all–in the finished painting. I think that because I am a traditionally trained painter who did a lot of landscapes and figurative work for the first several decades I was painting, that still comes through. I begin with an awareness of proportions of my surface, and then build the painting out intuitively from there.
When my work is seen in-person, I think people are surprised that they can see my hand in the work, and the layers of the initial decisions are intentionally left–this manifests sometimes as an edge of an original color, or the texture of the original shapes. So much of my work of the last few years features fields of solid, opaque color, and I have come to realize that leaving some trace as a ghost image of the decision-making process lends a translucency of sorts to the opacity of the finished surface. For me, seeing traces of the earlier decisions in the painting process parallels how the past is always woven into the present–a “past-presence”–and so that pentimento effect in my work is symbolic and important to me.
“I just think color holds a certain magic, much like how certain musical chords do.”
MCR: Color plays such a strong role in your work. How do you think about palette and tone when you’re building a painting?
WWS: I just think color holds a certain magic, much like how certain musical chords do. Color is always my starting point, and it is the thing that makes me excited every time I walk into my studio. I think for my process, more than the colors themselves, it is the rhythm and resonance that I am seeking in how colors relate to one another. My work for the last 5 or so years has greatly relied on the resonance of colors based on how they are arranged and juxtaposed. I am compelled to ground bright colors with earthier hues, which is another symbolic element in my work, because I feel the earth colors represent our corporeal existence, and blues, the spiritual; the other colors hold personal symbolism for me, too. There’s a point in the arrangement of the colors that the work begins to “sing” to me, or the painting comes alive suddenly, and that is the thing I am seeking every time I begin a painting–it is the driving force of my practice.
MCR: The title suggests a moment of stillness inside something much larger. Does that idea connect to how you see painting itself — as a kind of pause or reflection?
WWS: Oh, yes, most definitely. I would never suggest that my paintings are spiritual, but the practice of painting is very spiritual for me; I think that is the gift of a creative practice of any kind for anyone who gets to experience that. I really do feel deeply that creativity is an important facet or byproduct of the luminous pause that Jung is referring to.
MCR: When people step into the gallery, what do you hope they’ll feel or take away from this body of work?
WWS: I hope that people can find a bit of respite, warmth and stillness from some of the hard realities that are swirling around us.
MCR: You’ve been part of the Nashville art scene for some time now. How has that community influenced the way you make and show your work?
WWS: I will admit that I tend toward being a bit insular in my studio practice, and can slip into hermit mode quite naturally, but there are so many visual artists in Nashville doing great work right now, and I feel lucky to be making work at the same time and in the same place with them. I am also really grateful to have such a wonderful and supportive relationship with the team at Tinney Contemporary.
MCR: When the show is finished and out in the world, what’s next — are there new ideas or directions taking shape in your studio?
WWS: I have been feeling a pull to turn toward figurative painting again for the last few years, and I have a few pieces started that are based on dreams I have had, but we will see what happens! Honestly, I usually don’t know what is going to happen in my studio until I walk in and pick up the brush, and that is one of the most enjoyable things about my practice. I am also working on a Masters of Science in Social Work, and I can already feel shifts in my work from that experience, so this is a really exciting time for me in the studio.
A Brief Pause between Two Mysteries is on view at the Tinney Contemporary Gallery through January 3rd.
Instagram is @wendywalkersilverman_art
website: https://www.wendywalkersilverman.com.
For inquiries contact: https://tinneycontemporary.com
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