Mariel Capanna, a Philadelphia-based artist who has studied in Mexico, the United States and Italy, visited Lewis & Clark’s Drawing III class with Professor Ketzia Schoneberg to speak with students. In her talk, which took place on Wednesday, September 9th, Cappana discussed how she became a professional artist and the important experiences that shaped her work.
She began by recalling a particular exercise she did when she was crunched for time in college. Capanna would paint a movie while she watched it — layering scenes and colors as fast as possible, intending to capture the linear motion of a movie in a static image. This was a sharp deviation from her previous work of intricate still-life paintings. This attempt at compressing linear time still continues in all of her work. Time, grief and memory are consistent themes, and this exercise aids in that exploration.
The next part of Capanna’s story involved a year-long solo road trip she took after college, during which she had several meaningful experiences — witnessing a funeral parade in New Orleans and taking scenic adventures that deepened her connection to the American landscape.
She then spoke encouragingly about the grants that had funded her solo road trip, namely the Kittredge Fund, which funds solo explorations for burgeoning young artists. In her advice to the Drawing III students, she emphasized the need for exploration and taking time to be alone. After her road trip, she journeyed to Italy, where a program in painting frescoes enchanted her. She loved the idea of a painting fixed to a place — a stark contrast to the meandering nature of other subjects that had captured her before through painting movies and trips. She called the process “getting to know the wall,” and the end result was a “wall tattoo.” The process of creating frescoes is quite intricate, connecting the painter in a historic, almost ritualistic creation process. The history, culture and connection to the earth through limestone are powerful features in her affection for this art form.
Returning to the United States, she worked with fellow artists to create truly unique group works. These projects included collaborating on the Bowtie Project in Los Angeles, led by Rafa Esparza. For this work, Capanna created hundreds of adobe bricks to make a huge sculpture, resembling the interior of a house. She painted a fresco on the sculpture, which was tagged and re-tagged before being taken down. Another project she created was a flowery fresco inside the Good Weather gallery’s garage in Little Rock, Arkansas. Capanna also spoke effusively about a residency she attended in Scowhegan, Maine. She remains a part of this residency as one of the few fresco experts there.
Capanna has also returned to painting — the central medium of her exhibition “Commonplace,” which took place on Sept. 13. The same themes appear — paintings center on time and the act of capturing it, as well as grief and solitude. The most impactful story in her talk was the intimate process of grieving her father while the city beyond her front porch was celebrating the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory. This seemed to encapsulate her past explorations of time compressed, and of mixing explosions of life with moments of internal stillness.
Capanna’s simultaneous feelings are evident in her paintings: the quiet solitude of her chosen colors, the slight suggestion of confetti, a window latch that stretches across many of her contemplative works and layered houses suggesting a separation between the viewer and the world. These paintings came to be during such busy, emotional parts of her life, and highlight a deep connection to solitude that she was missing during those sensitive times. Her paintings display various attempts at balancing a feeling of emptiness with a feeling of fullness, either by creating a very busy painting that still feels empty, or inversely an almost empty piece that still communicates emotion. They are beautiful, contemplative and a testament to her skill in composition.
Capanna’s discussion included intense philosophical and artistic questions, surrounded by stories of an immensely brave and creative person. Her paintings such as “Sousaphone, Power Line, Streamers, Beads,” and her collection “Fragments,” are particularly resonant with the themes of her talk. Mariel teaches at Swarthmore College, and her solo exhibition, “Giornata,” is currently on view at the Clark Institute.
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