Megan Sterling

I finally visited the exhibit for Megan Sterling The Space Between. I liked the large scale limbs of the arm, hands, legs and feet. I like the medium as charcoal strokes on museum board. The white negative space emphasizes the black strokes that form the limbs. It gives focus to the viewer of her meaning of tension and the space around the tension. Also, her thick strokes and shading give her artworks volume almost like a 3-D form because the black charcoal stands out of the wall. The entire composition gives a sense of movement with an implied motion or stop motion in some of the compositions. I liked how she used the space of the gallery walls to display her large work. For example, the artwork also titled The Space Between (?) was one that really stood out for me because of how she drew the tension and relaxation of the limbs. The arm coming down from the ceiling was very detailed. It displayed the exteme tension especially with the hands, fingers and the tendons or bones running up the arm. I liked her use of shading every detail to show the tension and awkward tight position of fingers. The arm below had a relaxed position with its palm bent also in a relaxed position reaching out for the tensed arm and fingers above or an invisible image inbetween the hands. She expressed the tension and motion very well in a 2-D sketch. She gave the piece balance displaying the top arm and hand with a strict closed form and adds the other arm and hand an opposite effect of relaxation in an open form. The push and pull artwork is another example of an implied motion and continuous narrative.  It displays the muscles and limbs in action trying to push the space or imaginary object. Her limbs seem to be trying to open more space. Then there is the next large drawing with the arms pulling on an imaginary rope. The legs appear to be bracing an invisible body for control of an imaginary rope like its closing the space around it. I’ve always liked the detail of fingers and feet. Sterling goes into great detail with the charcoal lines to create the organic form of the hands and fingers and the feet and toes. The hands are from a mature woman who uses her hands a lot. I can see working hands with the detail she presents to the viewers. It gives me a feeling of fragileness of a mother’s hand such as in her piece Friction. Again, the viewer sees the tension from the contorted display of the finger in one hand and the control of that contortion from the other hand. I enjoyed all the sketches except one of two people squatting(?); I thought it was out of place.