Tricia Cline
Ricco Maresca Gallery
Previous Review (2012)
It’s always interesting to see husband and wife artists whose works profoundly reflect on each other. Such is the case with Tricia Cline and Toc Fetch who not only share the same underlying philosophical underpinnings but could almost be the combined effort of one artist. The main difference is that Fetch works with graphite and paint and Cline sculpts. Their current exhibition at Ricco Maresca is a nice interplay between the two artists with the porcelaine sculptures echoing the sentiment of the paintings. While both use the human figure in their imagery, it’s Cline who seems more at ease with the nude. Hers are finely produced figurines with an attention to detail and anatomy that belies the fact that she is self taught, having only begun working in clay at the age of 28.
At once beautiful and striking, she has developed her own code of symbolism in which the boundary lines between human and animal are almost eliminated. And this according to Cline is the point. Taking on the language of animals is one of pure vision and perception. One in which her avatars or ambassadors bring to and from a more primal state of awareness. Often wearing a falcon or rabbit tied to a woman’s back these incorporate what Joseph Campbell called “the heroes journey”, to re-remember our animal nature and through this access our higher nature at the same time. The parallels to Shamanism run deep in as much as to reconnect with our animal perception of the world around us. The nakedness of her bodies are closer to this natural state and the animals carried on their backs deliver this awareness.
