finding truth in abstraction: andrea cermanski and the abstract landscape

8/14/2019 Finding Truth in Abstraction: Andrea Cermanski and the Abstract Landscape

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Abstract artist Andrea Cermanski works in acrylic, encaustic, and mixed media. She is currently

represented by the William and Joseph Gallery,Art Gallery H, andPez Gordo Gallery. Santa Fe

Creative Tourism is proud to present Ms. Cermanski's ongoing workshops:Painting with Texture,

Abstract Painting, The Art of Color, andExploring Encaustics. For more information, please visit

santafemodernpainter.com or santafecreativetourism.org.

Finding Truth in Abstraction: Andrea Cermanski and the Abstract Landscape

by Luke Fannin

"Where the Desert Meets the Sea." Acrylic on canvas. All images Andrea Cermanski. Used with

permission.

Abstraction can be something of a buzzword in the realm of the arts, with vastly different

connotations depending on the mediums and philosophies involved. In many fields, the abstract is

regarded mostly in a negative light, a retreat from the tangible and specific to the generic.

Fortunately, abstract visual art is an accepted and well-established genre, and even artists who make
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their living in realism borrow elements of abstraction to enhance their work. Santa Fe painter Andrea

Cermanski works closer to the abstract end of things -- in fact, you might most accurately call her an

abstract artist who occasionally borrows elements of realism. Her wonderfully evocative abstract

landscapes show just how powerful a truth-telling tool abstraction can be.

A painter for nearly 20 years, Ms. Cermanski has always felt a close connection to the outdoors. "I

just love nature," she says. "It's a healing place, a place of spiritual renewal, and when I'm painting I

tap into those feelings. I think that's something we all could use more of."

"Algae." Acrylic & mica on canvas. All images Andrea Cermanski. Used with permission.

While her affinity for the natural world is certainly central to Ms. Cermanski's work, her approach is


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much different than that of your typical landscape painter -- even those who, like her, utilize

abstraction. Generally speaking, you'd expect the work of a landscape artist to have a one-to-one

correspondence with a real-world place -- a specific lake, valley, forest, etc. Ms. Cermanski, however,

makes no attempt to depict a specific place in any given painting. Rather, she internalizes the

sensuous imagery of the world around her, and paints from there. "I'm synthesizing memories of

nature," she says. "It's not a conscious process -- it just sort of flows into me. It's only later on that I

realize which particular memories or places a piece could be from."

We're trained to believe that the virtue of a strong memory lies in the details, that a comprehensive

recollection of all the minutest details of a particular occurrence are proof of an active, accurate

memory. But isn't an emotional, abstract memory just as powerful, if not more so, than its more

tangible counterpart? Think of the way a simple smell or a barely-remembered song can transport

you to some place and time that is indefinite yet somehow formative, almost as though mind, body,

and spirit are all remembering independently of one another. The effects of such an experience canlinger for days, but because it is difficult to put into words, it's easily dismissed. This is, perhaps, what

Ms. Cermanski means when she says the abstract artist speaks the truth "by defying reality and

expressing it according to a personal vision."

So why does this matter? We often get so tied up in the ideas of "truth" and "reality" as being direct

correlations of our physical perceptions that it becomes easy to disregard the other equally

important ways in which we experience and live in the world. Anyone who has ever experienced the

refutation of an "incorrect" memory -- seeing proof that the way you remember something is actually,

for lack of a better term, wrong-- knows just how unsettling it is to over-rely on the merely "physical"

aspects of memory. So it is with Ms. Cermanski's work. Rather than worrying about creating an

accurate physical depiction of her subject, she focuses hitting the right emotional notes, using color,

line, and texture. Ms. Cermanski even incorporates sand, mica, and raw earth pigments into her

works, materials she collects and processes herself. "I like to put New Mexico right into my

paintings," she says, "I think these materials add a lot when they're used in their purest form."

Ms. Cermanski's work and approach may be non-traditional, but just as her art strikes a familiar

chord, it comes from a familiar place. "I've always been interested in landscape and nature," she says.

"Before I was doing this kind of work I was always painting from photos or observations of nature, but

now I'm more into abstracting from nature. Abstraction is infinite. It shows an artist's ability to

create something new. I love the freedom of abstraction in nature."


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"Solitude." Acrylic on canvas. All images Andrea Cermanski. Used with permission.

Related: Five Questions with Andrea Cermanski

Santa Fe Creative Tourism is a project of the City of Santa Fe Arts Commission. If you would like to

take a workshop withAndrea Cermanski, or another of our 200+ artists, check out our calendar.

Artists and organizations: click hereto list your workshops and other arts-related events, or to be a

featured artist on our blog.
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finding truth in abstraction: andrea cermanski and the abstract landscape

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