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 June
13 – July 29, 2005
memory and Story
Ellouise Schoettler
and Helen Zughaib
Ellouise Schoettler - Artist
 Creating
a whole by assembling bits and pieces of color suits me. I make my artworks
pretty much the way my grandmother made a cake. I assemble all the materials,
add something here, there, take something away – until it FEELS right.
I learned
to love color, pattern and texture from the crazy quilt on my grandmother’s bed
in Charlotte, ND. At naptime I climbed onto Granny’s bed and traced the border
between the colors with my fingers to lull myself to sleep.
 A
deep magenta, soft velvet, yellow featherstitching
around the edge of the shape --
next to cool sharp taffeta – blue green –
I can still see it.
And when I do
I can smell the purple wisteria
blooming
outside Granny’s bedroom window.
 My
textiles are made from scraps of old cloth. As I sort thorugh bits and pieces of
gabrick looking for just the right next color – I remember similar magic
discoveries when, as a child, I played with the sewing remnants my grandmother
kept in a big, brown paper bag in her closet.
Serendipity and accident are
important in my art process. I work intuitively – the materials at hand guide
the work. My major aesthetic concerns are color, light, and texture. And, often,
as is the case with works in this show, the works evoke memories which then lead
to stories.
Working with fabric connects my
work to women’s tradition, most particularly, to the seamstresses I have
discovered in my family lines. Using family photographs and stories strengthens
my bonds with them. In my work, I honor and celebrate their lives.
Helen
Zughaib - Artist
 Some
time ago, I remember hearing about a writer from Africa, who grew up in utter
poverty and never had quite enough to eat. Every evening, her mother would
gather her brothers and sisters and tell them story upon story to distract them
from their hunger.
Fortunately, I grew up hearing stories around a table filled with delicious food
and lots of wine. My father had and still does, so many of these stories to
share with us.
 In
the tradition of the Arab world, the storyteller, Hakawati, was an older
relative or professional in the marketplace. My father grew up hearing many
stories and proverbs designed to teach a moral or a lesson.
At our
dinner table, my father has repeated many of these same stories to us and also
shared other recollections of his childhood and early adulthood before
emigrating to America.
 As
always through my work, I hope to provide a counterbalance to all the negativity
generated by the politics of the Middle East and to further understanding
between Arabs and Americans.
I hope that
this exhibit will bring memories and stories to your own dinner tables.
 DEBORAH
SOKOLOVE - CURATOR
My father used to tell me that
he never got bored when he traveled on business, because he would meet many
people, every one of them had a story. In this exhibition, Memory and Story,
two artists explore the ways in which family stories are reflected and refracted
in the memory. This process of remembering and retelling produces a new reality
which begins with the experiences of the parents, but is shaped through the
children’s understanding and vision.
 Helen
Zughaib’s complex, jewel-like, gouache-on-board paintings, selected from her
series, Stories My Father Told Me, reveal a world of memories and dreams
in which horses and cattle graze near old men telling stories, maidens bear
water jugs on their heads, and children carry candles as tall as they are in the
Palm Sunday procession. The traditions and customs of this world, that of
Orthodox Christian Arabs, are unfamiliar to most Americans, but are the stuff of
Zughaib’s own childhood memories as well as her father’s tales. The flattened
perspective and dense patterning of these narrative images remind the viewer of
Persian miniatures or magic carpets, evoking a sense of loss that colors the
bright, joyful sweetness with sorrow.
 Ellouise
Schoettler remembers her mother as a young war bride, and later, as an old woman
with failing memory, in digital prints laminated into long strips of multiple,
alternative visions; and in not-quite-crazy quilts pieced together out of old
clothes. Schoettler’s manipulated photographs, and the stories which accompany
them, speak of time and loss, of change and continuity, of hope and sorrow. Her
quilts, made of narrow strips of cloth stitched into loose, squarish spirals of
color, echo the repetitive columns of similar-yet-different prints. In both
forms, it is not the individual image that is precious, but rather the
cumulative effect of multiple visions, suggesting a reality beyond what is seen
at first glance.
 In
Memory and Story, Ellouise Schoettler and Helen Zughaib share pieces of
their private pasts, filtered through an inner light that illuminates a broader,
more communal, meaning. With scraps of fabric and old photographs, with bits of
color and memories of flowering fields, Schoettler and Zughaib invite us all to
consider our own lives and those of our ancestors. Together, these two artists
remind us that memories and stories make us who we are.
send comments or questions about the gallery to
the curator at:
dsokolove@wesleysem.edu
the copyright of individual works of art belongs to the
relevant artist
please do not copy or distribute
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