Art Review by Mary Hanna

Sacred/Scarred Exhibition by Kaye Hanna
Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston Jamaica.
June 5, 2008.

"Kaye Hanna’s work reveals her background as a master calligrapher. Her mark is present in each of the twenty-six pieces on exhibit in the Mutual Life Gallery that opened last night. “I am known as a calligrapher, but now you see me as a painter also,” she told the gathering of friends and viewers who had come to celebrate with her a show called Sacred/Scarred. Dr. Sarah Clunis gave the keynote address, focusing on the great variety of materials and images that are present in each of the works. Hanna’s work “maintains a moody and delicate sensibility found within washes of color, hints of fossils, shells, and other organic matter, and her thoughtful calligraphic marks”, Clunis writes in the program. The presence of the sacred in both images and words and the thistle that represents pain and the scarring of life negatives are held lightly together in the framed artifacts that circle the gallery walls. Hanna’s art is both open and detailed, tightly organized and free, her colours are soft and beautifully controlled. She is meticulous to a high degree, pulling in the viewer and displaying an accomplished artistry in the execution of her marks.
Dr Clunis sees a development in these present works from earlier paintings of Hanna’s. She writes:

"The works for this exhibition, Sacred/Scarred offer the viewer a more vibrant palette than the more muted tones of Hanna’s earlier paintings. Evidence of her connections to the colors of the Caribbean landscape and her memories of an idyllic childhood in the mountains of Mandeville can be clearly excavated from these works. Hanna often refers to her childhood in Mandeville as an influential period of her life where she felt a tremendous freedom that was the result of being able to run relatively wild in the natural landscape of her parents’ backyard. Similarly she refers to driving through fern gully as a child and stamping silver-back ferns on her hands as well as emerging from the gully and being blinded by the “opening in the sky”. Poetic sentiments such as these infuse the language of the paintings in this exhibition."

As well as the connection to her native land, there is often a biblical text partially hidden in the images Hanna offers. She integrates her relationship with a benevolent creator into the text of each painting, along with the more fragile relationship with her often estranged father. Sacred/Scarred negotiates these two connections, often speaking of reconciliation of figures with the Christ as well as with the fallible parent. There is depth and hope in the presence of both aspects and a calm and peace evident in the finished work. Hanna’s sweet nature is expressed in the wash of colours and the threaded detail of each body of work.

Dr. Clunis remarks: “Hanna’s religious and secular lives intersect and intercede in her work as a way to call our attention to the sacred and the scarred that are integral parts of our relationship with God, with nature, with words, and inevitably with people.” Clunis likens Hanna’s art to that of the medieval scribe who “lovingly unfolds a tender and at times tragic tale of a life given for love”. Unfolding in her art the multifaceted interpretations of this truth, Hanna offers painted pages that consist of words and a symbolic abstract language which is often blurred, hidden, and obscured. The layers of paint and marks on the page reveal the depth of feeling that each image has captured in the artist’s vision – pages that record the struggle to give birth to calm through sacred space and knowledge. Hanna opens a way for the viewer to come to know God in these pieces.

The blurring and obscuring of words and natural images that are hallmarks of this collection lead the viewer to search for ways to see differently. Despite this blurring, Hanna’s works speak to us with clarity of “the inevitability of creation and redemption and the soft smooth scars of sacrifice”. Hanna’s art is born of long years of careful rendering of her calligrapher’s craft. The challenge was to free the mark into the painting, showing the lyricism of line that underscores the coming close to God, redemption, and the renewal of spirit that each surrender brings. These works are for everyone, but for those who can identify the sacred in among the scarring there is great joy in viewing nature through the artist’s eyes. The colour green predominates in Hanna’s works as this is the colour of Nature, the way to God.

Hanna remarked on her ability to bring meaning to the collage of written word, colour washes, organic matter and blocks of symbols that accrue on paper or canvas to make the final image. “I work with great attention to the line and colour since my approach is both abstract and natural realism that is, I apply the fundamentals of Art to the abstract piece even when I am not painting realistically. I have the knowledge to know what the painting needs, and I keep working the painting until at a certain point it becomes clear what it needs. The painting speaks to me. It becomes clear what it needs to be a coherent image. There is a dialogue that takes place between the artist and the painting – more so in an abstract than in a representational work.”

Hanna’s titles reflect the concepts of Sacred and Scarred. Her paintings are called “Bright and Beautiful” (mixed media), “Fulfillment” (mixed media), “Reconciliation II” (mixed media on canvas). She works with feathers from Africa and found objects – leaves, orchids, moths – to create the presence of Nature in the colours of green or Caribbean blue. The washes of light and strength are part of the calm presence of God in the text of the painting. She only stops adding layers of colour and marks when the painting coheres.
Hanna’s show will be at the Mutual Gallery for the rest of the month. She returns to Orlando, Florida, where she resides and where she has shown her paintings in previous exhibitions. Her artist’s statement says much in the way of expressing her deep concerns as a painter: “This body of work reflects both the struggle and pain we experience as human beings as well as the grace and glory of a compassionate Creator whose handiwork inspires and soothes our senses with its variety, detail, color, line and beauty.”