Mica Genesis
On
daily walks along the Wissahicken Creek near Philadelphia during
the early 1990s, Galuszka began collecting thin stacks of crystals
from mica deposits in washes and on creekside beaches. The painter
experimented by cleaving off shards of crystal and fitting the transparent
flakes into clear wax or gel spread over paintings. For Galuszka
this intuitive fitting of individual pieces resonated with mythic
communities of interactive pattern - evoking the jeweled web of Indra,
the archetype of interconnectedness recognized by Hinduism and Buddhism.
And the desired tension, what Galuszka calls the "magical space" between
remoteness and intimacy, came alive.
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Snow
Queen, 78 x 108, 1999, private collection
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The mica found along the
creek banks wove perfectly into Galuszka's on-going creative paradigms:
its fragile shimmer embodied distance, texture, and the mysterious union
of reflectivity and transparency. Gradually the small bits of mica from
the Pennsylvania river bed were replaced by larger crystals from New
Mexico. The current large-scale work utilizes compressed mica from a
scientific supply house, cut into cell-like shapes by the artist and
interwoven with groupings of natural crystal.
The series produced during the
summer of 1999 succeeds on multiple levels, expressing a continuous
conversation between microsphere and macrocosm. Starmaker, with
its huge wheels of interlocking mica stained by bronze glazes, suggests
a cosmological topography. Yet at close range, smaller mica spheres
emerge, cells divide and a new life of opulent orbs breaks away from
the maternal core. Witnessing the birth of a star, we confront a metaphor
for artistic creation itself, in which the fantastic is delivered from
the mundane.
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Out
of the Silent Planet, 78 x 108, 1999
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The strange beauty of mutation is glimpsed
in Out of the Silent Planet. Separated by an indigo field, two
silvery clusters displaying a common ancestry have morphed into alien
mirrors of each other. If we reverse the metaphysical implications
of these cosmic maps, a subterranean geology stunningly reveals itself.
Sharing the space-time distortion navigated by Alice, Galuszka's viewer
is invited to savor the reflective plane, as well as to travel through
its transparent surface into unseen realms of the imaginary.
-
Christina Waters
©
Frank Galuszka 2009
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