Friday, November 16, 2007

Roots in India inspire new images


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

?Faith? by Gay Odmark

When a tsunami hit Southeast Asia on Dec. 26, 2004, artist Gay Bawa Odmark was in India. Her plans were to have taken her to Chennai (formerly known as Madras) for a wedding on a boat. But a dream, a change of plans and a drive inland led her elsewhere. Afterward she learned about the tsunami and heard people's stories.

"The ocean had retracted, exposing the sandy beach," she said. "Thousands of fish were jumping on the sand, gasping for water. Fishermen collected the fish in baskets, sold them at hotels nearby and ran back into the hills with their families, goats and dogs."

The incident inspired Odmark, a longtime Ketchum resident who was raised in Calcutta, to create new multimedia images. An exhibition of this new work will open at the Gail Severn Gallery in Ketchum during Gallery Walk, Friday, Nov. 23.

"When I saw photos of the devastation and subsequent death toll along those beaches and the homeless people, I felt truly humbled and with very mixed feelings and bad nerves, I started to draw a series called 'Serious Doodles,'" she said. "Back home in Idaho two months later I wanted to interpret some of the 'Serious Doodles' into prints and the 'Tsunami' print emerged."

Adding tactile substance to the new work is a form of Kantha stitchery, introduced to her by old friends with whom she reconnected after 46 years in Calcutta.

Kantha is a simple running stitch that is used on quilts, saris and other textiles.

"Stitches become the connection," Odmark said. "It resonates in connecting the images through the thread.

"It's very feminine. Nothing like I've ever done before. It shows how experience takes time to unfold. It's difficult to corner. I used to think I'm between cultures, but I am really in two cultures."




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