Song of the Sea

by Celina Colby

The sea has been an inspiration to artists for hundreds of years, from early Egyptian paintings of water as a source of life to JMW Turner’s tumultuous depictions of the stormy ocean. But Lisa Knox of the 249 A Street Artists Cooperative in the Fort Point area of Boston is celebrating the sea in a whole new way. On January 11 at FP3 Gallery, Knox collaborated with singer/songwriter Carrie Erving on an afternoon of music and art focusing on the beauty, power and mystery of the sea.

Knox works from preparatory photographs of the ocean to create her intimate portraits of the water. Using a variety of shades of blue she layers light and dark expertly with each crashing wave. The works vary from very close-up of a particular wave to a more distanced viewpoint. Some of the works are framed by a few inches of blue canvas while others are completely engulfed by the subject. For the most part Knox’s oil on canvas paintings don’t rely on traditional landscape parameters to orient viewers. They’re not so much landscapes as portraits of an organic being.

Armed with just her acoustic guitar and her words, Erving sang a selection of sea-themed Irish and Scottish folk songs. For these people the sea controlled their way of life, their very existence, just the way Knox’s paintings control the canvas and the viewer’s eye. Erving’s repertoire included the child ballad Lord Gregory and The Grey Silkie of Sulekerry, followed by an acoustic version of her own composition, Whitedaughter, which is inspired by Silkie legend. She closed the night with a song from one of her favorite childhood records, Song to a Seagull by Joni Mitchell. Her personal connection to the music perfectly mirrored the connectivity one feels when looking at Knox’s paintings. Together the experience exuded a feeling of a being inside the ocean, not as a cold, dangerous enemy, but as a warm comforting friend.

Lisa Knox’s work can be seen on her website and in other shows in the Fort Point area. Carrie Erving will be back in Boston on March 6 for a performance with Will Butler’s Band at the Middle East.
 

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Image Credit: Images courtesy of Kirk McNeil and Jean Hagarter.

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Celina Colby is the editorial assistant at Art New England magazine and the blogger behind Trends and Tolstoy.