VISUAL ARTS

Michal Truelsen’s show of new works, “Earth Stories”, at the Loading Dock Gallery for the month of February, presents a rich, shimmery look at the world we live in. Truelsen says the show springs from her interest in geology and mapping, “and in the human experience of living on this physical earth.”
The show features a series of paper bas reliefs celebrating the course of the Merrimack River from Franklin, New Hampshire to the sea at Newburyport. Many of the works reflect the terrain around Lowell, showing the eons-long story of the planet in a new way. Truelsen helps us look at the river and the land it flows through independent of the cities, roads, and other structures that appear on conventional maps.
Truelsen works in mixed media, drawing, and printmaking. “Much of the work for this show is what I call ‘paper bas relief’,” she says. She cuts paper in organic shapes and glues the shapes together to build up intricate layers and surfaces that reward a visual exploration (it’s very tempting, but please: don’t touch!).
A Lowell resident, Truelsen grew up in Vermont and lived in New Hampshire for many years. She has a home studio for quiet, focused work; and a studio at Western Avenue for the stimulus of the “shared, lively environment” of the community of artists there. She says she makes art because there is no better way for her “to think about the really important stuff. For me, it’s a way of talking about, asking about, thinking about the essentials, the intangible parts of what we are.”
Truelsen studied printmaking at the DeCordova Museum, and has been creating works on, and of, paper for more than twenty years.
EarthStories shows in the Loading Dock Gallery at Western Avenue Studios, 122 Western Avenue, second floor of the A-Mill, from February 1 to 26, 2012. There will be a reception for the artist on Friday, February 3, from 6 to 9 pm. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am to 4:30 pm. For further information about the exhibit or the gallery, visit theloadingdockgallery.com or call Maxine Farkas at 978-349-8069.