Running through May 23 at Copley Society of Art, “Meditations on Paper” features the paper works and collages of Sandra Samaha, a juried member of the association. This is Samaha’s first show in Boston and marks a return to a New England audience after most recently having an exhibition in California where Samaha has a second, Pacific, home. Currently, Samaha works out of a home-studio in Kittery, Maine. About two-thirds of the exhibition are new works alongside a selection of pieces from years prior.
Samaha collages using acid-free, fine art paper, archival quality glue, and a standard pair of scissors. Her work shows clear, precise and technical skill. Each collage can stand alone or can be part of a lifelong series that are a thematic whole. Her works reflect a type of introspection that only comes through a meditation and discernment, whether creating or observing, in a hypnotic trance or after brief “Aha! moment” that permanently affects your way of thinking.
Shea finds herself drawn to the variety of patterns, stories and quirks of American quilts. Samaha is sure to note and appreciate textile arts that were primarily created by women and were one of the only forms of self-expression and industry when fine-art and paid-labor excluded women and was largely inaccessible. While inspired by quilting and textile art, Samaha is not a quilter herself; collaging is her most primary medium.
In addition to quilting and textile art, faith exploration is a repeated theme in Samaha’s work; it’s notable in the sacramental titles of several of her pieces including “Communion” and “Baptism.”
“Communion” is an imagined, seaside — perhaps mediterranean — town. A quatrefoil of mint, oxidized cathedral domes which hold five segmented scenes. The center image is a bird’s eye view — an orchard is the backyard of a stucco, concrete and terracotta village. The surrounding images capture moments within the town’s existence. Friends and families call out – by phone, by word, by a wave — to reach the other side of town and perhaps connect with another moment in time.
In “Baptism,” multi-color, paper-tile lays the foundation of a pool, complete with a simple diving board that almost looks like unfinished wood. The subject, age-less and sex-less, has dived into a large pool. They have just splashed down into deep, blue water that could swallow them. From the left corner, dark from the shadow of the diving board, is the deep end. A noticeably sentient shape manifests in the deep end like a monster with long fingers reaching out, contrasting with the rounder and brighter swirls of blue and periwinkle the promising swimmer is heading for. There is a certain quick motion to the subject reiterated by the shadow; although we do not see a way out, the subject propels to the other end.
My own discernment and reflections guided me through the works on display. The collages work as a visual aide into understanding Samaha’s inspiration while also opening the mind’s eye. I was drawn to three works which I viewed a series of comparative science — Spring Memories”, “Transcendence” and “Blind Faith.” Samaha was receptive to my interpretation.
“Spring Memories” is botanical and renewed. The palette is pastel, yellows, pinks and more beige purples; deer and butterflies frolic and reside in a menagerie where the wind whispers a reflection of spring with black pen over the scene.
“Transcendence” feels anatomical. An outlined, human subject is posed in a deep reach with pronounced muscular thighs, grounded in strength. The colors are of fluids, flesh and blood and fat. The subject’s body is filled with their nervous system on top of a background reminiscent of animal cells underneath a microscope.
Finally, “Blind Faith” feels technological and futuristic encompassing a realization that is only achieved in the depths of intense and overwhelming meditation. In her artist statement, Samaha reflects on the present and modernity: “Split screens with multiple images on television, with words running on a continuous loop at the bottom of the screen contain the latest news feed. It is difficult, without further investigation, to know if the information presented is a fact or a fiction.”
“Blind Faith” sees further into the screens, beneath the television pixels and wireless signals. The colors are grayscale, muted blues and black. Internet globes and spheres with close, unidentifiable figures create a ring around an abstract central image, resembling a fan or solar panels. Furthering the mandala, a bright, rope surrounds the technological sphere making the center of the collage a black hole. At each corner is a compass, grounding the collage through magnetic force.
“Meditations In Paper” invites the viewer to interpret and experience on a deeply personal level. The careful cuts and pertinent themes encourage human reflection — starting in the present and transcending to the beyond.
(“Sandra Samaha: Meditations on Paper” remains on display through May 23 in the Upper Gallery at Copley Society of Art, 158 Newbury St., Boston, Massachusetts. “Meditations on Paper” is on display in the Upper Gallery. Copley Society hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. and Monday by appointment. The galleries are free to enter. For more information, visit copleysociety.org/exhibitions/sandra-samaha-meditations-in-paper/.)