Every Moment Special --- Day 15/62

Walk: SF Presidio

Distance: 4 miles

Suzanne Jackson (b. 1944) , 2019. Photograph by Tim Doyon. Courtesy Ortuzar Projects.

Something strange happens when you look at Suzanne Jackson's works.  The image is right there on the canvas, paper or whatever medium it is affixed to, you can see it clearly, but the sense you get when looking is that it is just momentary and on its way to disappearing.  Like a beautiful dawn or splendid sunset.  You see it, but with the mixture of elation at the spectacle and sad sense it is momentary.  Jackson has captured that, pure light gelling into an intimate, tender, heartfelt but fleeting moment.  

Jackson's is the art of special moments. There is a poetic purity there.  No artifice. You are not entirely sure of what you are looking at, but you know it to be true. Here is what Ciwt means: 

Suzanne Jackson, Blooming, 1984, oil on canvas

It's the combined mystery of nature (which Jackson has been close friends with from her childhood in the innocent Bay Area and Alaska days), of dance (which she as trained in and did on stage), of stage setting (which she learned at Yale and taught), of poetry (which she writes) and of lifelong loving connection with people. Somewhere in her artistic intuition she has assimulated these plus post-Watts LA, the first black female art gallery owner, Angela Davis, costume design and found vibrant, mesmerizing places for them in her art*.

Suzanne Jackson, Hers and His, 2018, acrylic, cotton, scenic bogus paper & wood, 86" x 67"

* Her solo exhibition is at SFMOMA for a few more days and then travels to the Walker in Minneapolis.