New paintings by prolific artist Maxine Martell are included in the exhibit, Maxine Martell: Magical Beings, at the Aurora Loop Gallery in Port Townsend, Washington. Curator Kathleen Garrett has assembled an interesting mix of paintings, collages, and other works on paper, that spans fifteen years and includes several new pieces that were created this year. 

The title Magical Beings alludes to the shimmering mystery that inhabits all of Martell’s art, on the surface and sometimes just below it. The concept of collage has always been a central idea in her paintings, which is not surprising when you consider that her work is inspired by her interest in film, fashion, architecture, literature, and history. She blends those influences with her own memories, travels, and family history, sometimes incorporating personal narratives. At first glance, the paintings in this show are beautiful, decorative, and engaging, but as you spend more time with them and look more closely, an undertone of intrigue, intellect, and hidden powers emerges.

The centerpiece of the show is a selection of paintings pulled from her Hybrids series. Not all of the pieces in that series are included here, but there are enough to keep your eye and imagination occupied and your brain firing on all synapses. Their layering and collage effects echo the tromp l’oeil paintings of an earlier series called Torn Paintings, in which Martell created paintings that appear to have been pasted over paintings that have now been partially revealed by a mysterious someone who peeled away parts of the painted-over images so that they are no longer completely covering up the evidence. The longer you look at them, the more those partially exposed paintings begin to capture your attention, and you find yourself inexorably drawn to thinking about what might be happening in the concealed work, and wondering how the two layered stories connect. If you’re interested in looking at those before or after you visit this show, you will find them in the Archive pages on her website: https://maxinemartell.com. 

Nearly all the new works included in this show are portraits of magisterial, elegant, and strangely powerful women. Perhaps they are they are outsiders, witches and sorceresses, perhaps they are imperious empresses. Or maybe they’re merely very confident ladies of leisure. Some appear to be established, easy and assured of their power. Others are more enigmatic and difficult to pin down, like the ethereal seer who has hung her lamp on an outstretched tree branch and gazes thoughtfully at something or someone that’s just behind your left shoulder. Martell clothes all of these women in layered and multi-patterned headdresses, hats, collars, and elegantly patchworked garments made from recycled bits of her older paintings that she has cut up and pasted onto the canvas.

There is always as much to think about in Martell’s paintings as there is to see. She’s a storyteller, but not the kind who holds your hand. Those women in Japanese kimonos—are they portraits of different people or are they different angles and aspects of the same woman? The titles are not much help. They’re little nuggets of misdirection, leading you down several possible paths or into spirals of introspection. Some portraits are named for objects, qualities, or ideas: Swallows, Evening, Plum Petals, Spring Willow. Others are directly descriptive: Gilded Butterflies and Girl with Amaryllis. There are references to mythological beings, including Merlin, Graces, Artemis, and Kitsune, the fantastical shape-shifting, nine-tailed foxes of Japanese legend, who are guardians, protectors, and sometimes lovers of mortal humans. But others are ambiguous. Are April and Aries women’s names or references to seasons and the zodiac? And speaking of odd little mysteries, why is Zodiak spelled like that? What is she up to? Since Hybrids is a series, what is the secret connection that links them? 

I unearthed one possible key to this mystery buried in an interview the artist gave after an exhibit of some of her paintings at Museo Gallery on Whidbey Island. She said: “A series often begins with an individual painting, which suggests variations. Once begun, I work on several paintings at a time. They call back and forth to one another until I abandon them.” 

So, there’s your first clue; the rest is up to you. Go see this wonderful show of Martell’s newest work if you want to hunt down more revelations about the kind of conversations that might be quietly whispered in the background between these magical beings. I promise it will be time well spent.

Kathleen Cain

Kathleen Cain was a journalist and a creative director at the legendary Heckler Associates for many years before starting her own communications consulting firm. Find her writings at www.postalley.org.

Through September 29, Aurora Loop Gallery, located at 971 Aurora Loop in Port Townsend, Washington, displays Maxine Martell: Magical Beings. Hours are Thursday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, visit www.auroraloopgallery.com.