The Ties that Blind

“The sense of camouflage really appealed to my artistic instincts”, Catherine told me. It triggered my return to my first love – painting, and the thrill of total immersion in colour and pattern. And my husband bought me a new easel.” As a mixed media artist, she physically incorporates her subject matter — The Tie — into her paintings. She uses a clear acrylic matte medium to attach the tie to the canvas, and creates an exciting work of art based on the pattern in the fabric. The concealment is remarkable. She enjoys the look of surprise on first-time viewers’ faces as they realize that there actually is a tie in the painting.

“People attach a lot of emotional significance to articles of clothing and decoration that they or people they loved wore,” she reminds me. (How about that shirt in the back of Jack’s closet in “Broke Back Mountain?”) One of her favourite commissions is based on the tie that a groom wore when he “tied the knot”. She is hoping that someone will ask her to memorialize a bow tie!

KNOT a Black-Tie Affair…

… is the apt title of Catherine’s Tie Series of paintings. Her ties come from secondhand shops or former owners, and she selects the “wildest men’s ties that I can find…and (I) allow their playful fabric patterns to take on a life of their own as they spill over onto the painting field. Every tie has had a life before it has become part of my painting. I bring the former owner’s personality and history into each work when I make colour and pattern decisions. Was this person a member of a specific social class where the colours of his tie depicted his role in that society, or was the pattern one that was meant to assert his individuality and divide him from the masses? Membership or protest?”

Spontaneous Liquid

In her abstract series, Catherine strives to evoke an emotion with her spontaneous, fluid, non-representational painting. “Pushing the paint across the surface is another method that I employ to create swift improvisational gestures. It is in these works that I take advantage of the painting process to capture the moment. Chance plays a vital role in my flowing and non-geometric style.,I work with a full fluid motion of my arm and body, often working in layers of colour glazes.”

Gutsche studied Fine Art at York University in Toronto, earning an Honours Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in graphic design. She then worked for several years as a graphic designer in the downtown Toronto arts market. Since her first trip to China at age sixteen, travel has played a significant role in Catherine’s artistic formation. There she recognized the importance of pattern, and was inspired by the Chinese ability to manipulate designs and colors to form intricate repetitions that are flipped or rotated to create masterpieces often seen on walls, floors, ceilings and household objects. This influence is readily apparent in her Tie paintings. From her exposure to the art capitals of Europe she gained an appreciation for the masters in all their glory, but it was at Uluru/Ayers Rock in Australia that she experienced the power of colour. It was also in Australia that she met her German husband, and the couple eventually moved to the Ottawa area in 1996.

Tie One On at the Red Trillium Studio Tour

Catherine does website design by day for a large company, and for small companies at night, especially for fellow artists, many of whom have appeared in theHumm and who participate with her in the semi-annual Red Trillium Studio Tour. This year’s Fall Studio Tour comprises 33 artists and artisans from the West Carleton area exhibiting works in 11 different studio locations.

On Nov. 25 and 26 Catherine Gutsche will be displaying her unique Tie series and examples of her “Spontaneous Liquid” abstract paintings as Tour Studio No. 8 at her West Carleton home studio at 106 Deerwood Drive in Kinburn, near the Panmure Rd. exit from highway 417. Great previews of her work are available at her beautifully designed website, and comprehensive Tour information is provided at www.redtrilliumst.com.