Tresia Oosting

Semblance

Tresia Oosting is a mixed media sculptor and doll maker who has worked for District 81, the Spokane Art School, and SFCC Youth Camp teaching art. Her work has been on display at the Tinman Gallery and Art in the Garden. Aside from Tresia’s work featured in galleries she puts together workshops for children as part of the MAC’s Family Fests and also presents children’s workshops at the Tinman Too, an extension of the Tinman specifically devoted to children.

Last Friday, September 30, Tresia’s show Semblance opened at the Tinman Art Gallery in the Garland District of Spokane. Tresia’s mission for Semblance is to illustrate meditation on line, color, and shape, and the responses they invoke in the observer. A reoccurring medium used in her artwork is the use of sewn cloth or wraps that are painted and waxed to create a conceptual piece with new meaning.

This year for Tresia’s third show at the Tinman she is presenting her new bird dolls. To her, they represent the “transience and fleetingness of life”. Tresia displayed works on large canvases done with paint and wax, several pieces are made with wood, rope, tape and paint, and she always presented various groupings of prints, among others. She focuses on the colors red, black, and white. Tresia’s Portrait of Friends, done with pen and ink, had the most impact on me personally. It is a series of about 7 framed mixed media prints. She continued her bird imagery and varied the number of birds appearing on each piece. They are in a sequence undulating between one single bird on a print and several birds on a print. To me, this symbolized the seasons of friendship that we go through in life. Some pieces in the series had a more calm tone than the others that radiated a feeling of excitement. Whether we are more of a loner at one point or our social life is thriving Portrait of Friends is relatable and applicable to almost anyone. We all go through stages in our emotions relating to friendships.

Tresia’s artwork is simple and leaves room to personally interpret the feelings they invoke in you. She is very minimalistic in her manipulation of what she wants the viewer’s emotions to be when the observer views her works. It is obvious that through her Semblance pieces, she cares about the viewers personally impressions and wants them to be their own opinions with no force and very little direction. Her easy going feel is relatable to the community around her. Tresia’s medium choices are similar to those of Pier Mondrian, and Dutch painter who focused mostly on an abstract style. When comparing the two artists both resemble one another, in color choice, and the importance of line movement and composition.

I connected mostly with the 2D pieces; personally they were more positively appealing. Although, the sculptures she constructed using tape, and rope, among other various materials, evoked a sort of conviction within me. A combination of the colors, the structure, and the simplistic nature of those specific pieces left me with mixed emotions. It left me wondering if it was equally as convicting or moving for others as it was myself. Was it the colors specifically? Was it the composition? Would it have evoked the same emotions if either the color or structure were even slightly altered? What does it take, looking at a piece of art, to convict us as humans, and when we feel that conviction what is it stemming from?

Works Cited:

Tinman Reception. September 30, 2011.