Artist Cynthia Greig at Art Association

Exploring ideas about perceptual experience, artist Cynthia Greig —whose photographs are being displayed at the Concord Art Association's exhibit "Seeing is Believing" — created her artistic photographs "by painting ordinary household objects white and then drawing directly on them with charcoal as (she looks) through (her) camera or with one eye closed impersonating the monocular view through the camera's lens," Greig said in a recent interview with Patch. 

"I then take a photograph of what I constructed, and print the color negative as a color photograph in the darkroom. The resulting image appears at first to be a very simple black and white line drawing  — looking more like a symbol or sign rather than a photograph of the object itself — but the more one looks the more one becomes aware of the nuance of photographic detail, color and the interplay between line, form and space," she said.

Focusing on objects ranging "from coffee cups to ice cream cones to books," Greig's compositions present "photographic documents of three-dimensional drawings," she states in the association press release.

"The Seeing is Believing" "exhibit features nine artists including Greig who employ photography as a tool to trace the arc of different realities, memory and the various meanings associated with a sense of time, place or identity," according to a press release from the art association.

The artists' whose work is displayed in Seeing is Believing are: Thomas Birtwistle; John Chervinsky; Jim Dow; Andy Freeberg; Cynthia Greig; Pamela Ellis Hawkes; Dave Jordano; Oscar Palacio; and Christopher Sims.

Q. What inspires you in your work?

A. My work is grounded in the history of and phenomena specific to photography. I was very intrigued when I first read about all the debates and questions raised by the invention of photography, whether aesthetic, philosophical, political etc.  The fact that since the beginning, its identity has been called into question by various camps and challenged as to whether or not it was art or science, fact or fiction, commercial or fine art continues to be a great source of inspiration for me. The advance of digital imagery raises even more questions. At the same time, I'm very near-sighted and have a tendency to mis-perceive spatial relationships and identities even with my glasses on. I'm very curious about how we as consumers of products, culture and politics can be manipulated—whether accidentally or by  design—and how photographs in particular can influence our memories and experience of the world we live in.

Q. According to the Concord Art Association's press release, your compositions present "photographic documents of three-dimensional drawings." Can you elaborate on this and explain the unique aspect of this type of art?

A. For Representations I draw directly onto three-dimensional objects with charcoal so that from the one-point perspective of the camera, the charcoal drawn on a painted white surface appears as a line in the photographic image. However, in spite of appearances, the charcoal wraps around the three-dimensional surface of the object represented. By creating such staged situations and visual hybrids, I'm exploring the nature of illusionism inherent in any representation, whether drawing, painting, sculpture or photography. For me, it's a metaphorical way to examine and question the assumptions and beliefs upon which we base our experience of reality.

Q. How long have you been an artist?

 A. I've been making images in one form or another since I can remember. However, I've been working primarily in photography since 1990.

Q. In this exhibit what is your favorite piece and why?

A. It's pretty hard to choose a favorite from among one's own work. I have a different relationship to each piece, and my preferences change over time. Right now I'm inclined to favor Globe. For me it's an image that really embodies the coexistence of creation and destruction. As the lines of the globe were drawn to define the shapes and boundaries of the continents, the charcoal powder fell on the paper below. Usually I clean up that residue before shoot, but as this series progressed, I was attracted to it as evidence of how the image was made and how with each mark my piece of charcoal grew smaller and eventually would disappear.

The exhibit runs through Aug. 12 at the association, 37 Lexington Road. Hours are Tuesday-Saturday from 10 to 4:30 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, contact the gallery at (978) 369-2578 or visit the website at www.concordart.org.