LYNN CRISWELL / MICHAEL BISHOP: Shuffling the Familiar / Now Not Then
Joseph Clayes III Gallery
LYNN CRISWELL / MICHAEL BISHOP
Shuffling the Familiar / Now Not Then
March 19–April 30, 2022
Northern California–based artists Lynn Criswell and Michael Bishop, whose two-dimensional and three-dimensional work is distinct yet complementary in both style and content, present their most recent works in Shuffling the Familiar / Now Not Then.
For the past 11 years, Lynn Criswell and her husband, artist Michael Bishop, have divided their time working in studios in Istanbul, Turkey, and rural Chico, California. Criswell’s painting process generally begins with a sequence of clusters of semi-clear events, routine observations, and at times, what appears as random thoughts and images, somehow connected or left out of previous works. Each new work begins with an assembly of her graphite sketches, hand-engraved sheet lead images, painted silhouettes, and a stabilizing horizon line. Criswell holds an MA from California State University, Chico, where she taught part-time for many years.
Michael Bishop graduated from San Jose State University in 1978 with a split emphases MFA in drawing and sculpture. That same year, he received a one-year teaching position at California State University, Chico and later became Department Chair, a position from which he retired 37 years later as Professor Emeritus. He describes his studio time, “I can’t put a time or place to when a work begins and when it’s finished as I used to. I’ve embraced studio-multi-tasking over the years, being more comfortable with projects that demand more headspace, and more stretches of time for clarity. The studio is just big enough so the works in progress can sit out and catch my attention.”
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