Local Art Seen: Robb Quisling's Common Threads at Washington Gallery

This past Saturday I stopped at Washington Galleries to attend the reception for Robb Quisling's new show, Common Threads. I'd first seen his work at the DAI where he was part of a joint show with Jen Dietrich. As I learned at the time, Quisling is an artist who also teaches (Hermantown school district.)

Common Threads carries the notion of things that bind us. but the additional variable of knots is intriguing. Learning how to tie knots is a basic skill learned in Boy Scouts. Learning how to untangle knots is also a life skill.

EN: So, what's the Common Thread in your current exhibit at Washington Gallery? What's the deeper level on this theme for you personally?

Robb Quisling: My theme for a show at the Washington gallery began a year ago. When I started working on it it was about knots as a metaphor. I love the idea of something so economical containing so much information. Knots that connect ropes to other ropes, knots that connect ropes to objects, knots that aren't functional, and tangles all seem like good thought experiments. My favorite piece in the show is called Quick Release Knot and is about the “quick release knot.” If one end of the rope is pulled, the knot stays tight. If the other is pulled, it unties easily. I describe this with an installation that offers a viewing area for each end of the rope.

As time went by and as I talked about my progress with my art friends the theme started to shift a little. Jonathan Thunder is the curator for my exhibit and my weekly racquetball partner so I was able to check in with him during the year. During a studio visit with Jonathan and his partner Tashia Hart we noticed many of my existing pieces use the device of cords or ropes or string to connect objects. The working title at that time became Common Thread. The connections are sometimes about power and sometimes about cooperation. I rely on the people in our art community to help me process information visually. Aryn Bergsven, the art teacher at Harbor City, Jeff Dugan, David Hodges, Cecilia Lieder, my printmaking teacher, Robert Ripinski and several other artists as well as my art students at Hermantown help my development. As far as art influences are concerned, I have always been a fan of Edward Hopper and I am now recently interested in Chris Ware.

EN: Who are the artists who have most influenced you?

RQ: In the 90s when my wife was in school I found a local artist that I admired and I asked her for lessons. Cecilia Lieder taught me to make prints and introduced me to the art community. I became a member of the Northern Printmakers Alliance and the artists there encouraged me to go to school and get my art education B.A. I have been the Hermantown High School art teacher for 10 years now. Although my strength is printmaking, I have gotten a huge amount of encouragement to make installation work by Jen Dietrich and Jonathan.

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Here are some images from the show, in the event you can't make it in person.

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Meantime, art goes on all around you. Can you dig it?