Recent Work by Margaret Ezekiel

Kauai artist Margaret Ezekiel was born in Djakarta, Indonesia, spent her childhood years in the Netherlands and, in 1961, immigrated to the United States. She received her Bachelor of Fine Art degree, focusing on drawing and painting, from the California State at Long Beach in 1976, and in 1979 moved to Hawaii, settling in Waimea on the West side of Kauai.

In response to the island's visual intensity, Ezekiel turned away from her earlier predominantly figurative work and, choosing the immediacy of pastel on paper, became primarily known for her ethereal twilight cloudscapes soaring over a hint of already darkened land or sea and the urban nightscapes illuminated by street light and punctuated by the occasional red of a disappearing tail or arresting stop light.

This exhibition, however, presents Ezekiel's recent return to the figure, in a series of seven individual panels entitled Procession, her most ambitious work to date. Ezekiel contemplated this body of work for many years, anchoring her thoughts in the pages of her journals. The actual work finally came to fruition only after her mother's death, allowing her to execute a series of deeply personal and intimate images.

The seven panels of Procession function singularly as dynamic figure compositions, yet seen together become a narrative and create a dialogue with the viewer. Walt Whitman wrote, "All is procession; the universe is a procession with measured and beautiful motion." Ezekiel feels grateful to be part of this process.

In Procession 1, a weeping woman, her face buried in the white cloth she holds, a doorknob lying at her feet, conveys the tragic feeling of loss, abandonment, and deepest grief.

Procession 2, in which a man, hand covering his eyes, turns away, is paired with the first panel. Behind him a shadow figure merges into the dark background, hand reaching back for the doorknob on the left edge of the panel. The viewer senses a longing and regret and understands that the unseen "door" separating them can never be opened. These two panels introduce a visual story of the interpersonal relationships we share as social beings.

In Procession 3, a female figure walks into a brilliant light; opening to forgiveness and grace. The two women in Procession 4 encounter one another in a moment of acceptance and compassion. One of them steps out of the light, her arm extended and hand reaching out in a comforting gesture of reassurance. A turning point occurs in Procession 5: we see a man in the middle of his life, his stance is challenging and direct, revealing strength, confidence, endurance and the inevitability of time. Experience has marked his face with sadness and knowing. Ezekiel juxtaposes this image with a young boy in Procession 6, standing in the same hands-on-hips pose; he seems to exude pure innocence. The man and the boy stand next to each other in their separate panels, connected by time. In the last panel, Procession 7, a couple embraces in what appears to be a doorway. Their individual boundaries blur in the oneness of that embrace.

Although this journey is a personal one for Ezekiel, it is universal in that relationships and dynamics between people have no biases and are shared throughout cultures.

Ezekiel generally works from dark to light; in the Procession series she limited herself to a moody palette of only five colors, including a deep Prussian Blue for the underdrawing and dark shadows, medium to pale yellow-grey for the flesh tones and highlights, and both a warm and a cool white. To begin, she covers large areas of dark blue pastel paper using the side of the pastel stick and then goes back in with the sharp edge creating the subtle forms of the muscles and shadows of each figure.

Ezekiel uses her fingers to blend the colors, creating a nuanced, velvety surface. The compositions of the works are unusual in that these figures exist in an indeterminate, ambiguous space, as if they are barely contained. The empty, void-like space around the figures emphasizes a feeling of isolation and existence within a larger world. These compositional choices add to the visual dynamic and the power of the works. Through the challenging medium of pastel, Ezekiel continues to push boundaries - both in her chosen medium, as well as in her subject matter - creating works that continue to be both provocative and insightful.