Viewpoint Gallery - Sacramento Valley Photographic Arts Center (SVPAC), fine art photography exhibits & photographer education

Karen Connell

"California Missions: A Personal View"

August 18 - September 29, 2000

Reception: Saturday, September 9, 2000, 5:30 - 8:30 PM

Blue Door, Mission San Miguel Archangel

Karen Connell

I have always been fascinated with the ways people personalize and make more human their environment. I found in the Spanish based cultures of Spain, California and the American Southwest the use of natural materials, especially plants and flowers, color and texture and handmade or painted items to create a more comfortable space. Perhaps this is not surprising, given my training in Cultural Anthropology. Initially I was attracted to the use of natural materials, artifacts and color to soften the stark lines of the basic adobe type architecture. I have moved on to explore how that effort to personalize the environment creates a feeling of serenity and peace, as if the objects, nature and humans were one. More recently I have been exploring the California Missions as examples of this theme. In them I found a strong expression that ties color, artifacts and spatial relationships together. The result is a sense of serenity and calm that resonates with feeling, very much alive

My first photograph in this body of work was taken on a trip to Spain. In the small mountain village of Grazelema, I found the local chapel of their patron saint, Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles. It was tiny and fascinating. I could barely get the whole altar area on my ground glass. It was richly packed with color and detail. There was a pervasive sense of calm and serenity. When I returned to California, I discovered that the missions evoked a similar response. I began, to photograph within the missions, not as a documentary, but to capture and express this feeling.

Tour, Mission Dolores

Sanctuary, Mission San Antonio

Over the last decade I have been building on this foundation. With strong encouragement from Morley Baer and other friends, I have compiled this personal view of the California Missions. I hope that you will find the images as compelling as I do and that they will invoke in you that elusive sense of serenity and peace so missing from everyday life.

Fountain, Mission Santa Barbara

Exhibit News

If you missed the Second Saturday reception on September 9, you missed a splendid celebration of the California Mission exhibit of longtime board member Karen Connell. We had quite a crowd in our Gallery that evening in a festive mood. The exhibit also received attention in Victoria Dalkey’s column in the Sacramento Bee.

Connell, a member of TenEyes, a group of women photographers which has exhibited extensively in the Sacramento area, has compiled a personal view of the California Missions which includes compelling color photographs taken over the past decade. Her work explores the strong expression that ties color, artifacts and spatial relationship together.

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