This month's Cultural Arts program is a trip to the Writer's Center in Bethesda for a Gallery Talk by artist Deborah Tomlin at her show, SUTRA, an exhibition of drawings and paintings on display in the Writer Center’s Joram Piatigorsky Gallery. 

 

 

Parking, which is free on Sundays, is available in a county surface lot directly across Walsh Street, and at the Capital Crescent Garage (7171 Woodmont Ave), a 5-minute walk away.  

 

About Deborah Tomlin and the exhibit: A Maryland native, Tomlin is drawn to domestic life in her drawings and paintings. Common themes in her work include aging, loss, femininity, identity, independence / dependence. Tomlin is the primary caregiver for her elderly parents who often appear in her paintings. 

In 2022, Deborah Tomlin was diagnosed with breast cancer from a routine mammogram. She underwent treatment, which consisted of three different surgeries including a bilateral mastectomy. In SUTRA, Tomlin chooses to paint her scars and unfamiliar body and to examine the healing process through her art. As Audre Lorde expresses, in The Cancer Journals, “Any woman who has had a breast removed because of cancer knows she does not feel the same. But we are allowed no psychic time or space to examine what our true feelings are, to make them our own. With quick cosmetic reassurance, we are told that our feelings are not important, our appearance is all, the sum total of self.”

The title SUTRA in sanskrit means to stitch, to mend, to bring together, to heal. This body of work drew Tomlin to a more abstract approach to painting and drawing including the layering of collage materials and stitching directly on the canvas. Text based on comments by doctors and friends during her treatment is also significant to this work. Painting on top of overflowing and overlapping text expresses Tomlin’s grief and anger. Stitching directly on the canvas with yarn and thread reframes her sutures and scars through the lens of darning and mending, traditionally women’s work, transforming an object ripped and torn into a material stronger and more beautiful by the act of repair.

Tomlin's work is supported by funding from the Maryland State Arts Council, the Montgomery County Government, the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Members who need transportation should indicate that they need a ride when they register by setting the ride field to "need a ride".  If you are able to offer a ride, please let us know that as well.