Origins and Evolution: 5 Generations

January 26 - June 26, 2021

Cordata Gallery is proud to announce the exhibition Origins and Evolution: 5 Generations to open to the public January 26, 2021.* Inspired by Clara Anderson, known to the family as “Grandma Joe”, the exhibition gathers together artworks by generations of artists in the Anderson/Syre family: Grandma Joe, her grandson David Syre, and Syre’s daughter Amy Healy. Origins and Evolution reveals how the power of art can transcend generations and forms.

The urge to create art that runs through the Anderson/Syre family began with Grandma Joe. Clara had always wanted to be a painter but felt she had to raise her family first. She did not begin painting seriously until she was in her early 70’s, using her Edmonds kitchen as her first studio. The exhibition offers an experience to enter Grandma Joe’s world through a recreation of her kitchen inside the gallery walls, along with many of her beautiful landscapes.

Clara’s art deeply affected her grandson David Syre, who began painting at a very young age. Much like his grandmother, David also pursued his passion of art later in life, starting to draw and paint again at the age of 72. But instead of landscapes, he followed his internal urge to express his emotions with free gestures, inspired by the impressions of daily life on canvas. David’s work shown in this exhibition unequivocally reveals David’s personality and his big, bold and unapologetic approach to life.

David’s daughter Amy Healy inherited the family’s dedication to art. She was the first to study art and formally train as an artist. Amy is a keen observer of her surroundings and takes everyday items she sees around her and uses them to produce playful and colorful works. Although Amy’s works clearly reveal her whimsical, fun and open personality, they are the elegant creations of a truly sophisticated artist.

The final family member to be included in the exhibition is Amy’s daughter Ann, widening the span of the family’s inherent urge to create art to more than a century. Ann follows the footsteps of Clara, who certainly would be very proud.

Clara "Grandma Joe" Anderson's landscape paintings, David Syre's pictorial travel journals and colorful canvases, and Amy Healy's delicate and whimsical three-dimensional collages are different at a first glance but share many surprising life experiences, memories, and emotions. The exhibition compares and highlights the masterpieces of each artist and tells their story through their creative views.