Gerald Peters Gallery | 9/30-11/12 | Santa Fe, NM

As Above, So Below

Step into the mythical realms of R.E.C. Chipper Thompson at an upcoming show at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe

By their very nature, the recent multi-media works of R.E.C. Chipper Thompson elude easy definiton. Rife with symbols, they are suggestive of the mysterious realms of the occult—ancient scrolls, paganism, the Tarot, dreams, celestial bodies, and the drawings of Carl Jung.

But Thompson is adamant that he is not consciously choosing imagery because of its archetypal symbolism.The Honeybee’s Dream, mixed media, 28 x 20½"

“When I’m working on a piece of art with a raven I don’t spend a day reading up on raven lore,” he says. “I’m aware of the symbolism and the relationship humans have had with birds over time but I don’t have to self-consciously interject them into my art. The way I depict my subject matter comes out iconically. When I experience nature, I don’t think about it scientifically or biologically," he continues. “When I’m in the field looking at wildlife, I relate to it the way I imagine the people who did the cave paintings at Lascaux looked at animals.”Dragonfly, mixed media, 40 x 13 1/8"

Thompson, who grew up in rural Alabama and now lives in Taos, New Mexico, was a writer (he authored a biography of his late wife, the internationally known painter and sculptor Lanford Monroe) and musician long before he was a visual artist. He has, however, designed concert posters for 30-plus years, and has always been drawn to the blurry line between art, graphic design and illustration, from the advertising posters of art nouveau icon Alphonse Mucha to psychedelic album covers.Deep Roots, mixed media, 15 x 9 7/8"

These influences show up in elaborate borders; placing a frame within the frame was common in the art nouveau aesthetic. His borders are often decorated with strange illegible writing and cryptic symbols. When asked if they mean something, he says “maybe,” adding that some of the characters are part of a decipherable language of his own creation. Dragonfly was the first piece he completed for Aloft & Beneath: New Work By R.E.C. Chipper Thompson, an upcoming show at Gerald Peters Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He points to the tall, Gothic, stained windows that frame the dragonfly and the stylized snake in Labrynth coiled inside an intricate border that he matted and framed again.The Raven’s Dream, mixed media, 26 5/8 x 18 5/8"

Thompson, whose mediums include ink, watercolor and occasionally gold leaf, is reticent when asked why he is impelled to work in the style he does. In addition to his early influences, he says part of it, on the most practical level, is due to his given skill set.

“If I was going to try to paint like Sargent or Whistler, I would be sorely disappointed,” he says. When prodded further, he adds, “Literally how do we explain the things we’re drawn to? Why does one person like broccoli and another mac and cheese? You can sort of poke at those instances but getting to the bottom of them is…a mystery. I’ve always been interested in history,” he relents. “And if you go back far enough you inevitably get to myth.”Labyrinth, mixed media, 13 x 10"Aloft & Beneath: New Work By R.E.C. Chipper Thompson will open September 30, with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. The show runs through November 12 at Gerald Peters Gallery’s Santa Fe location. —