Copley Connects Fall/Winter 2024

Unveiling In Blue Time : New Art by Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio By Millie Fullmer , Acquisitions and Cataloging Librarian During Hispanic Heritage Month earlier this fall, Copley Library celebrated the unveiling of new artwork by USD alum, artist, and visual arts professor Tatiana Ortiz Rubio. The unveiling drew an enthusiastic crowd of art appreciators and creatives, including USD’s President Harris, many faculty, and students. On show in the fall semester in Copley’s lower-level exhibit space, this series is entitled In Blue Time . It consists of three large paintings in alluring blue hues. Also, on display are five books that have inspired Ortiz-Rubio over the years, comprising A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit; Bluets by Maggie Nelson; The Rigor of Angels by William Egginton; Sunstone by Octavio Paz; and Labyrinths by Jorge Borges. When discussing In Blue Time , the artist mused over our cognitive abilities to both remember and forget, the latter being essential in freeing the mind to process thoughts and feelings. In explaining this cognitive phenomenon, she referenced Egginton’s The Rigor of Angels first chapter that details a Russian journalist’s struggles with having a perfect memory. On a more personal note, Ortiz-Rubio’s Mexican identity drew her to the poem, “Sunstone (Piedra de Sol),” by Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz which is guided by the circular Aztec calendar. The series In Blue Time is the result of Ortiz-Rubio’s artist in-residence (June 5-28, 2024) at the Timken Museum of Art in Balboa Park, San Diego. During this residency, the artist closely observed Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting, Parable of the Sower (1557) from the museum’s permanent collection. This iconic landscape painting is known for its use of atmospheric perspective with undulating shades of blue articulating distant mountains echoed by the markings of the In Blue Time paintings. Ortiz-Rubio’s artist statement for the original Timken Museum exhibition provides insight into her creative process “That landscape which we see at a distance, in between layers of atmosphere, barely visible, with no marked definitions, is a visual representation of the experience of memory. The further we are from that memory, the less clear and more affected we are by layers of time, interpretation and forgetting.” (https://www.timkenmuseum. org/news/in-blue-time-summer-2024/) The three works by Tatiana Ortiz-Rubio may be seen on display now on the second level of Copley, on the east wall of the main study area and in the Journals Reading Room. These pieces are an exciting new addition to Copley Library’s growing art collection.

Los primeros años (The First Years). Oil on wood panel. 2024.

Top and bottom: Fulgor de un olvido I & II (Flare of a forgetting I & II) . Oil on wood panel. 2024.

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