Stibbon and “the innocent eye”

Campus community provides space for remembrance and celebration

AJ Dinsmore / Asst. A&C Editor / The USD Vista

On Wednesday, Jan. 30, students and faculty of the USD community gathered in the Humanities Center to hear artist Emma Stibbon speak about her dynamic paintings. Stibbon is a painter and printmaker from Munster, Germany whose landscape-based artwork takes on extreme ecologies like icebergs and deserts. In 2013, Stibbon received the prestigious honor of being elected to the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Her work has been showcased throughout the world, and her large-scale color woodcut, “Aqueduct, Rome” (2011) is on display in USD’s Humanities Center. 

As the Humanities Center prepares to celebrate the upcoming 200th anniversary of John Ruskin’s birth, Stibbon’s presentation could not have come at a better time. John Ruskin was a controversial Victorian artist whose work has influenced a variety of figures such as Marcel Proust, Mahatma Gandhi, and Jeremy Corbyn. Ruskin coined the phrase “the innocent eye,” as he insisted art students must have a childlike perception of the things they encounter before they draw them. He suggests that artists should take nature for what it is, rather than letting it become obscured by preconceived notions. Stibbon has always admired Ruskin’s work, saying it was about time he was recognized. She is interested in how its contemporary fashion gives it a type of “unfinished” look. Stibbon is especially inspired by Ruskin’s landscape paintings, and she went on to make her own renditions of them. Stibbons has traveled to Mont Blanc in order to find the same location of Ruskin’s “Mont Blanc” (1856) and “Glacier de Bossons, Chamonix 1849.” Stibbon mainly focuses on landscapes and cities and the accuracy of her paintings are proof of her extreme travels. 

Stibbon’s approach to her artwork is not one with shortcuts. She is interested in nature’s states of flux and change and seeks to be in the nature of the subject she is sketching. 

Before traveling to the site, she likes to make contact with an expert or scientist who can tell her about the landscape’s terrain. If the law allows, Stibbon prefers to explore the terrain by walking on and touching the earth so she can get a better idea of its texture and quality. She even shared a photo of her holding a sketchbook on a boat, surrounded by glaciers and rainfall. She initially goes to the site to gather materials and form a rough draft before she finishes her work in the studio. 

When looking back at her sketchbook, Stibbon said she has a better memory of the weather and what she was thinking when she uses her own sketches, than of just taking a photo. 

When learning about Stibbon’s techniques, the audience appeared to be most interested in her use of the ashes. Stibbon traveled to Hawaii to visit Mauna Loa, one of the largest and most active volcanoes in the world. She likes to collect ashes from the volcanoes in order to get the correct texture and color for her paintings. She shared a picture of many different collections of ash from various volcanoes. In some of her exhibitions, Stibbon has ash and stone on display under her painting because she wants to viscerally prove that she has been there, while also making the painting come alive. In this vein, she shared a painting that exhibited the neon glow of the lava at night among the dark ashes. Stibbon has always been fascinated by volcanoes because they show the “primordiality of nature” and was impressed by the people in Hawaii who still lived so close to the volcano. 

“We are always in an inevitable period of change,” Stibbon said, and was inspired that the Hawaiians have fearlessly accepted that. 

Stibbon creates her art with a curious approach, as she explores the terrain and finds natural souvenirs. Stibbon showed her audience the beauty the natural world has to offer which was a great contribution as USD kicks off Ruskin’s 200th birthday celebration. His birthday celebration will be held on Friday, Feb. 8 in the Humanities Center Gallery.