We met during an art gallery
stroll down my favorite avenue, fabled Royal Street in the French Quarter.
Actually, I knew something about Louisiana artist legend Tanya Dischler’s
paintings, having received a solid recommendation from an avid fan, her
husband Nick, at a memorable wine dinner at Restaurant Indigo the previous
evening. I assumed a loving husband like Nick could never be an art critic
regarding his spouse’s work. The Royal Street meeting was my wonderful
opportunity to hear from artist Tanya face to face. I became very interested
and proceeded to view some of her works.
Soon, I forgot about all
those priceless treasures on Royal Street.
Tanya Dischler is not
of this world. She came from another universe where the artist reigns,
agreed to share her talents for a while, build a noble family and show
us how important the artist’s brush is in our quest for peace, understanding
and pure joy. Her paintings make the statement that only through art will
we ever see such things. Flowers literally explode; birds flutter; a bug-eyed
owl seems to know too much; exotic bronze masks harken to long-disappeared
civilizations; bowls, jars and wine bottles are omnipresent.
Georgia O’Keeffe
meets Georges Seurat.
Tanya Dischler, by her
own description, paints what she has seen and experienced from her years
in South Louisiana. Tanya and her family live in Mandeville near Lake
Ponchartrain. Her journey as a cerebrally gifted woman began in her birthplace
of Bayou Sale, then to education at two Louisiana colleges and artist
workshops in the U.S., Mexico, France and Indonesia. Her creative process
seems complicated to those mortals like me who love great art for what
is—something stirred up in the heart and soul, but who don’t
always appreciate the intricacies of taking a vision and transferring
it to a surface permanently through drawings and the exquisite use of
a paintbrush.
Tanya told me that once
the vision is fixed, she makes a drawing, and with a mixture of acrylic
and watercolor, transfers everything into one of her brilliantly colored
and detailed paintings. There is a juxtaposition of realism with abstract,
muted with the vivid, soft and faded with bold but gentle clarity. Cows
assume a spiritual place. Neon-propelled fish dominate a room. A glass
of wine near a bowl of fruit suggests it should be seen by us rather than
consumed.
“I dig deep inside,”
Tanya said, “and locate fantasy. Everything from that moment on is
an effort to portray the fantasy for others to see and understand.”
Within that parameter, Tanya’s images are a tour de force, high-octane
images often jumping off the canvass or, alternatively, hiding in the
painted shadows.
After you know an artist,
everything about their works takes on much deeper meaning. You get to
know them through media: biographies, movies or the stage, the way most
of us “met” Picasso, Da Vinci, Frieda Kahlo, Van Gogh and Andy
Warhol. There is suddenly an added intimacy and mere admiration becomes
obsession - the good kind- more akin to devotion than madness.
Tanya Dischler is the
undisputed master of her supernatural soul, allowed by an unknown and
mighty power to create, transform, display and communicate in the loveliest
of all universal mediums. Nancy Dawson, who lives in Australia, had the
great fortune to visit Tanya’s studio in Mandeville: “Her work
intrigued me from the moment I walked into her studio," she shared.
"Each of these paintings by Tanya now represents stages of my own
life: healing and the loss of a loved one.”
Artists
are subjected to style-based categories, an exercise better left for academics.
Most worthy art on the market today is, I believe, beyond this. After
all, we are multicultural beings, an amalgam or synthesis of what has
gone before. Better to enjoy what is on the canvas. Tanya Dischler’s
place of origin was some gentle, naturally perfumed land filled with friendly
wildlife and scattered fields of magnificent wild flowers. So peaceful
and quiet; so enduring.
Is she really from South
Louisiana or here on a celestial visit?
EDITOR’S
NOTE: Tanya Dischler’s remarkable paintings continue to earn critical
praise and attract discerning collectors from the four corners. Enthusiasts
may contact Tanya directly by email at tfdischler@hotmail.com
and view many of her works at www.tanyafdischler.com
. Doc plans to add a few of Tanya’s creations to his own magnificent
art collection. 
