MCKINLEY ART SOLUTIONS  presents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PASO A PASO – PRINTS FROM THE CAMINO DE SANTIAGO - Oakland Artist Melissa West to display prints based on 500-mile trek through Spain.

CONTACT:  Matt McKinley  |  415-902-9863  |  info@mckinleyartsolutions.com

In the autumn of 2006, Oakland artist Melissa West walked 500 miles through northern Spain along the ancient pilgrimage route known as the Camino de Santiago. This exhibit is a display of linoleum-block prints based on her journey.

The prints are based on sketchbooks West kept during her trek, as well as reflections and recollections upon her return to Oakland.

“The title “Paso a Paso” refers not only to how one must walk the Camino, step by step,” says West, “but also to the process of printmaking.  I chose block prints for this series to reflect the antiquity of the route, but I find that the carving of the blocks is very reminiscent of the pace of walking.”

Pilgrims have traveled along the Camino de Santiago for more than a thousand years.  West walked the section known as the Camino Frances, which wends its way from the French side of the Pyrenees to the city of Santiago in Galicia, the purported resting place of the bones of Saint James (Santo Iago in Spanish), one of Jesus’ 12 disciples and the only disciple buried in Europe.  His body was discovered when a shepherd, following mysterious lights, stars, and music, found the bones in a rock cairn. Other stories tell of an earlier, Celtic pilgrimage through Santiago to Finisterre, the end of the world, where the sun sets into the Atlantic and the Milky Way, pathway of the dead, touches the earth.

Modern pilgrims follow the Camino for many reasons.  West met devout Catholics eager to pay homage to someone who had known Jesus; people of every other religious persuasion, or who had no religious affiliation at all; people thankful for the recovery of a loved one after a long illness; people who wanted to re-order their lives after a traumatic event; and adventurers out for a good long walk.

West was first introduced to the Camino over 25 years ago during an art history class on Romanesque and Gothic art at Mount Holyoke College.  While studying the great pilgrimage cathedrals, she immediately felt the pull to travel the route and see these cathedrals as they were originally seen, rising slowly up from the earth as one steadily walks towards them.  West assumed –correctly, at that time—that the route was no longer in existence.  But in the 1980s and 90s groups of dedicated volunteers worked to restore the ancient routes, and now more than 100,000 pilgrims walk to Santiago each year.

McKinley Art Solutions is the nexus between artists in the San Francisco Bay Area and patrons of contemporary art.  San Francisco based curator and art lover Matt McKinley, principal of McKinley Art Solutions, is fascinated by the impact art has on quality of life and works to demystify the language of visual arts by offering a full range of services for both artists and collectors.

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