Flight Of The Blue Eagle

Flight Of The Blue Eagle

This pencil and color pencil drawing is of the upper torso and head of a woman superimposed with a bird forms, including an eagle and an owl. The wings of each are outstretched, and further sets of outstretched wings are incorporated into the work, some of which almost as if standing in for the woman’s hair. The woman’s bare arms are raised up over her body, her head is turned up and to her left, and her eyes and mouth are open, as if in the act of crying out. Areas of purple, blue, red, orange and yellow are added to delineate the forms.

1999

Gift of Rossini Cullen Family Estate

St. Catherine University. This digital image may not be reproduced for any reason without the
express written consent of St. Catherine University. Artwork available
for faculty/staff use. Please contact the Catherine G. Murphy Art
Gallery Director, Kathy Daniels, at (651) 690-6637.

Gemma Rossini Cullen (1937-2004) was born in Saint Paul, MN. She received a B.A. from the College of St. Catherine (now St. Catherine University) in 1960 and an B.F.A. from Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1969. She became a member of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Carondelet in 1955 and exited in 1967. She married Walter Cullen in 1969. The couple had two children, Enrique and Tonya, and remained married until her death in 2004. Gemma’s work includes large-format paintings and drawings. It routinely depicts women, nature, architectural elements, and abstract forms, at times with an emphasis on repetitive morphing or mutating imagery, and an incorporation of negative space. Like many women were emerging from the Catholic religious community in the 1960s, Gemma was questioning the ways in which the church had marginalized the role of women within its community in the past and, as an ex-sister, exploring new versions of what it meant to be a woman in the present and going forward. In Gemma’s case, this meant exploring creating art for women. Gemma was influenced in her exploration by the writings of Carl Jung and his exploration of “global cultural histories and archetypal realities.”1 The archetype [and transformation thereof] Gemma was most interested in was that of the Goddess, and she explored this subject in many of her works. As she continued to evolve as an artist, her interest in metamorphosis grew, and she would eventually create a number of successful drawings depicting this concept. In 1992 Rossini Cullen founded her own company, Business Graphics Network. She worked there until 2004 in graphic design, sales, and production. She was a founding member of the Women's Art Registry of Minnesota (WARM) Gallery from 1976 to 1987. Rossini Cullen’s domestic exhibitions included venues at the College of St. Catherine, North Hennepin Community College, and Minneapolis Community College, the WARM Gallery in Minneapolis, and the McCrae Gallery at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, New Mexico. Her work is part of collections throughout the United States including Gila Regional Medical Center, Silver City, University of Minnesota Law School, Saint Joseph’s Hospital, Saint Paul, Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce, Minnesota Museum of American Art, Federal Reserve Bank, Minneapolis, Dorcy Marquart Law Firm, Minneapolis, and Cardiac Pacemaker, Inc., Saint Paul. Gemma also “produced a major suite of drawings for two books, Coulee Deep, poems by Lois Sindelar, Extended Exposure Press, 203, and Twin Cities Perceived, text by Jean Adams Ervin a study of words and drawings, published by University Minnesota Press, 1976.”2 1,2(Erickson, Elizabeth. (2009). Gemma: Tales of Change. Saint Paul, MN: St. Catherine University.)

pencil and colored pencil

drawing

19 x 23 inches

drawing

2012.3.5