Cultured Magazine

I am three minutes late when I arrive at Helen Pashgian's studio, tucked in a parking lot of f an unremarkable Pasadena alleyway. Before I can knock, she opens the door—tall, lithe and emanating an elegance that is at once immediate and understated—and ushers me in to her dimly-lit studio. She has just returned from the Sun Valley Writers' Conference, at which she is a regular attendee, and is telling me about a previous year's talk given by late American diplomat Richard Holbrooke on the political and economic complexities of Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia and its relationship to the Saudi Arabian oil pipeline and the Strait of Hormuz, in the Persian Gulf. I quickly realize this is a studio visit unlike others. We enter her workspace and I find our seats are arranged, waiting for us: two directors chairs opposite a single disc of quietly luminescent pure green color. Throughout our hour-long conversation, which I am not allowed to record, I alternate between tr ying to write down ever ything Pashgian says and giving my full attention to her words. Phrases from my notes include: "out of time and space," "reaction to the world in which we live," "California as melting pot," "a space where words are no longer sufficient," "dissolution," "memor y," "DeWain," "Wheeler," "Bell," "Mar y," "Peter," "Turrell," "internal journey," "how light travels through color," "the light is the object." Such fragments reveal enough of Pashgian to situate her clearly within California's Light and Space movement. Yet 98 culturedmag.com LET THERE BE LIGHT BY SARA ROFFINO Light and Space pioneer Helen Pashgian at her 2014 LACMA exhibition. The artist has been an integral part of the Los Angeles art world for decades—beloved by curators, critics and fellow artists.

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