CHRISTMAS 2025 - painting by Tom Wachunas
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| John 1:14 |
Christmas Greetings to all of you!
BE BLESSED!
The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory,
The glory of the One and Only,
who came from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
JOHN 1:14
The Stunning Legacy of Her Extraordinary Odyssey
People in My Family (1999)
The Windmills of My Mind (2024)
The School of Art (2018)
In Search of Aliens (2024)
Sailor (2012)
The Blue T-Square (2015)
Naughty but Nice (2022)
Directions to My House #2 (2022)
Do You not Know I am Woman (1999)
By Tom Wachunas
"The
act of drawing is intrinsic to all visual art disciplines, and to express oneself through the basic mediums of
paper and pencil or paint and canvas is to penetrate an interior, subconscious existence - one that is uncharted, yet rich
in creative discovery." -
Patricia Zinsmeister Parker
“…
Tapping into the “subconscious’’ (which using my untrained hand facilitates)
allows me to make work that relies on intuition, a mixture of art-historical
and non-art resources in order to create funny, sometimes irreverent yet moving
imagery.” -
Patricia Zinsmeister Parker
“I began
to draw with my untrained left hand. What prompted this departure was a boredom
with rendering objects realistically and a subconscious need to find a means of
expression outside of formal artistic constraints.” -
Patricia Zinsmeister Parker
EXHIBIT: Left-Handed
Compliment – Celebrating The Life and Work of Beloved Artist Patricia
Zinsmeister Parker
/ at Strauss Studios
Gallery/ 236 Walnut Avenue NE, downtown Canton, Ohio / SEPTEMBER 13- DECEMBER
20, 2025 / viewing hours Wed.-Fri. 11-6, Sat 12-5,
CLOSING RECEPTION ON SATURDAY DECEMBER 20,
5 – 9pm.
From Strauss
Studios: “Join us at Strauss Studios for the closing reception of
Left-Handed Compliment, the first solo exhibition of Patricia Zinsmeister
Parker’s work since her passing in 2024. This show features an extensive
collection of her paintings, ranging from her early works of the 1970s to her
final completed pieces in 2024. In addition to the artwork, guests can explore
a visual timeline highlighting key milestones in her artistic journey. The
exhibition’s title is inspired by the transformative period when Patricia began
painting with her left, non-dominant hand—an unexpected shift that led her to
the distinctive style for which she became known.”
Here’s an 11th-hour THANK YOU to
John Strauss for the very important gift of his collaboration with the family
of the late Patricia Zinsmeister Parker in gathering and offering this astonishingly comprehensive
exhibit of 36 works dating from the 1970s through some final pieces from 2024.
Equal parts dream weaver and reality
shaper, my friend Pat Parker was a vivacious deconstructor in articulating the
familiar juxtaposed with the enigmatic. Insightful and inciteful, her uniquely
refined unrefinement could unsettle your aesthetic comfort zones. She was a thoroughly prolific and compelling
artist, often investing her paintings with the unfettered energy of that
proverbial kid who refuses to color inside the lines. A Parker painting was always
potent evidence of her inexhaustible exuberance at uninhibited mark-making. She
was seriously engaged with mindful play, making art that could wag a sassy
finger in your face and rattle your sense of “finished” aesthetic decorum.
There be ghosts in a Parker picture. Some
shout and laugh. Some whisper. Some sing and dance. Here are actions, moods, remnants,
echoes. Attitudes. Essences. Riddles and rumbles, chortles and challenges, shaking
shapes and loose lines lurking amidst clusters of colors both muted and wildly electric.
A brush with memory. Life that’s anything but still. Unencumbered by laborious
renderings of merely prosaic illusions, Parker painted a larger, deeper reality.
Hers was a gripping and intrepid personal odyssey into unmitigated looking. And
seeing.
In that spirit, come to the closing reception.
Look long enough at these confluences of the mundane and mysterious, these
visceral joinings of memories past to moments wholly new and forever present. Look
long enough. And see, please. Feel the push-pull - indeed the ineffable poetry
- of purely painted possibility.
Repsycheled Combobulations
Bullseye: The Arms Race, by Lou Camerato
Plain Sailing Weather, by Gwen Waight 
Circus Pony, by Susan Kurtz
Meristem 4, by Jonah Jacobs
Strombus 3, by Jonah Jacobs
Bigger Boat, by Gwen Waight
By Tom Wachunas
“The
object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to produce a reality of the same
intensity.” - Alberto Giacometti
“Can
works be made which are not 'of art'?” - Marcel Duchamp
“Found
objects, chance creations, ready-mades (mass-produced items promoted into art
objects…) abolish the separation between art and life. The commonplace is
miraculous if rightly seen.” – Charles
Simic
“"Look
at everything as though you are seeing it for the first time, with eyes of a
child, fresh with wonder." -Joseph
Cornell
EXHIBIT: REPURPOSED, at
Malone Art Gallery, 2600 Cleveland Ave. NW. on the Malone University campus, 2nd
floor of Johnson Center/ featured artists: Lou Camerato, Jonah Jacobs, Susan
Kurtz, Gwen Waight
From Malone Gallery exhibit curator, Kat
Francis Keomany: “REPURPOSED showcases a blend of two-dimensional and
three-dimensional artworks, delving into the creative possibilities that arise
from discarded items. This exhibition revitalizes forgotten objects and
overlooked materials, transforming them into something extraordinary.”
Word nerd here, chronically waylated in saying
THANK YOU, both to local artist Kat Francis Keomany for her important work as
curator of Malone University Gallery, and to the remarkable artists she consistently
brings to our attention. The exhibits there have been, and continue to be, a
dynamic enrichment of Canton’s art gallery milieu. And that would certainly
include the recently ended exhibit, REPURPOSED. It was a thoughtful and
tantalizing show of what I’ll very loosely call portmanteaux. (Just so
you know, portmanteau (pȯrt-ˈman-(ˌ)tō) - a word or part of a word made by combining the
spellings and meanings of two or more other words or word parts (such as smog
from smoke and fog); a collection of variable aspects packed together (as in a
suitcase), combining more than one element, use, or quality; or, an unlikely
composite.)
So simple, so complex, how art can both tease and
perplex. Sometimes with mere knick-knacks, trinkets, toys or bric-a-bracs. Thoughtful
and tantalizing, this particular exhibit was a genuine seriosity of curiosities
– symbolicons, if you will - all of which
thoroughly revitalized my own appreciation of so-called found object assemblage
art (a practice, btw, I often engage in my own work).
Here was a zany miscellany of physical ingredients
and nostalgic mementos. Where the commonplace acquired new breathing space.
Where personal reflections invited deeper inspections. Art is where the oft-understated
can get well-reinflated. Where memories and material things, maybe once lost or
tossed, can be found and rebound, juxtaposed to justsuppose. Resurrections and reconnections.
What the heck, hunt and peck. Guard the discarded. The artists in this show
opened their suitcases to more than simply tarry in the ordinary. Their transmutations
of everyday fluff made for some truly fascinating stuff.
Navigating Vicissitudes: Memento Omnia Mutari
Shall I Grow No More Than I Am Bound
One Song Among Us All
Soar The Bridges That I Burnt Before (detail)
Soar The Bridges That I Burnt Before
I've Lived A Life For Wealth To Bring
(l to r) And Here I Lay/ Born On The April Tide/
I've Lived A Life For Wealth To Bring
(left) Glowing In The Wonder / Immerse In That One Moment
By Tom Wachunas
“…The
raw materials used in these artworks all have direct physical connections to
the changes and loss that I have experienced. They come from the process of
collection and curation: sticks and bones gathered from the property around my
old home, flowers given out of grief, feathers given out of love, photos taken
during long reflective walks from times with those no longer here. These are
the raw materials of the heart of this artwork. Artwork that at once is about
control and lack of control. Holding on and letting go. Remember everything
changes…” – excerpt
from the artist statement by Greg Martin
“…And the dangling conversation, And
the superficial sighs, Are the borders of our lives…” lyrics from Paul Simon’s “Dangling
Conversation”
Vicissitude
- the quality or state of being changeable /
mutability / natural change or mutation visible in nature or in human affairs /
a favorable or unfavorable event or situation that occurs by chance : a
fluctuation of state or condition /a difficulty or hardship attendant on a way
of life, a career, or a course of action and usually beyond one's control
EXHIBIT: Memento
Mori – work by Greg Martin/ at Massillon Museum Studio M / 121
Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon, Ohio / ON VIEW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 28,
2025 /330.833.4061 / viewing hours: Tuesday through Saturday 9:30am - 5:00pm
and Sunday 2:00pm - 5:00pm
https://www.massillonmuseum.org/
MassMusings
podcast with Greg
Martin: https://www.massillonmuseum.org/home/programs/massmusings-musem-podcast
In his artist statement, Cleveland-based
Greg Martin tells us that a literal translation of the Latin phrase, memento
mori – the name given to this exhibit - is, “remember you
must die.” Historically, the words have
been applied to a genre of art that has been practiced across many centuries and
cultures: iconography symbolizing the
transitory nature of being alive. Human mortality. Art about the inevitable
arrival of our ultimate departure. OK, death.
But wait. There’s more. Martin also tells us
that his own artful mementos represent a deeper dive into the genre. Latin geek
that I am from a lifetime ago, I imagined an alternative title for this profoundly
arresting mixed media gallery installation: Memento Omnia Mutari. “Remember
everything changes,” as the artist re-minds us.
Looking
at the material manifestations of Martin’s intriguing ideations, my sense of
the sacrosanct was awakened. Here I was, in a chamber of reliquaries. Yet it
certainly wasn’t a dreadful experience of histrionic morbidity or absolute
finality. Martin’s assemblages are exquisitely crafted metaphors of – and dangling
conversations with – existential vicissitudes. Solemn meditations on the
fleeting conditions and circumstances of being alive.
So death,
per se, certainly isn’t the whole story being told in Martin’s objects.
Even their titles articulate a narrative spirit, infused with poetic lyricism. I
imagined chanting some of those titles, stringing them together as if they were
lines in a song.
And here I
lay. Born on the April tide. I’ve lived a life for wealth to bring. Glowing in
the wonder. Immerse in that one moment. Soar the bridges that I burnt before.
Forget our fate. Shall I grow no more than I am bound. One song among us all.
One
song among us all indeed. An eloquent confession of life’s evanescence.
Destination Dynamic, Group Galvanic
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| A.I. Brainbleed, by Tom Wachunas |
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| Phoenix (l), Harmony (r), by Phoenix Keane |
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| Travel, by Sherri Hornbrook |
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| Why (l), Because (r), by Samuel Gentile |
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| Don't Move, by Jessica Morton |
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| I Keep Changing (l), Maybe I'm Changing, by Stephanie Piscitello |
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| Over and Over, by Stephen Tornero |
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| Junctures, by Jeff Leadbetter |
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| But Now It's Done, by Aaron Foster |
By Tom Wachunas
EXHIBIT: Annual
Kent- Stark Art Alumni Exhibition, at the William J. & Pearl F. Lemmon
Visiting Artist Gallery, located in the Fine Arts building, Kent State
University Stark Campus – 6000 Frank Avenue NW, North Canton, Ohio / through
October 10, 2025/ viewing hours Monday-Thursday 8a.m. to 6p.m., Fridays 8a.m.
to 3p.m
Heads up! This gathering of 37 works from 22
artists – either former Kent Stark art class students, or current or former
Stark art department faculty members (regardless of discipline) – is certainly
one of the most exciting local group shows I’ve seen this year.
Here’s a veritable contemporary wellspring
of remarkably diverse content, styles, skills and materials: painting, drawing,
printmaking, digital, stoneware, mixed media assemblage.
OK
yeah, I’m in it too. Don’t let that stop you. Just know I’m genuinely grateful for
the invitation to join such impressive art makers as these. So if you’re
looking for really good reasons to come and look at this immersive treasure of
an exhibit, I’ll give you 22: Emily Bartolone, Phillip Buntin, Noah DiRuzza,
Faith Emerson, Andrew Foradas, Aaron Foster, Samuel Gentile, Bill Govan, Sheri
Hornbrook, Christine Janson, Phoenix Keane, Erin Kelly, Eleanor Dillon Kuder,
Jeff Leadbetter, Mary Mazzer, Maria McDonald, Jessica Morton, Julianne Nipple,
Stephanie Piscitello, Stephen Tornero, Tom Wachunas, David Whiteman.
Happy
hunting.
Talking Tin and other Rustbelt Ruminations
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| Tilted House |
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| The Laughing West Virginian |
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| Produce Man |
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| Just Smile |
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| Dog Faced Man |
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| Man in Yellow |
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| Mill |
By Tom Wachunas
“Found
objects, chance creations, ready-mades… abolish the separation between art and
life. The commonplace is miraculous if rightly seen.” - Charles Simic
“Every
normal human being (and not merely the 'artist') has an inexhaustible store of
buried images in his subconscious, it is merely a matter of courage or
liberating procedures ... of voyages into the unconscious, to bring pure and
unadulterated found objects to light.” -
Max Ernst
“It’s
not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”— Jean-Luc Godard
And this, from artist Robert Villamagna: “I am very passionate
about working with found materials, especially those items that show use, wear,
and rust. I love stuff with character…I’m giving that discarded piece of metal,
or that old object, a new life, a different life…For me, walking through a flea
market is like walking through a well-stocked art materials store. The flea
market is my palette.
EXHIBIT: Mixed-media
assemblages, found objects/metal collages by Robert Villamagna, at THE
GALLERY SPACE – on view to August 30, 2025 / curated by
Priscilla Roggenkamp / located in two retail spaces, NEST (open Mon.-
Sat. 10-6 and Sun. 11-4) and FRANCIS JEWELERS (open Mon.-Fri. 9-5), in
‘The Market Place’ shopping center, 1800 West State Street, ALLIANCE,
Ohio
And here’s yet another sniveling apology for
a late art report from this wandering
wordnerd. Anyway, first order of business: a laudacious THANK YOU to the highly
accomplished textile artist and musician, Priscilla Roggenkamp, for curating a
new art exhibit venue called The Gallery Space, located in Alliance.
Featured
in this soon to be concluded exhibit is the prolific mixed media artist, Robert
Villamagna, who grew up in the Ohio River rustbelt. The artworks that he creates in his West Virginia
studio are delightfully vibrant constructions utilizing, among other elements,
repurposed lithographed metals (‘tins’), found objects, and vintage
photographs.
His “stuff with character” exudes a distinctly
narrative spirit in the form of collaged emblems, labels, logos and insignias, often
accompanied by symbolic faces and caricatures that seem to pop out of printed
texts. Villamagna’s mementos are much more than random juxtapositions of flea
market flotsam or found vintage junk. These souvenirs are truly scintillating
and otherwise intriguing evocations of bygone blue collar days in the rustbelt,
before it became… well, too rusty to remember.
Next up at The Gallery Space: Paintings by
Christopher Triner, with opening reception on Thursday, September 4, 5 – 7pm.
Shall We Continue?
We're Finally Landing
Mother Tree
I Go to See the Place Once More
Interloper 
Torchlight
By Tom Wachunas
“Contemplation
is at once the existential appreciation of our own ‘nothingness’ and of the
divine reality, perceived by ineffable spiritual contact within the depths of
our own being.” – Thomas Merton
“We leave
something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though
we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going
back there.” – Pascal Mercier
EXHIBIT: Both
Sides of the Brain – Paintings by Kit Palencar, at Strauss Studios Gallery/
236 Walnut Avenue NE, downtown Canton, Ohio / THROUGH AUGUST 23, 2025 / viewing
hours Wed.-Fri. 11-6, Sat 12-5, CLOSING RECEPTION ON AUGUST 23, 5 – 9pm
https://artwach.blogspot.com/2025/02/life-at-corner-of-now-and-not-yet.html
He’s baaack…For the second time this year,
Canton viewers can embrace the art of Kit Palencar. In February, I saw his
marvelous solo exhibit at Canton Museum of Art (CMA). You can click on the
above hyperlink in case you want to read my thoughts about that experience. While
this collection at Straus Studios Gallery does include several pieces from the
CMA exhibit, the majority are other and newer works, though certainly no less
compelling infatuating. What I wrote in February remains apropos here:
Palencar’s paintings are profoundly soul-probing visions. Constituting an eloquent object lesson in
contemplation, they are poignant, mystifying and illuminating all at once.
Contemplating what? Palencar tells us,
"The left and right sides of the brain—often accepted as
separate domains—merge in these works to form a unified, complex narrative
about our existence and inevitable mortality…I encourage viewers to confront
the tension of our human nature against the scientific definitions of what nature
is. Nature does not resist its cycles… Through these paintings and drawings, I
aim to question how we, as conscious beings, engage with our own impermanence.
Can the cerebral and the organic find harmony? This exhibition invites viewers
to witness that tension, and perhaps, to feel at home in it."
There’s
a painting in this exhibit which reminds me of doing what I do with much of my
time, why I do it, and where I often do it. The painting is titled, interestingly
enough, I Go To See the Place Once More.
And
so I’m baaack, in an art gallery. Seeing once more. I’m riveted by that guy immersed
in an eerie glow of greenish light looking at what might be a smart screen (or
a smart SCREAM?). With his mouth slightly agape, he appears gripped, surprised.
Maybe even a bit alarmed. Might this be an OMG moment? A reveille? Is it a call
to tension, or simply whole-minded attention?
Palencar’s
paintings ask us to think about thinking by bridging the gap between our
cerebral hemispheres. A marriage of left to right, as it were. The left hemisphere
of my brain, where logic and reason supposedly reign supreme, accepts that the
artist is embracing the inevitability of natural life’s impermanence. Mortality.
Ok, death. However, that ever-present interloper - the right hemisphere
of my brain - breaks in and incites an emotional dialogue with all sorts of
suggestions and questions, including a memory of God’s somber words to Adam in Genesis
3:19 (which Palencar cites in his statement), “…for dust you are and to dust
you will return.” If that’s all there is to our story, such a promise could
conceivably create an inconsolable existential angst. Tension, to be sure.
Yet as long as we’re on the subject of
conversing with God about nature and death, what do we think about these words
(from Romans 8:22-23)? “We know that the whole creation has been groaning,
as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we
ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait
eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
Another promise, another truth. For relief,
for release. Can we think of death, then, as not a meaningless dreadful end,
but a necessary portal to glorious eternal life? From dust to divine destiny. It’s…inevitable.
And with that, I feel perfectly at home.
Thank you again, Kit Palencar. Your art is
an exquisitely epiphanic conversation starter.
