SPIRITUAL TABLEAUX

 

SPIRITUAL TABLEAUX 

The Sower

Tent of Meeting

Jonah Palimpsest

Holy Ground

 

Golden Calf

Ash Wednesday

By Tom Wachunas

 “The first demand any work of art makes upon us is to surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way.” - C. S. Lewis

 

tableau – noun / ta-ˈblō /plural tableaux / 1: a graphic description or representation : picture /2: a striking or artistic grouping : arrangement, scene

theophany – noun  / thē-ˈä-fə-nē / plural theophanies: a visible manifestation of a deity

EXHIBIT: SPIRITUAL TABLEAUX – Art by Tom Wachunas, Feb.2 – Feb. 28, 2025, at Brewtifully, 2698 Easton St NE Canton, Ohio 44721, in Oakwood Square /  M- F 5pm - 9pm/ Sat 12 - 9pm /Sun 12 - 5pm/ Phone: 330-312-5229 / Opening reception Saturday Feb. 8, 5:00pm to 8:00pm.

   I am elated to announce that I am the February featured artist at Brewtifully Gallery in Oakwood Square. And THANK YOU Tracy Dawn Brewer! We will be installing my work on Feb. 1, and the opening reception for the exhibit will be from 5:00pm to 8:00pm on Saturday, February 8. The exhibit will be up until the end of February. Also, Brewtifully will be hosting a Creative Roundtable presentation and discussion on Tuesday, Feb.11, 7:00pm to 8:30pm, about the evolution of my aesthetic, including a power point image show of works spanning nearly 20 years. I value your presence, always eager to hear your thoughts. Let’s have a lively Q&A!!!

   Much of my artwork of the past 25 years has been in the form of mixed- media paintings, relief collages, or 3D assemblages which I call ‘spiritual tableaux.’ They illustrate – sometimes literally, sometimes metaphorically - a continuing personal embrace of Biblical content.

    These works are narratives, ‘written’ in a language of the heart, straddling or crossing boundaries both daunting and joyous, between struggle and surrender, between the accessible and the unknowable, between the mundane and the mystical. Consider them meditations, or perhaps even theophanies, offered by a disciple of Jesus Christ, symbolizing aspiration, inspiration, faith, and discovery.

https://www.facebook.com/Brewtifully/

https://www.tracydawnbrewer.com/storefront.html

A Beautifully Awakened Passion

 

  A Beautifully Awakened Passion

 

 

 

By Tom Wachunas

   “No permanence is ours; we are a wave /  That flows to fit whatever form it finds: / Through night or day, cathedral or the cave/ we pass forever, craving form that binds.”  - Hermann Hesse

 

 Excerpts from Canton Repository (Sept. 8, 2024) newspaper article by Ed Balint:

https://www.cantonrep.com/story/entertainment/2024/09/08/oakwood-square-in-plain-township-welcomes-brewtifully-art-boutique/74885183007/

“… Pushing the door open, a visitor's senses immediately go into overdrive, swept up by the eclectic and tasteful mix of artwork and gifts. Paintings, wallets made of vegan leather, books featuring augmented reality, clothing, yard flags, magnets, stickers, purses, rugs, pottery, pet scarves, art kits, night lights made and shaped of acetate.

Welcome to Brewtifully, the new art-forward shop at Oakwood Square shopping plaza, 2698 Easton St. NE. Opened by Stark County-based artist Tracy Dawn Brewer, it's her artistic vision becoming reality…A wall near the entrance will showcase a guest artist monthly…”

   And speaking of artistic visions and showcasing guest artists, the current exhibit at Brewtifully Gallery, on view until January 31, features a very impressive array of acrylic liquid-pour paintings on canvas, along with lots of coasters and magnets, by Andrea Marie. In looking at the alluring intricacy of her numerous small abstract paintings (most of them 5”x7” or 8”x10”), it’s especially worth noting that Andrea Marie is not a trained painter in the formal or academic sense of the word. So what accounts for the compelling beauty of her potent imagery?

   The artist explains: “For me it has been a saving grace. I started back during Covid lock-down. I found a passion for the vibrant and unpredictable world of fluid art. No pieces are the same. I can use the same color palette on different forms of canvases and it’s a totally different experience just in the way the paints move. With no formal training I’ve embraced experimentation and creativity as my teacher. In blending colors and textures to create abstract art, what I see in my art, someone else may see differently. That is why I never sign the front of my paintings. The way I like to see it hung may not be the way you like to see it hung. It just gives me great satisfaction and has awakened a new passion in me. It’s a great feeling knowing I can bring some joy to someone from something that makes me happy to create.”

   Ah yes, the “Covid lock-down.” That dreadful pandemic. That protracted, fractious season of social distancing, even distrust. I don’t think it too unreasonable to see Andrea Marie’s early ventures into painting as an antidote – a vaccine, if you will - to the rampant pain and anxiety and that had so riddled our culture. Painting as a form of personal therapy, or crisis management?

   What are we to make of these exquisite, untitled soul-stirring deliquescences? Where do these fluid and air-blown articulations send you? Of what are they speaking?  Jump across their synapses, their wiggly webs, their pools and puddles of pulsing possibilities. Name these lustrous notions and neuroanatomies for yourself. That’s the sheer fun of it all.

  In any case, instead of making dark, murky pictures about angst and isolation, much less death, Andrea Marie tells us she feels happy to “bring some joy to someone.”

    A note to the artist: Dear Andrea Marie, Message received. Mission accomplished. Thank you! P.S. I’m feeling hungry. Make more, and please don’t be afraid to make them larger next time.

 

Brewtifully is open 5-9 p.m. Monday through Friday; noon-9 p.m. on Saturdays; and noon-5 p.m. on Sundays.

https://www.tracydawnbrewer.com/

Unique Designs by Andrea Marie, on Facebook:

 https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552441463362