Continuing Combobulations

 

Continuing Combobulations 

Gollom

Mothra Getting Distracted

Ghost with Brains

Shivery

Cop with Birds

By Tom Wachunas

 

   “…I got some groceries, some peanut butter, to last a couple of days…”  - from “Life During Wartime” - song by Talking Heads, 1979

EXHIBIT: DaveRuinsArt - David Sherrill’s art, at The Hub Art Factory, 336 6^th Street N.W, in downtown Canton.

NOTE: One remaining time to view the exhibition - the closing party on FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 6 to 9p.m.

   In many ways this exhibit could rightly be considered a busy extension of David Sherrill’s first solo show mounted at Silo Arts gallery roughly six months ago. What I wrote about that exhibit is still very much applicable to this latest installation at The Hub Art Factory, so I offer this link to my first review if you care to click and (re)read:

  http://artwach.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-ramble-through-rabbit-hole.html

     Is the epigram “DaveRuinsArt” a statement about existential irony? A logo for streetsmart sarcasm? Or just a smartass motto?  

   What are we looking at? Psychopunk? HyperPop Expressionism? David Sherrill cooks up up a bubbling hot casserole of images and ideas, generously spiced with edgy humor and a teaspoon or two of horror.      

    Are we to read Sherrill’s ruining of art as nothing more than a disarming bit of self-deprecation? If so, he’s a shade too modest. After all, the man is a facile enough painter. Beyond his wild white-lined abstractions, look at the finesse with which he places his acrylic movie-world monsters atop those found, “thrifted” scenes. Better yet, notice how he has recently revived the ancient art of black velvet painting with haunting portraits seemingly aglow in the dust of colored light. One of those is the jarring likeness of Gollum, that slithery mutant from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings sagas. So arresting, I could practically hear his throaty, dark gurgle of a voice complimenting the other velvet renderings nearby, “Precious!”  

   So maybe in the end, DaveRuinsArt is a tongue-in-cheek marketing strategy to bait the insatiably inquisitive and the wild-at-heart among us. For here’s an invitation to walk that evermore wobbly tightrope of life between mirth and mayhem, fun and fury. You needn’t worry about falling off. The balloons on the gallery floor will cushion your crash.