Roads into Arboreal Auras

 

 Roads into Arboreal Auras

Cartography, nos. 1, 2, and 3

Logjam

Filtered Light

Reflected Light

Morning Light

Troops

By Tom Wachunas

   "We have all found ourselves looking for “detours” during the last two and a half years. Ways to pass time; ways to stay safe; ways to calm our own anxieties; and maybe even ways to escape. My detours found me traveling near and far to appreciate simplicity, solitude, and a bit more of myself." - Chris Triner 

“…I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.”  - From “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost

 

EXHIBIT: DETOURS, new works by Christopher Triner/ Through October 31, 2022 / at Cyrus Custom Framing & Art Gallery, 2645 Cleveland Avenue NW, Canton, Ohio / gallery viewing hours Mondays-Fridays 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Saturdays 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

   A possible starting point for appreciating the title of this exhibit of new paintings by Christopher Triner – Detours – could be to consider his trio of small square mixed-media abstractions called Cartography, nos. 1, 2, and 3. They suggest aerial maps of urban districts, or perhaps neighborhoods. Their bold patterns of geometric shapes and regulated straight lines (streets?) feel  like an incursion - a   trespassing - on otherwise serene clouds of subtly shifting colors.

    It’s that curious juxtaposition of static enclosures and unobstructed airiness, of concrete constructions seemingly afloat on ethereal surrounds, which affected me with a desire to look for a road not into, but out of town as it were. To find a place to simply breathe in, and savor a timeless, healing light.

   And that’s precisely what so many of the other paintings in this exhibit provide. Triner’s brushwork is facile and assertive, imbuing his sylvan visions with an expressive spontaneity. There’s also plenty of attention to rendering ligneous and foliate textures, but never to the point of being overly -precious.

   The enchanting power and beauty in these paintings is in their breathtaking capture of light and how Triner has let it inhabit his luscious palette. Even in the most shadowed or dark pockets of the woods, the colors retain a distinctive aura. And when the sun is filtered through the arboreal canopy, the ground becomes a dance floor of sorts, dappled with rhythms of flickering, shimmering pools and puddles of brightness, looking sometimes like so many iridescent footprints.

   Welcome to where light is a tactile reality unto itself. Walk, bask, smile, dance. Just what the doctor ordered.