Installation Femmetastiques - PART 2

 

Installation Femmetastiques - Part 2 

Still Life with 2 People, by Marti Jones Dixon

Compassion, by Erin Mulligan

Beach Ponies, by Heather Bullach

Photos by Aimee Lambes

Erika Katherine art

Under Siege, by Sally Lytle

By Tom Wachunas

“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.”  - Martha Graham

“The only quality that endures in art is a personal vision of the world. Methods are transient: personality is enduring.” - Edward Hopper 

EXHIBIT: Salon des Femmes -  celebrating the work of 12 local female artists / Cyrus Custom Framing & Art Gallery, 2645 Cleveland Ave NW, Canton, OH / Through June 14, 2023 / Viewing hours Monday -Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m to 3 p.m. (closed on first Saturday of month)

EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Heather Bullach, Heidi Fawver, Kat Francis, Marti Jones Dixon, Erika Katherine, Judi Krew, Aimee Lambes, Sam Lilenfield, Sally Lytle, Erin Mulligan, Emily Orsich, Jo Westfall 

   I quoted Martha Graham at the top of this post because even though her powerful words were originally offered in the context of modern dance, I believe that the spirit of her observations is nonetheless applicable to any act of aesthetic expression. The styles, materials and messages offered in this exhibit are widely varied. Still, each artist offers a distinctive translation of that “…vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening…”  which inspires her to manifest a unique personal vision of being alive in the world.

   Speaking of relevant quotes, when you look at the gorgeous photographs here by well-travelled Aimee Lambes, let these words from photographer Annie Leibovitz resonate: “There's an idea that it's hard to be a woman artist. People assume that women have fewer opportunities, less power. But it's not any harder to be a woman artist than to be a male artist. We all take what we are given and use the parts of ourselves that feed the work. We make our way… Photography lets you find yourself. It is a passport to people and places and to possibilities.”  ‘Nuf said.

    Heather Bullach’s 19 paintings here are breathtaking in their classic style of elegant and poetic naturalism. The pristine serenity and precision of her confident brushwork gives her visions a patina of luminous silk.

   With her astonishing exactitude of technique (I often think her brushes might be made from feathers, or even cat hairs), Erin Mulligan paints delightfully dramatic encounters of the metaverse kind. She rules a magical Morphdom snatched from the jaws of our ordinary world. The intriguing pictorial tales she tells straddle the whimsical, the weird, and the always wondrous.

   The captivating figurative paintings by Mart Jones Dixon are imbued with expressive, gestural immediacy. They often convey a sense of the artist capturing a crescendo moment before her memory of it changes or vanishes. A social encounter, an intimate conversation on the threshold of impending action, or of telling a secret, asking a question, revealing an answer. This expressivity is greatly enhanced by Dixon’s deft articulation of light, drawing us in to look – or listen -  longer.

   I’ll be sharing more of my take on this adventurous show in Part 3, sometime next week. Meanwhile, once again, Félicitez les femmes!