Not the Usual Crowd

Not the Usual Crowd

By Tom Wachunas 

        EXHIBITION: Stark County Artists Exhibition 2012, at The Massillon Museum THROUGH OCTOBER 31, 121 Lincoln Way East, downtown Massillon / (330) 833 – 4061 /  www.massillonmuseum.org

    Since its opening on September 15, I looked long and hard at this juried show of 53 works by 36 artists – twice.  Both times I came away a little edified and yet underwhelmed. The expected incidence of bland, silly or problematic entries seems unusually extensive this time around, and it’s difficult to get really excited about the show as a whole.

    On the one hand, it may well be the most tepid incarnation of this annual event in several years. On the other, while somewhat short on works that are outright breathtaking, the show is replete with cerebral curiosities.

    In this heady realm, there are indeed many entries off the beaten path. Lauren Elaine Baker’s Brain Candy is a humorously minimalist/conceptual stack of phosphorescent pink and yellow squares of bubble wrap stacked on a pedestal. While arguably intriguing at first taste, its sassy appeal is short-lived, not unlike the come-down after a sugar buzz.

     Also waxing strange are entries by Annette Yoho Feltes, Elizabeth Dallas, and Erin Meyer. Feltes’ mixed media sculpture, Two Mouths to Feed, is a tantalizing rendering of otherworldly if not vaguely erotic-looking quadrupeds. Dallas’ gak-pak, which garnered an Honorable Mention, is a stark, two-toned woodcut that reads like a visual haiku to grain patterns. Equally stark is Meyer’s Scars – an amorphous homage, maybe, to chance encounters with gel medium accidents. Her oil painting, Schwester (German for Sister), however (Honorable Mention), is more substantial and engaging. For all its visceral paint treatment and abstracted figurations, it’s nonetheless tender in a mysterious sort of way. {Note to Erin Myer: might Ich Liebe Meine Schwester be an appropriate thought here?} 

    One factor that may be contributing to the ‘alternative’ flavor of this exhibit is the increased presence of unfamiliar artists than in the past. I’m guessing that some of these are perhaps newer and/or younger arrivals on the Stark County exhibition scene. It’s worth noting that within Stark County there is a “core element” of artists who have for years on end consistently “made it” into juried shows such as this one. Relatively few from that element are visible here. Consequently, the usual percentage of painting and drawing in the traditional Representation as well as Abstraction genres is noticeably small.

    Particularly remarkable in this area are: two exquisite oil pastel entries by Diane Belfiglio (Digression into Detail I and II); the marvelously gestural landscape drawings by Lawrence Baker (A Beginning and Cape of Catena); the whimsical, photorealistic acrylic painting by Dirk Rozich (Love Sick – Honorable Mention); and the genuinely intriguing abstract paintings from Jack McWhorter (Dismal Swamp and Living Out of Water) and Sherri Hornbrook (Shift). Maggie Duff was awarded Best In Show for her oil, Twin Bed Painting. Best? Arguable, though certainly the biggest. Both raw and refined, the unmade mattress exudes an uncanny poeticism.

    This year, the straight photography entries are for the most part uninspiring, though Jody Hawk’s Third Place-winning 3’d St. Bridge is a formally elegant, even haunting composition. In the digital realm, there’s a stressed, archival sensibility about Free Home, a delightfully surreal fantasy by Michael Weiss. And the slick, vividly hued abstract Spring Bloom by Jerry Domokur has the softened look, ironically enough, of an airbrush painting.

    I wonder anymore if it’s possible or reasonable to think that a single exhibit could point to such a thing as a Stark County aesthetic gestalt. Let’s for the moment suppose there is. Based on this show, a first-time visitor to our region might understandably come away with the idea that, with some notable exceptions, our richly varied iconography is more grounded in conceptual subtlety and esoteric understatement than in compelling spectacle.

    PHOTOS (top to bottom): Twin Bed Painting by Maggie Duff; Schwester by Erin Meyer; Two Mouths to Feed, by Annette Yoho Feltes  

A Ravishing Canton Symphony Season Opener

A Ravishing Canton Symphony Season Opener

By Tom Wachunas

    On October 7, as the audience was settling into the recently renovated Umstattd Hall - resplendent with new seating, carpeting and lighting - even the air itself seemed to crackle with anticipation. The Canton Symphony Orchestra (CSO) was about to launch its much- heralded 75^th Anniversary Season. And so it was that the CSO didn’t disappoint in rising to the occasion. This was most assuredly a grand, electrifying program.

    Appropriately enough, the evening began with the vivacious Gazebo Dances, among the more popular early works (1972) by American composer John Corigliano. The Rossini-like Overture, with its playful, quickly-changing dance rhythms, is followed by a mischievous, off-beat Waltz, once characterized by the composer himself as “peg-legged.” Then, the festive energy gives way to the slow, haunting theme that opens the Adagio. Throughout the movement, the orchestra played with palpable reverence. Slowly building in volume, and processing through passages both sad (sometimes gently dissonant) and tender, the music eventually arrives at brighter textures and melody, effectively allowing this orchestra to soar into one of the evening’s most rapturous moments. The short Tarantella movement was intensely percussive, brassy and brisk – a delightfully rambunctious conclusion.

    And speaking of rapturous moments, what followed ranks among the most completely mesmerizing performances by a CSO soloist (or any other, for that matter) I’ve ever heard in this hall. Lauren Roth, CSO Concertmaser, was the featured soloist for Gian Carlo Menotti’s Violin Concerto in a minor, composed in 1952. Why this work remains so rarely performed in concert is something of a mystery and a shame, and it’s arguably fair to say that most in the audience (myself included) had never previously encountered this sparkling gem.

    Rich with uncomplicated, intimate melodic themes, the music is emotionally gripping and technically very demanding for the violin virtuoso. With flawless clarity of technique, most notably in the highest register passages, Roth communicated the work’s compelling lyricism with a nimble, infectiously optimistic spirit. It’s certainly the violin that propels this brilliant concerto. Accordingly, the orchestra was vigorous and scintillating in its supportive role, though never overbearing. Even the subtlest whispers of Roth’s unabashedly sweet, warm tonality could be heard. This was truly a world-class performance. Roth didn’t so much ‘play’ the music as own it – and our hearts.

    If her rendering of the Menotti concerto could be likened to an exquisitely woven silk tapestry, then the evening’s final selection was a sprawling, raw canvas laden with impasto hues and translucent washes. Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2 in D Major is an eminently lush, winding aural journey. With its idiosyncratic forward movement through a ‘landscape’ of craggy peaks and mist-shrouded valleys, the work is a perfect vehicle for displaying the riveting power and versatility of this orchestra.

    Maestro Gerhardt Zimmermann’s reading of the work was decidedly impassioned as well as contemplative, allowing its many crescendos and silences, its variable moods and sublime textures, to magically coalesce into a thunderous, triumphant finale.

   

Tripping the Paint Fantastic

Tripping the Paint Fantastic

By Tom Wachunas 

    “I can believe anything, provided that it is quite incredible.”  - Oscar Wilde –

    “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  -Arthur C. Clarke-

    EXHIBITION: Warriors of the Fantastic: Illustrations by Chris Seaman, at the Canton Museum of Art (CMA), THROUGH OCTOBER 28, 1001 Market Avenue North, Canton, Ohio (330) 453 – 7666  www.cantonart.org

     Every time I encounter art of the sort seen here, I flash back to few fellow art students from my college days of the early 1970s. Their paintings looked very much like the cover art of our favorite science fiction novels, sometimes like Hieronymous Bosch-inspired visions or yes, sometimes like acid-induced hallucinations. This often incurred negative critiques from some of our more high-brow painting instructors, such as, “That’s not painting, that’s commercial illustration.” Get with the program. Harrrumph.

    Back then, it was not uncommon in ‘serious’ art and academic circles to marginalize fantasy art as the lightweight purview of science fiction buffs, comic book illustrators or rock –n- roll poster designers. The fantasy aesthetic was considered simply too eccentric, silly and/or irrelevant when compared to that of the celebrated, more ‘intellectually engaging’ modernist painters of the day.

    But what goes around comes around. These days, thanks to mind-boggling advances in digital animation technology in the film and computer gaming industries, fantasy art content – everything from dragons, wizards, and demons to monstrous aliens and interstellar or ‘secondary’ worlds at war – has become firmly entrenched in pop culture.

    Chris Seaman, who graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design in 2000, started his career as an illustrator for the Harry Potter Collectible Card Game and has since become a successful full-time author and illustrator with a prestigious client roster. For more background and viewing a spectacular array of his paintings, I highly recommend a visit to his web site at  www.chrisseamanart.com . But nothing compares to seeing them up close and personal at his CMA exhibit.

    If I have one complaint about the show, it’s a relatively minor one: there’s arguably too much of an intriguing thing overcrowding the walls. Maybe, though, that’s the intent – to overwhelm us with  dizzying encounters of the bizarre kind. Most of the 42 paintings (executed in either acrylic or oil on board) are so decoratively and elaborately framed that they suggest perhaps a new name for the genre – Baroque Surrealism.

    I’ve often wondered about the ever- burgeoning popularity of ‘fantasy’ art. What prompts human imaginations to concoct and savor such wildly extreme scenarios as seen in today’s movie epics, television dramas, Internet role-playing games, and for that matter the otherworldly paintings we see here? Is it simply fantasy ‘entertainment’? Escapism? Really? Escape from what? Could it be that we’re simply displacing or sublimating our fears and anxieties? Are we merely disguising the horrors of real-world living by creating exotic new names and costumes for the evils that have always beleaguered us?

    From that perspective, Seaman is an unflinching Realist. His exactitude with brush, his compositional prowess, and his ability as an expressive colorist are all quite astonishing. While the exhibit contains a considerable number of meticulously painted character portraits, most impressive are his panoramic scenes of explosive conflict.

    More interesting still, their scale. Call it counterintuitive. You’d think that visual narratives this action-packed would require sufficiently large surfaces to effectively communicate their intense drama. But these paintings are surprisingly tight and small - diminutive albeit gripping snapshots of apocalyptic doings. Like lightning in a bottle.

    Photos (top to bottom): Lich King; Last Legion of Battle; Thar’s Revenge

Bathroom Blame Games

Bathroom Blame Games

By Tom Wachunas

        …Am I my brother’s keeper?  –Genesis 4:9-

    When a play’s opening line is “F--k. Oh, f--k,” the proverbial red flag has been raised. Red, signaling not just coarse language and ‘mature’ subject matter, but also blood. Lots of it. Welcome to Sweet Confinement, a 2008 play written by Anna Carini and directed here by Johnny Russell. The play is the inaugural production of the newly formed Parallax Ensemble Theatre, and will be showing for one more weekend at The Kathleen Howland Theater in downtown Canton.

    The indelicate utterance at the beginning takes place in a pristine, dazzlingly white bathroom (set by Kevin Anderson) as two friends – Amy and Amelia – stand dazed and dumbfounded, staring down at a massive pool of blood on the floor. Over the course of the next 80 minutes a total of five individuals, friends since childhood, convene ‘round this gruesome sight as they struggle to process the trauma that brought them here – the attempted suicide of another friend named William, who is Amy’s estranged husband.

    In many ways William is the true central figure in the story despite the fact that we never see him in the flesh, though certainly in his blood. Like peeling an onion, the play unfolds in pungent layers that progressively reveal just how much hurtful, alienating power his troubled life (fueled by depression and drinking) has had over that of his friends.

    They in turn bring their own baggage filled with dirty laundry to the occasion. This meeting in the bathroom is surely a grim gathering of hostages. Mutual ridicule and finger-pointing is rampant as they grapple with their guilt and grief. It’s a veritable feasting on woulda-coulda-shouldas, spiced with moments of dark humor as well as a few genuinely sweet reminiscences. And all the while, there’s the constant, painfully potent imagery of Amy and Amelia slowly, v-e-r-y slowly soaking up the blood with paper towels. But it’s never going to be completely clean again. “There’s nothing in this room that can be fixed,” Amy disgustedly mutters at one point, “we’re all f---ing broken.”

    All of the cast members are eminently well- focused and credible in delivering the individual quirks and nuances of their characters. Rachel Callahan is the earthy, volatile and otherwise mouthy (and not so silver-tongued) Amelia. Angeleina Valentine is Ginger, a tender-hearted people pleaser. Christopher Hisey plays the sullen, hardened Caleb, who has always longed for Amy and thinks they’re all better off with William out of the picture. Justin Edenhofer is the distant Josh, Amy’s brother and ex-best friend of William.

    But it’s Moriah Ophardt, in her role of Amy, who most stunningly, most convincingly embodies the struggle to reconcile compassionate understanding with her awful brokenness. While there are some very effective scenes of explosive tension between various characters here, none is more utterly volcanic, more searing and real than hers when, collapsed on the bathroom floor with just her brother present, she breaks down into heart wrenching sobs of rage and pain.  

     All of these honest, compelling (and sometimes glib) portrayals bring to mind the somewhat poetic ordinariness of characters in stories by the great Russian dramatist, Anton Chekhov, in what he called his “theatre of mood.” Though it’s true that righteous moralizing or sermonizing was largely antithetical to his influential aesthetic, I’m not convinced that the world needs yet another play about the human condition as essentially cheerless as this one is, no matter how excellently performed.

     It’s certainly a sobering examination of the spiritual ineptitudes that undermine our capacity to connect with one another in an ultimately affirming or lasting way. At the same time it offers little in the way of a substantial respite from the ills it so relentlessly uncovers. The play seems instead to settle into mere, albeit intelligent infatuation with the emotional and psychological dysfunctionalities of its characters. Call it a theatre of pathology.

 

    Sweet Confinement, at The Kathleen Howland Theater, 324 Cleveland Avenue NW, downtown Canton. Shows at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 28 and Saturday, Sept. 29, Sunday Sept. 30 at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $12 at (330) 451 -  0924, or  www.secondapril.org/sweetconfinement

    Photo: Cast from left to right: Justin Edenhofer, Rachel Callahan, Angeleina Valentine, Moriah Ophardt, Christopher Hisey

     

Deamscape Denizens

Dreamscape Denizens

By Tom Wachunas 

    “All our interior world is reality, and that, perhaps, more so than our apparent world.” –Marc Chagall-

    EXHIBITION: Crowds with No Names, recent paintings by Beth Nash at Translations Gallery, 331 Cleveland Avenue NW, downtown Canton, THROUGH SEPTEMBER 29. Gallery viewing hours are Wed. – Sat., Noon to 5 p.m.

    Most  viewers who are ‘serious’ about engaging a work of art in a gallery setting already know that sincere, focused observing can be its own reward. Then again, a little creative incentive on the part of the artist and/or curator can go far in making the process more inviting. So in this exhibition, there’s a playful twist on viewer participation.

     As all of Beth Nash’s recent works here are as yet untitled, we the viewers are asked to leave our signed suggestions on post-it notes next to the pieces (supplies provided). At the end of the exhibit, Nash will select her favorite titles and winners are to be rewarded with a 15% discount on their next art purchase from the gallery.

    Titling these intriguing works would necessitate some creative processing on our part, arguably not unlike Nash’s own. She writes in her statement for the show that her paintings (figurative and representational in nature) begin abstractly enough, with no preconceived design. Her free-flowing marks and gestures grow into underlying structures of defined planes and shapes as she lets the picture ‘tell’ her where it wants to go. Similarly, I think that extrapolating ‘meaning’ or names from her visions would necessarily require from us a certain degree of improvisation or free association with the images – a kind of listening to their content so that their stories can emerge on their own terms.

    Those stories are decidedly enigmatic, often suggesting a kinship with the iconography of Marc Chagall’s populated landscapes, alternately folky and surreal. Nash’s smooth-surfaced paintings in liquid acrylics, as well as her more stark charcoal and gesso drawings on dark tan wood panels, display a consistently energetic spontaneity of drawing. They deftly capture what might be moments on the verge of disappearing, like retrieving fleeting memories of dreams. Portrayed here is a mixed gathering of people in suspended animation, caught up in their own remembering, or magical dances, or ambiguous social interactions.

    And then there’s the matter of color. More than simply opaque pigments resting on the surface, Nash’s luminous colors appear to rise from deep within, built up in glazes that let light through, as in stained glass. The effect is one of intensely spiritual dimensionality, transforming her figures into specters moving through a rainbow reverie.

Forgivably Flawed, Infectiously Funny

Forgivably Flawed, Infectiously Funny

By Tom Wachunas

    One could make a compelling case for seeing the Canton Players Guild production of Legally Blonde: The Musical (2007 Broadway production based on the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon, original novel by Amanda Brown) as a good example of the whole being greater than its parts. To wit, the singing, particularly in some important supporting roles, is far from pitch perfect.

    I’m willing to stipulate that the guilty parties – those with perhaps limited vocal training or experience with live orchestras - give it their best shot, and could to some degree claim mitigating circumstances beyond just opening night jitters.

    Among those circumstances could be the uneven volume balance between singers and the otherwise excellent nine-piece orchestra under conductor/keyboardist Steve Parsons. In more than a few instances, the musical arrangements overpower the vocalists and too many lyrics get lost. It is worth noting that this musical isn’t all that memorable for its songs per se (music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Neil Benjamin). While some are certainly engaging for their snappy pop flavoring, clever wordplay and satirical wit, none of the songs distinguishes itself as really iconic or groundbreaking. Think of it as the difference between prime rib and a fluffy omelette. As things are, maybe the singers here can’t hear themselves enough. The result is that melodies can seem lost in a search for the right note.

    You’d think that flaws of this nature might make any musical crash and burn. Call it a counter-intuitive phenomenon, then, but this briskly paced production, directed by Craig Joseph (with a cast of 28 performers, an accompanying six-member vocal ensemble and two achingly adorable dogs), soars above its potentially deadly shortcomings with indefatigable panache.

    Much of the wholly infectious energy of the story is generated by the central character of Elle Woods, a jilted, bubbly blonde sorority president who chases her ex- boyfriend all the way from L.A. to Cambridge, where she hopes to earn her Harvard Law School degree and win him back. As Elle, Taylor Scott brings new meaning to ‘perky’. Appearing in every scene, we watch as she deftly comes to prove she’s a lot smarter (she won’t settle for being a trophy wife), self-assured and more compassionate than her superficially ditzy demeanor would indicate. Throughout, Scott’s voice is infused with a crystalline girlishness that can convey powerfully effervescent confidence. She can also project convincing vulnerability, as evidenced in the show’s sweetly plaintive title song.

    Wes Morales plays the moneyed, pedigreed and ambitious ex-beau, Warner, with just the right touch of self-absorbed judgementalism and cockiness. He dumps Elle because he thinks she’s too much Marilyn and not enough Jackie.  Countering that is Scott Miese as Elle’s tender-hearted law school mentor, Emmett, who eventually wins her affections. While both Morales and Miese bring genuine credibility to their roles, as singers both are mis-matched to Taylor Scott’s more penetrating sonority.  

     At one point in Act I, Elle befriends Paulette, an outspoken, street-wise beauty salon owner with an unreasonable penchant for (and terrible track record with) Irish men. In her role of Paulette, the versatile and electrifying Lisa Belopotosky Knight fuels some of the show’s most delightfully raucous scenes. Among those are her show-stopping solo performance of Ireland and her funny contortions in Bend and Snap. Gut- splitting in every sense of the word. More shenanigans ensue when she swoons at the arrival of a UPS courier named Kyle who, we later find out, turns out to be Irish. He struts into her shop, mugging to the audience all the while, and with all the corny macho of a Chippendale dancer. In that role, Gregory Rininger is over-the-top hilarious.

    So too the chaotic courtroom scene in Act II, wherein we hear the song, Gay Or European? It’s a thoroughly irreverent skewering of social and ethnic stereotypes. Ultimately it prompts a cartoonish, suave witness named Nikos (Jaime Stabile) to launch into a gushy show of affection for his lover, Carlos (Michael Ritzert), who returns the favor with howling gusto.

    Throughout the proceedings, a trio of Elle’s sorority sisters appears to her in the form of a supportive “Greek Chorus,” providing a series of very funny encouragements and editorial asides led by the sharply animated Sarah Karam. And speaking of animated, the big dancing routines choreographed by Michael Lawrence Akers are an impressive mix of comedic spunk and exhilarating athleticism.    

    In the big picture here, consider the aforementioned singing weaknesses as forgivable misdemeanors. For this show is a bold-faced entertainment conspiracy in hot pink that successfully wreaks unrelenting fun and optimism upon the paying public. If that conspiracy were a crime, then director, cast and crew should be summarily convicted. Case closed.

    Legally Blonde: The Musical,  Canton Players Guild Theatre Mainstage, located in the Cultural Center for the Arts, 1001 Market Avenue North, Canton, Ohio. Shows at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30. To order tickets please visit www.playersguildtheatre.com or call (330) 453 – 7617

    PHOTO by JAMES DREUSSI: Taylor Scott as Elle Woods

Abstract Allure

Abstract Allure

By Tom Wachunas

 

    “Abstraction is real, probably more real than nature. I prefer to see with closed eyes.” –Josef Albers-

    “Do not copy nature too much. Art is an abstraction.” –Paul Gauguin-

    EXHIBITION: Abstract Allure: Paintings by David Kuntzman and Patricia Zinsmeister Parker, at Gallery 6000, located in the Dining Room of University Center, Kent State University at Stark, 6000 Frank Avenue NW, North Canton, THROUGH NOVEMBER 2, 2012. OPENING RECEPTION on WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 5:30 to 7:30 P.M. Please RSVP to Becky DeHart at (330) 244-3518 or rdehart@kent.edu

    My curatorial intent for this show was to present a ‘conversation’ in two dialects of the same language – nonobjective abstraction. Here, the refined geometric precision of David Kuntzman might seem to be greatly at odds with the less delicate physicality of Patricia Zinsmeister Parker. But in seeing these two painters hang out together, as it were, the ensuing exchange isn’t so much adversarial as it is surprisingly sensible, balanced and eloquent. Consider it a civilized but very energetic exercise in point/counterpoint.

    The left and right ends of the two long walls in the room are anchored by Kuntzman’s large acrylic paintings, like starting and ending a sentence with an exclamation point. His canvases are dense,  intricate worlds comprised of grid patterns that intersect at contrasting angles. Executed with impressive exactitude and vibrant color, they pulse in an uncanny, optically playful or ambiguous way, producing mesmerizing shifts in light and spatial depth. Kuntzman’s clear passion for highly organized architectonic structures is evidenced by his titles, all names of historically important mathematicians: Euclid, Archimedes, Diophantus, and Descartes.

     You could conceivably regard Parker’s smaller works mounted between Kuntzman’s as responses articulating other cognitive options, as if to say, “Yes, I agree, but let’s not forget about…” Her distinctly visceral and intuitive mixed media paintings here are selections from her recent Painting in the Dark suite (for a review of that series, click on this link: http://artwach.blogspot.com/2012/06/one-hand-clapping-recent-art-of.html ). Though certainly not as uniformly bright and utopian in character as Kuntzman’s visions, Parker’s explorations of organic shapes and simple, totemic structures are nonetheless contemplative, exuding an earthy energy at once child-like and primordial. Her shapes, often rendered in or accented by bold, electric hues, seemingly explode from subtly varied fields of more brooding colors.

    Interestingly enough, this show brings to mind Rafael’s portrayal of Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle in his monumental School of Athens fresco (1509-1511). Plato points upward, to ideals, to the notion of pure ideas over earthly reason. Aristotle points to the ground, to the ‘real’. Both stand side-by-side, framed by a solid arch, in the center of all the conversing and teaching transpiring around them.

    Kuntzman as Plato to Parker’s Aristotle? To a degree, perhaps. Still, this show reminds me that nonobjective painting is, at its core, a compelling witness to our desire to see and feel essences, and a challenging dialogue between perfected ideation and physical form.

    Photos: Top -  My Crayolas by Patricia Zinsmeister Parker / Descartes, by David Kuntzman