Popsychle Perplexities

 

Popsychle Perplexities 

Petting, Poking, Prickling

2 in My Head

Nightcap (left) / Nothing to Say (right)

Waiting...& Waiting

Don't Pop - Secretive (left) / Personal (right)

Head Pops

By Tom Wachunas

      “…In being most heavily influenced by Pop Surrealism, I sarcastically pair dismal scenes with pleasurable pops of color, playful perspectives, figure distortion and an abundance of childlike references. Within these works, I can bring a sense of humor and absurdity to some of the darker, more challenging aspects of being human in our unstable, perpetually changing environments.”  - from the artist statement by Hannah Pierce

   I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole and then I followed it in / I watched myself crawling out as I was a-crawling in / I got up so tight I couldn't unwind / I saw so much I broke my mind / I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in – lyrics from "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)" by Mickey Newbury, 1967 

   EXHIBIT: UNSOUND – Ceramics by Hannah Pierce / At Canton Museum of Art THROUGH MARCH 6, 2022 / 1001 Market Avenue N., Canton, Ohio / 330-453-7666 / Viewing hours: Monday-Thursday 10:00 a.m.- 8 p.m, Friday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

https://www.cantonart.org/

You can read the full artist statement, plus view a larger portfolio of her work, by clicking on this link:

http://hannahmpierce.com/

    This world, this world. Living here is often like sailing on dark, stormy waters. We can encounter all manner of drenched, unmoored seafarers. Some of them – frantically signaling their angst and confusion - gasp for air as they flounder in an ocean of loose lips, gritted teeth, clenched fists. Others are sassy, seemingly unfazed and dismissive, detached and drifting aimlessly with the tides, and maybe grinning at the absurdity of their plight. Wry society, or society gone awry?

   Welcome to the perplexing, earthenware and porcelain world presented by San Diego artist Hannah Pierce. She has meticulously crafted a metaphorical narrative of sculpted “characters” rendered in varying modes of introspection and expressivity.

   What are we to make of the recurring motif of monochromed faces suspended on the gallery walls? Some look mischievous, some smiling, some perhaps angry or bored. They’re sticking their tongues out at us in a casual sort of way. A puerile gesture of disrespect? A taunting, a dare?  Have these characters ingested a strange candy? Their tongues are tattooed with patterns of dots in bright colors. A rash of questions indeed.

   Elsewhere, surrounded by clusters of prickly cactus leaves, the grey faces in “Waiting…& Waiting” are drinking a pink something through plastic straws. What is it? Pucker up to succulent silliness.

    Eerily enough, and not so silly, looking at Pierce’s stark and haunting figurative works, such as “Nothing to Say” and “Nightcap,” with their distorted anatomies and woeful facial expressions, conjured in me the memory of a movie scene wherein a certain woman was fatally dowsed with a bucket of…water. Hear it, her timeless wail?  “I’m melting, melting! Oooh what a world, what a world…”  

Savoring Printed Matters

 

Savoring Printed Matters

 

Azure Chrysalis, by Lauren Kussro

Urban Panorama #2, by Cynthia Back

You...I Met In The Rain, by Meryl Engler

Sensory Memory 05, by Jayoung Yoon

Pinaskiw - Butterfly Dancer, by Linda Whitney

   “Considering that this exhibition would be on view at a university, I wanted to offer viewers not only inclusivity, but also amazing examples of printmaking and its trajectory… and it has been my experience that women are the commanding force in this field.”  - Erica Criss, curator 

   Exhibit: Women’s Printmaking Invitational 2022 / Presented by Rubber City Prints and hosted by Kent State University at Stark /  Curated by Erica Criss / in The William J. and Pearle F. Lemmon Visiting Artist Gallery, Fine Arts building at Kent State University at Stark / 6000 Frank Avenue NW, North Canton, OH / Exhibition Dates: February 9 - March 4, 2022 / Gallery Hours: Monday - Friday 11;00am - 5:00pm

Participating Artists: Amy Silberkleit ◾ Angela Pilgrim ◾ Anita Hunt ◾ Beth Fein ◾ Beth Ganz ◾ Bridget O’Donnell ◾ Cynthia Back ◾ DeAnn Prosia ◾ Jayne Reid Jackson ◾ Jayoung Yoon ◾ Jency Sekaran ◾ Jennifer Mack Watkins ◾ Joan Dix Blair ◾ Karin Bruckner ◾ Kathy Caraccio ◾ Katie Commodore ◾ Kirsten Flaherty ◾ Kristie Valentine ◾ Lauren Kussro  ◾ Linda Whitney ◾ Meryl Engler ◾ Nandini Chirimar ◾ Phyllis Trout ◾ Robin Dintiman ◾ Taryn McMahon ◾ Trisha Gupta ◾ Valerie Dillon ◾ Veronica CeCi

   For its extraordinary depth of thematic content, its sheer diversity of pictorial styles, and exquisitely executed craft, this important group show is an altogether stunning – make that sublime - aesthetic experience. I think all of you would be the richer for seeing it, the poorer for missing it.

  The words in the remainder of this post are re-printed from the Rubber City Prints, Inc. web site:

https://www.rubbercityprints.org/wpi-2022

​   Rubber City Prints is excited to launch the Women’s Printmaking Invitational (WPI) 2022, hosted by Kent State University at Stark. Now, more than ever, women command the fine art printmaking field and deserve to have their unique perspectives showcased. The goal of this exhibition is to highlight women printmakers and give them a space to connect and support each other. Their voices may express a diverse range of imagery, content, and processes, but they are united by their shared experience of being a woman in the once male-dominated world of printmaking.

   Rubber City Prints was started by a group of women printmakers from Kent State University who were about to lose their studios because they would be graduating. It was their goal, and RCP’s mission, to offer local artists the facilities and opportunities needed for the art community to thrive in downtown Akron, Ohio.

   We are excited to have Erica Criss, an original founder of RCP and MFA graduate of Kent State University, as our curator for this exhibition. For the past 10 years, Criss has worked in New York City in the non-profit art sector across functions such as program development, operations, exhibition development, and fundraising. She has produced dozens of exhibitions, nationally and internationally, most notably, the NY International Miniature Print Exhibition and the Print Effect: Small Works/Big Impact. Criss also curated Divergent Ink at Rubber City Prints. She continues to support artists and nonprofits through her consulting business, CRISS Collaborations.

                                                  Curator’s Statement

   I am honored to present the first iteration of the Women’s Printmaking Invitational 2022. A printmaker myself, I have had the opportunity to work with many artists from Ohio to New York and it has been my experience that women are the commanding force in this field.

   In order to more accurately represent the full breadth of contemporary printmaking, I deliberately chose a diverse group of artists who work in a variety of different processes, methods, and themes. They come from different backgrounds, communities, and career levels offering an array of perspectives. Considering that this exhibition would be on view at a university, I wanted to offer viewers not only inclusivity, but also amazing examples of printmaking and its trajectory.

   Many of these artists have developed their own methods and techniques or became masters in their chosen process. Some have been lifelong educators and mentors while others are at the beginning of their careers. Within the diversity of the group, common threads emerge. The selected artists express the importance of our connection to nature, speak to social injustices, personal narratives, and to the printmaking process itself. It is here where connections are made and I aim to use this opportunity to facilitate those connections amongst the artists.

- Erica Criss

A Ramble through the Rabbit Hole?

 

A Ramble through the Rabbit Hole? 

The Spiritual Death of Mother Triceratops

Allow Yourself to Become Vulnerable

Jesus Christ, They/Them

Synesthesia Memory

Frankenstein v. Wolfman

Ymir

By Tom Wachunas 

   “Curiouser and curiouser!” cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”

― Lewis Carroll, from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

“Let's build a happy little cloud that floats around the sky.” -Bob Ross  

EXHIBIT: DaveRuinsArt – work by David Sherrill. FINAL VIEWING TIME is this FRIDAY, Feb. 4, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Silo Arts, 431 Fourth St. NW, downtown Canton

   For starters, I highly recommend clicking on the following link to read Ed Balint’s excellent January 7 Repository article on David Sherrill and this, Sherrill’s first solo exhibit. I’ll wait…

https://www.cantonrep.com/story/entertainment/2022/01/06/star-wars-parody-artist-feature-lowbrow-works-canton-show/8943979002/  

   Curiouser and curiouser. Some of the works here are what Sherrill calls his “altered art.”  Looking at these, I sensed echoes of the late Bob Ross, who often said to wannabe painters in his popular The Joy of Painting TV show, "You can do anything you want to do. This is your world."

   The world presented in Sherrill’s altered art pieces began first as “found” or, if you will, rescued scenes by other painters. Technically formulaic and aesthetically generic, they’re the kind of pictures you’d typically see at bargain-basement home décor shops, thrift stores, or yard sales. Easy-listening music for the eyes.

   But then along comes Sherrill, and pop goes the easel. Like a sassy lead guitarist in a rock band, he deftly infects these otherwise serene ballads by inserting bizarre, albeit humorous solos. Suddenly, ordinary landscapes have become sci-fi scenarios. I can almost hear Bob Ross intone, “I think a funny monster lives here.”  

   Meanwhile, Sherrill evokes another world altogether with the very raw expressionism of his mixed media paintings. These are dense with feverish brushwork, punctuated with a plethora of layered marks, piled up shapes and symbols, meandering lines, and generally rendered in 50 shades of the rainbow. Frenetic psychedelia, or graffiti from the Twilight Zone? In this world, red-eyed skulls can actually smile, dinosaurs are deities, fish have  mischievous grins, and Jesus looks like he just walked out of a Jean-Michel Basquiat painting.

   If Lewis Carroll’s winking Chesire Cat were an art critic, I suspect that after seeing this show, he might say what he said to Alice: “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”  And to that assessment of the world, he would surely add, “Imagination is the only weapon in the war against reality.”

   David Sherrill doesn’t really “ruin art” at all. He’s certainly not building pictures of happy little clouds blissfully floating in perfect skies. But hey, these are pictures of his world, however strange and crude they may seem. He nevertheless wields an imagination large and generous enough to bring some unfettered fun to our own.

Vinyl Destination - PART 2

 

Vinyl Destination – PART 2 

   Yet more reason to be…elated. I’m turning this post over to Alex Stimmel, who has written a review of my reissued album for Ugly Things Magazine. I’m head-over-heels grateful for his remarkable writing prowess and astute musical sensibilities. THANK YOU, Alex!

UGLY THINGS MAGAZINE:   http://ugly-things.com/

*********************************************

 Spare Changes / Gotta Groove LP /  REVIEW,  by Alex Stimmel

 

   This first-ever reissue of Tom Wachunas’s brutally beautiful Spare Changes, with its collage-art album cover and general air of DIY mystery, is a welcome late entry for Find Of The Year.

    Recorded with grad school friends as his MFA thesis project for Ohio State University, Wachunas tapped One St Stephen guitarist Bruce Roberts to help out and recorded this low-key opus at Ohio’s fabled OWL studios (founded by the Tom Murphy of local garage heroes the Ebb Tides). The sound is crystal clear, rather than the lo-fi efforts one might expect from a one-off grad project.

   Wachunas also channels some erstwhile northern neighbors: Neil Young’s shadow looms large, although to my ears Joni Mitchell has an even larger impact. In this way, Spare Changes is unique in its centering a male singer influenced by her phrasing and chordal approach, especially on “Each Day’s Passing” and “I’ll Be Better Soon.” Even with these identifiable influences, there’s a uniquely dolorous individuality to Wachunas’s singing, and interesting instrumental choices, including kalimba, tabla and accordion (although the sax on “Poets Never Win'' may bring some listeners to the verge of an easy listening cliff).

   With its easygoing vibe and woozy folk-rock arrangements, Spare Changes works excellently as both a late-night Saturday sign off and an early Sunday morning comedown. To wit, Wachunas closes things out with a powerful one-two punch. The title track, on which he laments, “Can’t tell the ceiling from the floor/I can see all the windows but I can’t find the door,” could be both ecstatic or delusional, while the final track, “Happy The Man,” is an energetic send-off: one of the only tracks to feature a full band, with pumping electric piano and Roberts’ eloquent lead lines coming to the fore.

Meticulously mastered by the good folks at Gotta Groove, this is one that’s worth searching out for lovers of private press folk.

Vinyl Destination (Part 1?)

 

Vinyl Destination (Part 1?) 

By Tom Wachunas 

"Tom Wachunas' Spare Changes is by far one of the best (and unknown/underappreciated) singer-songwriter records ever made. Classifying the album within a specific genre is a terribly difficult feat -- acid folk? folk rock? psychedelic? A true cornucopia of instrumentation -- sax, vibes, kalimba, tabla, guitars (including One St. Stephen guitarist Bruce Roberts), accordion(!) and highly introspective lyrics. Imagine being on a Caribbean cruise ship in 1975, and Neil Young happens to be croonin' with a 12-piece band on some new material that never saw the light of day. Recorded in Columbus, Ohio USA in 1975 at the now-defunct Owl Recording Studios, Spare Changes was actually Tom Wachunas's graduation project for his Masters in Fine Arts from The Ohio State University. Extremely rare -- only 1,000 copies of the original pressing were manufactured. Owl Recording Studio operated from 1973(ish) through 1977 under the direction of Tom Murphy, who would eventually go on to run the famous Track Record Studios in North Hollywood. Tom Murphy's blessing and involvement in sourcing the audio were essential in making this reissue happen."          - from Gotta Groove Records.

   Maybe consider this post as a “nostalgic resume artifact.” It seems like an eternity ago, but back in the summer of 2019, Matt Earley, President and co-Founder of Gotta Groove Records, contacted me out of the blue to let me know that he was interested in reissuing my long-out-of-print record album of original songs, Spare Changes. The album is now available again, miraculously re-mastered from the only very scratched-up copy of the album I still own (the original 8-track master tape from 1975 was lost). I am deeply grateful for, and thoroughly amazed at the technical excellence of this reborn recording, and all the remarkable work that went into achieving it. THANK YOU MATT EARLEY AND ALL THE PEOPLE AT GOTTA GROOVE Pressing Plant in Cleveland!! The reissue includes an insert with the song lyrics and new liner notes I wrote. Here those notes:  

    Who, or what, had I become by the summer of 1975 in Columbus, Ohio? The long and short of it is that the songs of Spare Changes tell the story a 24-year old geeky hippie painter who was something of an introverted poet, a mediocre self-taught acoustic guitarist, a passionate if not prolific singer-songwriter, and an inveterate Romantic striving to embrace the pleasures and pains of love and loss, of comings and goings, of hellos and goodbyes.

    Spare Changes, then, is a veritable rollercoaster ride through the emotional and spiritual peaks and valleys of various relationships with some very lovely young women in my own very young life. There’s doubt and some anger in the album opener, Blues; the bittersweet light of acceptance and gratitude offered in the album closer, Happy the Man. In between, matters of the heart understandably enough take a number of complex twists and turns. There’s palpable longing in the gentle ballad, Sailboat, and a sense of hope in Each Day’s Passing; nostalgic fondness in Remember You That Way; and again, the cathartic power of hope in I’ll Be Better Soon.

   If there’s a real burning torch song in this collection, it may well be Poets Never Win. The lyrical perspective is admittedly that of the rejected suitor who clearly has a big ego and lots of self-pity. But looking back on that particular tune in the larger sense of savoring the entire process of recording this album, I realize that unlike the poet wallowing in the resentment described in the song, I certainly did win in the end.

Beyond the thrilling experience of the actual recording sessions at Owl Studios, two memories remain especially resonant.

First, there were the rehearsal / jam sessions. On two occasions (or was it three?), about a week apart, the musicians – 10 of us at one point – and all their gear piled into the first floor of the old 2 ½-story rented house where I was living (very near the OSU campus) with a few other artist friends/classmates. Full drum set, electric instruments, tangles of wires, mics, amps… the works. The walls shook, the furniture rattled, the roof was risin’. Wide-eyed, smiling neighbors from around the block came up onto the long front porch, their faces pressed against the screened windows, peering in. Cheering and clapping and even some dancing. For a brief while it all felt like a micro- Woodstock festival.

Later in the summer when the album test-pressing arrived, I was honored to be interviewed by WCOL FM’s Terry Wilson, a great friend to Owl Recording Studios. Along with the interview, he played the album for one of his popular “Home Grown In the Studio” programs. Hearing that night-time radio broadcast was humbling, and filled me with a gratitude that still stirs in me even after all these years. I had joined a very special family of artists.

    And so to this day I remain grateful for the blessing of working with superior musicians - all gifted creators and arrangers in their own right. I still treasure the remarkable technical skills they poured into the music, as well as our camaraderie. Far more than simply backup players, they were true partners and collaborators who  generously articulated the spirit of the songs. Happy the man indeed. 

There’s plenty of additional background here for those of you interested in opening these hyperlinks, starting with some history of Owl Recording Studios:

http://buckeyebeat.com/owlrecords.html

Then, a YouTube recording of all the songs here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ_0pMACuYI&list=OLAK5uy_lJYOQW0s4Tb-Z-q054Edx_pVQ4ZGsYl2U&index=2

But wait, there’s more! Here’s the fascinating history and info about Gotta Groove Records, including an excellent YouTube video on the Cleveland pressing plant and the process of making vinyl records:

https://www.gottagrooverecords.com/ 

 

And vinylly, got a turntable? if you wish to order an album directly from Gotta Groove Record Store, you can purchase at this site:

https://www.gottagroovestore.com/product/tom-wachunas-spare-changes/

A Bountiful Harvest in Stark County

 

A Bountiful Harvest in Stark County 

"Places You Pass" by Nicole Malcolm

"Audience" by Jake Mensinger

"Color Diversity" by Laura Donnelly

"Immigration Quilt" by Priscilla Roggenkamp

"Storyteller" by Clare Murray Adams

"Passage" by Christine Janson

"A year in the life of lockdown" by Judi Krew

By Tom Wachunas

   ““It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Life, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,…”  - Charles Dickens, from A Tale of Two Cities

“…Lights in the distance, like twinkling prayers, float like my words,  like fireflies dancing somewhere. Upon this hill is where I’ll be waiting for you, should you need me. I will wait for you…”  - lyrics from I Will Wait For You, by Bruce Dalzell, for the installation artwork by Nicole Malcolm

   EXHIBIT: Annual Stark County Artists Exhibition, at Massillon Museum, October 16, 2021, THROUGH JANUARY 16, 2022 / 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon, Ohio / 330.833.4061 / viewing hours: Tuesday through Saturday 9:30am - 5:00pm and Sunday 2:00pm - 5:00pm

https://www.massillonmuseum.org/ 

Participating Stark County Artists: Seth Adam, Rodney Atwood, Lawrence Baker, Michael Barath, Diane Belfiglio, Chris Borello, Peter Castillo, Moriah Clay, David L. Dingwell, Laura Donnelly, Libby Bracy Doss, Sharon Frank Mazgaj, Timothy Hirst, Sherri Hornbrook ,Christine Janson, Judi Krew, David Kuntzman, Ted Lawson, PJ Lytle, Nicole Malcolm, Judi Malinowski, Beth Maragas, Jake Mensinger, Jaime Meyers, Clare Murray Adams, Benjamin Myers, Clair Nelson, Lee Novotny, Patricia Zinsmeister Parker, Mark V. Pitocco, Brian Robinson, Priscilla Roggenkamp, Lee Rossiter, Sari Sponhour, Stephen Tornero, Daniel Vaughn, Tom Wachunas, Jo Westfall, Gail Wetherell-Sack, Shawn Wood, Isabel Zaldivar, and Anna Zotta.

   My month-long hiatus from writing has unfortunately delayed a more timely commentary on this exhibit, and for that I apologize. Still, as of January 7, there are nine days left to view it if you haven’t done so already. I think you’ll find the time to be very well spent.

   If you have seen it, well then, maybe you could think about returning for another taste. It’s harvest time in Stark County. The 41 participating artists here (and I’m happy to be one of them) provide a bountiful crop of 56 works that make the exhibit a veritable feast for the eyes with a remarkable mélange of materials, styles, and concepts.

   During one of my three visits to the show, I watched from a short distance as a viewer looked closely at a wall piece by Christine Janson called Passage. It’s a small, old wooden typesetter’s drawer. Its compartments, emptied of moveable type, are painted in a spectrum of colors, with some containing bits of frayed, crinkled canvas.

   I overheard him ask his companions, “So what’s the story here?” A good question, really. It reminded me of how natural and often necessary it feels to seek out, or outright (out-write?) construct a narrative to satisfy our desire to connect with what might seem like an enigmatic work of contemporary art. In this case, I think it not too farfetched to see Janson’s entry as perhaps symbolizing the history of storytelling itself - a passage from the elemental components of a typeset tale into the more ancient practice of a painted one.

    There is a palpable spirit of storytelling threaded through a considerable number of pieces in this show, sometimes literally, sometimes metaphorically. Here are just a few examples of pieces which prompted some closer viewing during my multiple visits.

   Clare Murray Adams’ wall installation is called, interestingly enough, Storyteller. There’s something of a symbiotic relationship between the hanging dress (smock, frock, apron?) and the eight small mixed-media paintings arched on the wall above it. Are they tactile research notes in the story of making and adorning the dress, like snapshots of processes? Or did making the dress inspire the stuff of the paintings?

   Priscilla Roggenkamp’s stunning Immigration Quilt, for all its apparent softness, raises tough, unsettled and unsettling questions. Those clothes -  looking like they’re for children, toddlers, babies – are all pressed against, indeed restrained by cording patterned like a net. Or a chain link fence.  

   The glimmering installation by Nicole Malcolm, Places You Pass, is actually a room (approx. 8' x 10' x 11' ) created within the gallery. It’s an intimate, enchanting, interactive environment unto itself and includes handwritten lyrics and recording of an original song titled I Will Wait For You. Here’s a link to Malcolm’s web page for a deeper look at the work:

   https://nmalcolm.myportfolio.com/places-you-pass  

Please don’t pass it by. Stay and read a while. Therein she has written, ”…I often think about how some “places you pass” end up being the places where you will have life changing moments, and you don’t even know it yet… This work is a representation of the way in which I hold onto places, and moments in time. I will carry this with me, and remember that each new place I go will change me in ways I do not yet know.”

   And so, consider this post not just a late invitation, but better yet, as a mindful summons. See the testimonies of artists navigating the ethos of our here and now. Artists are our vital tribe of explorers, spirit guides, seers and conjurers who activate our own imaginations. They bear witness to being alive during these scabrous times. Witness the witnessing. Savor and carry it with you. It’s waiting.

SONRISE

 

 SONRISE

Sonrise, by Tom Wachunas, 2021

 

   To you, all my artist friends, and all my beloved readers, may the everlasting Peace of Christ - his way and his truth and his life - be upon you in this Holy season.

Arise, shine,

for your light

has come,

and the glory of the Lord

rises upon you.

Isaiah 60:1