Printed Matters

Printed Matters

By Tom Wachunas

    EXHIBITION: Printed Matters: Unique Visions from Printmakers Anna Rather, Nicole Schneider, Lesley Sickle, and Emily Sullivan / AT GALLERY 6000 THROUGH MARCH 22 / Located in The University Center Dining Room, Kent State University at Stark, 6000 Frank Avenue NW, North Canton, OH. Viewing hours are variable due to pre-scheduled events, but usually best from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm Monday – Friday. OPENING RECEPTION is TUESDAY, FEB. 5, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

    Beyond the engaging pictorial content itself, especially rich here is the inclusion of some relatively unique applications of printmaking methods.  And though the number of participating artists may be modest, the show offers a nonetheless expansive cross-section of approaches ranging from the traditional to the multi-dimensional.

    In the relatively ‘traditional’ realm of relief woodcuts and intaglio prints, Anna Rather’s swirling fantasies of oceanic life have a delightfully spontaneous, child-like fluidity about them. Intensely energetic and organic, they pulse with vividly saturated colors and all manner of expressionistic linearities and shapes. She calls them collectively “an emotional diary realized in imagery.”

    Emily Sullivan presents a fascinating hybridization of photography, screen printing and sculpture. Particularly noteworthy are two digital photographs of what might best be called intimate, highly textured sculptural environments comprised of glittery, cut-out printed paper forms loosely arranged in piles. Both Lumen and Sloughed emit an eerie glow, suggestive of irradiated biomorphic structures.

    The relief prints by Nicole Schneider are from her abstract series, Parameters #4. Formally, these explorations of relationships between variably-scaled shapes (mostly geometric), line and soft color are certainly compelling enough in their elegant precision. But in many ways they’re also very effective metaphors, evoking the idea of forces that are at times balanced in serene stasis, and at other times caught in a delicate if not precarious tension between opposites. 

    A similar intimacy, elegance and precision are at work in the abstract pieces – titled Shadow Play 1, 2, 3, and 4 -  by Lesley Sickle. Here, though, her superbly designed ensembles of layered lines and shapes (all screen prints on frosted mylar in gently iridescent colors) are more overtly sculptural, mounted in pristine white shadow boxes. Some of the juxtaposed visual elements – a melding of natural with man-made forms – are folded outward, away from the picture plane so as to cast subtle shadows on the surrounding white backgrounds. Delicate, playful and, like this show, wholly intriguing.

NOTE: Special curatorial thanks to Professor Carey McDougal, Fine Arts Faculty at Kent Stark, for recommending the inclusion of Nicole Schneider, Lesley Sickle and Emily Sullivan for this show, and also to Brennis Booth, co-owner of Second April Galerie, for connecting me with Anna Rather.

PHOTOS: (from top) Lumen, ink jet print, screen-printed papers, super fine glitter by Emily Sullivan; Whirlpool, intaglio by Anna Rather; Parameters #4, 1/8 by Nicole Schneider; Shadow Play, screen print on frosted mylar by Lesley Sickle.

Canton Symphony and Andre Watts: Burnin' Down the House

Canton Symphony and Andre Watts: Burnin’ Down the House

by Tom Wachunas

        Vive le Francais was the theme for the January 26 concert by the Canton Symphony Orchestra (CSO) at Umstattd Hall, featuring works by Debussy, Ravel, Franck and Saint-Saens. Maybe a more apropos title for the evening would have been Vive le Watts, as in the eminent pianist, Andre Watts. His return to Canton (the last being in 2010) begins a three-year CSO residency. The 2014-15 season promises to be especially momentous, when he will perform all of Beethoven’s piano concertos with Maestro Gerhardt Zimmermann conducting. 

    In some ways, this concert brought to mind a twist on the old adage, “a watched pot never boils.” For programmatically, this watched pot, so to speak, did finally bubble over, and explosively so, though only after a long, lingering simmer.

    First on the program was Claude Debussy’s symphonic suite, Printemps (Spring), a lesser-known work from his youth in two free-form movements which, despite their largely derivative nature, foreshadowed some of the more memorable developments in the composer’s later work. Here the orchestra was particularly fresh and tantalizing during the first movement’s atmospheric string crescendos. And in keeping with the spirit of the work, which suggested a bursting forth of new life, the aural intensity of the more extroverted second movement was decidedly more pronounced.

    The second program selection, Ma Mere l’Oye (Mother Goose Suite), by Maurice Ravel, seems in retrospect a more substantial exercise in frothy orchestral textures and thematic whimsicality, with enchanting solo passages from the winds, violin, and viola, along with a splendorous fanfare in the finale. By now the water, as it were, was getting warmer.

     Following the intermission, the much anticipated appearance of Andre Watts significantly raised the temperature, beginning with Cesar Franck’s Symphonic Variations. The work has often and rightly been described as a superbly structured, colorful dialogue between piano and orchestra. And while it does not require any unusually frenzied virtuosity on the part of the soloist, Watts voiced his end of the scintillating conversation with passionate animation and clarity. Call it the last step prior to full-boil.

    From the opening cadenza of the evening’s final work - Camille Saint-Saens’ Piano Concerto No.2 in G Minor -  with its solemn, muscular arpeggios, to the breathtaking rhythms of the exhilarating third movement, Watts exhibited astonishing stamina and flawless  authority. It is after all the piano which establishes the overall thrust of this work.  Watts greeted the task with fierce, riveting panache. So too the sparkling orchestra, responding in kind as a full partner on this remarkably powerful musical excursion. 

    At one point during the final movement I looked around the hall and saw rows of faces with eyes widened and jaws dropped in rapt attention. Presto indeed, Watts had completely immersed himself in a seemingly endless torrent of joyously cascading notes until the very last cymbal crash. Then, for a moment, he seemed to collapse, utterly spent.

    But his apparent exhaustion was short-lived. He quickly stood up and smiled broadly at the clearly adoring audience, which just as quickly stood for a long ovation. No encore was forthcoming. None was needed.      

The Softer Side of a Cautionary Tale

The Softer Side of a Cautionary Tale

By Tom Wachunas

     My momma always said, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”  -from Forrest Gump –

    Having never read Roald Dahl’s 1964 fantasy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, my primary referent point regarding the story remains the 1971 film adaptation, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, starring the brilliant Gene Wilder in the title role of the reclusive, complicated chocolatier. By comparison, the typically bizarre Tim Burton film, from 2005 and featuring Johnny Depp as the wily Wonka, was largely an unmitigated disaster.

    Based on the films alone, I never bought into the proposition that this was strictly a “children’s story.” Like the iconic Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons of the 1950s, I still think this narrative is, at its core, more the purview of adults (well-adjusted and otherwise), and only pretends to be for kids.

    The current stage production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Canton Players Guild Theatre is a dramatization by Richard R.  George and directed here by Carrie Alexander Spina. The show is clearly intended as “family entertainment,” well- tailored to generously tickle younger folks’ fancies, and only lightly sprinkled with the film versions’ headier, less innocent elements that seem so darkly appealing to us grownups.

    That said, it’s a generally satisfying theatrical experience. Surprisingly so, when considering that it’s presented in the Guild’s smaller arena theater. You’d think that a fantasy spectacle of this scale would necessarily require the much larger main stage. But the limited dimensions of the performance space are creatively used in an expansive way, enhanced by the simple but very inventive scenic and lighting design by Josh Erichsen and Scott Sutton, respectively.

    Particularly clever is the manner in which four of the five Golden Ticket winners are introduced. We watch a pre-recorded video news cast on a large flat screen high above the set. Here’s where the children are individually interviewed prior to their tour of Willy Wonka’s factory, and where we first encounter their insufferably bratty and selfish natures.

    Kudos to the brilliantly directed young performers who clearly relish this chance to credibly play badly-parented children and give new meaning to “acting out”: Elden Mortensen as the gluttonous Augustus Gloop; Bella Marie Gill as Veruca Salt, the spoiled-rotten, loud rich girl; Morgan Brown as the haughty, incessantly gum-chomping Violet Beauregarde; and Jared Six playing Mike Teavee, hopelessly addicted to television. The scenes of their hilarious comeuppances (Violet, for example, gets turned into a blueberry, and Mike is morphed into a television transmission) are made all the more delicious by the convincing hysterical reactions portrayed by their flummoxed parents.

    In direct counterpoint to all this manic mayhem is the endearing character of Charlie Bucket. To that role, Drake Spina brings a quiet yet spunky energy, grounded in authentic curiosity and warmth, as does J. Scotland Gallo in his role as Grandpa Joe.

     E.J. Dubinsky’s enjoyable rendering of Willy Wonka is decidedly less enigmatic and edgy than Gene Wilder’s, and imbued with a gentler, youthful accessibility. He’s more the quirky wizard than the eccentric paranoid. And the six children sporting candy-colored hair bobs, cavorting about in hippity-hop stutter step as the Oompa Loompas, aren’t so weird or otherworldly as they are simply adorable.

    The difference between the film version and this sweet confection is the difference between dark chocolate-covered nuts and creamy-smooth nougats.

  

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Players Guild Theatre, 1001 Market Ave. N., Canton. Shows THROUGH Feb. 3, Fridays at 7p.m, Saturdays and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Tickets are $15, and $12 for age 17 and younger.  Box office at (330) 453 – 7617, or visit www.cantonplayersguildtheatre.com

 

  PHOTOS (rehearsal shots) by James Dreussi. Top, left-to-right: Elden Mortensen, Morgan Brown, Drake Spina, E.J Dubinsky, Bella Marie Gill, Jared Six   

Welcome to Their World

Welcome to Their World

By Tom Wachunas

    “The power of the press belongs to those who can operate one.” – a sign in the printmaking studio of Ruthann Godollei at Macalester College, Minnesota -

    EXHIBITION: Printivale! At Translations Art Gallery, THROUGH JANUARY 26, 331 Cleveland Avenue NW, downtown Canton, Ohio. Viewing hours are Wednesday, Noon to 9 p.m., Thursday – Saturday Noon to 5 p.m.  http://www.translationsart.com/printivale

    This just in, hot off the presses: Printmaking is definitely making an impression in these parts. If you’ve yet to see Printivale! at Translations, there’s still four days (Jan. 23 – 26) to view it. My sincere apologies for not getting around to commenting on the exhibit before this.

   You may or may not remember New Hampshire artist Erin Sweeney from her collaborative show here with Marietta artist Bobby Rosenstock back in February, 2011, when the gallery was known as Anderson Creative. Here’s a link to my review of that exhibit because I think much of it is relevant to this one as well:  http://artwach.blogspot.com/2011/02/in-praise-of-impracticality.html

 

   Curated by Erin Sweeney, Printivale! presents works by 22 printmakers (including her own work as well as that of Rosenstock) from around the U.S. and Ireland. Most impressive about the show is its depth of styles, diversity of subject matter, and technical virtuosity.

    Speaking of technical virtuosity, Mr. Rosenstock continues to ply the ancient and painstaking practice of woodblock printing with a thrilling level of masterful workmanship, as demonstrated in his unusually large (and aptly titled) Wondrous Wonder, and the multi-colored Unfathomable Tangle. Similarly meticulous is Building the Perfect Worm Hole by Rebecca Gilbert, with its unframed representational images cut out and mounted on the wall, somewhat like a relief sculpture. And Christopher Baker’s letterpress printed red dice (simple but far from simplistic) is a mesmerizing exercise in decorative, variable patterns. A-mazing.

    There are some notably captivating works here in the realm of social and/or political commentary. Among them, the hand- embellished woodcut, Rockwell’s Freedom from Want, by Chad Creighton, is a startling if not humorous appropriation of Norman Rockwell’s iconic Thanksgiving gathering. Creighton’s feasting family members all wear turkey face masks. Another appropriation of a sort is Amanda Benton’s digitally printed spoof, Benton’s Bazarro.  Convincing in its slick commercial look (all written, designed and edited by Benton), it’s a deliciously vicious parody of women’s fashion magazines. Maps, by Amos Paul Kennedy, superimposes letterpress text on a found map of Alabama. The word  RACISM is diagonally emblazoned in red across the middle of the map, along with LUKE 6:31 horizontally in black. Call it a boldly interactive message piece to the extent you don’t forget to look up the Scripture citation.

  

    In short, this exhibit is a stunning confluence of traditional and non-traditional printmaking approaches and formats – a fresh melding of centuries-old methods and materials with expanded contemporary applications. Beyond that, it is compelling evidence of Translation Gallery’s vital and continuing commitment to showcasing fresh artistic visions that are as intelligent and evocative as they are entertaining.

PHOTOS, courtesy Craig Joseph/Translations Gallery: (from top) Wondrous Wonder by Bobby Rosenstock; Rockwell’s Freedom from Want, by Chad Creighton; Building the Perfect Worm Hole, by Rebecca Gilbert