Process and Product: Feeding a Hunger

 

Process and Product: Feeding a Hunger

By Tom Wachunas

 

   “Instead of just looking at the finished product, I want people to have a look at the process…I selected artists where you can see the specific building blocks better.”  -exhibit curator Michele Waalkes, from an article by Dan Kane for The Canton Repository 

   EXHIBIT: Parts to the Whole – works by Jacques P. Jackson, Liz Maugans, Jennifer Omaitz, and Stephen Tornero – curated by Michele Waalkes / at The Hub Art Factory, 336 Sixth Street NW, downtown Canton, THROUGH August 28, 2020 / viewing hours on Tuesdays 7p.m. to 9p.m., or by appointment – contact email thehub@gmail.com / (330) 451-6823

Canton Repository article:

  https://www.cantonrep.com/news/20200806/hub-welcomes-masked-visitors-to-friday-opening?fbclid=IwAR2dg75c7Dz4P8QMkf6B-Ol7Ck6jw9orpdrkrwSclMu8jNOq5GKWBD1YkWg

"Hi" Split, by Jacques P. Jackson

The Sash, by Jacques P. Jackson

Miami Beach House, by Jennifer Omaitz

Forced, by Jennifer Omaitz

GLOW, by Stephen Tornero

Fruit Punch, by Stephen Tornero

Apathy Parade: Mediocrity, by Liz Maugans

 

https://www.facebook.com/TheHubArtFactory/

     Lately I’ve been starving. As in greatly missing what was once a lively art gallery scene in downtown Canton. While that scene was already experiencing a slow but sure diminishing long before the pall of COVID19 settled on us, the pandemic has only made matters worse in terms of regularly accessing what few art venues remain. In any case, THANK YOU to The Hub Art Factory for continuing to provide some aesthetic nourishment. My only regret is the lateness of this post, and for that I sincerely apologize.

   The artists in this eclectic gathering have provided written statements regarding the conceptual thrust and/or process involved in the making of their pieces, and in a few instances, framed shadowboxes containing samples of their raw working materials.

    Jacques Jackson makes his charming mosaics with various sorts of glass glued to plywood substrates. He’s interested in fashion design among other things, and often inserts bits of patterned fabric behind the glass shapes. The contours of the mosaics are cut to suggest figures with softly curving torsos, as if moving in an exotic dance.

   The mixed-media assemblages by Jennifer Omaitz, at once dense and airy, are examinations of stacked architectural structures. She tells us in her statement that they’re inspired by architects who “…address space constraints, refocusing the design of living environment to create a sense of community and reduce the environmental footprint.”  From this theoretical starting point, Omaitz’s constructions further explore “…questions surrounding climate change, and post-modern architecture, modular architecture, and psychological spaces.” Complex conditions indeed, these are intriguing maquettes – models of buildings precariously balanced or teetering in midair, and seemingly on the verge of tipping over.

     The hand-woven linen yarn weavings by Stephen Tornero are exquisitely crafted, shimmering abstractions that might be transparent organisms or perhaps shifting landscapes. “I am inspired by the colors I find in nature,” he says in his statement, “and how they interact with artificial colors of electric light.”  His mesmerizing pieces are a dynamic tour-de-force of myriad threads that seem to breathe through undulating hues and patterns.

   Liz Maugans’ “Apathy Parade” series of wood intaglio relief prints is her response to the extreme sociopolitical divisiveness that emerged during the 2016 elections, and which has certainly become even more intense these days. The banner-toting “people” in her images have been reduced to anonymous pixelated blurs – clusters of amorphous Ben-Day dots. What exactly they’re supporting or protesting isn’t all that clear either. Maugans explains the words on their signs this way: “…I lifted rants and responses from social media debates where people were clearly not doing their own research and co-opting others’ arguments that don’t stand up to credibility…”

   Maugan’s images are – pardon the pun – arresting and timely. They make me wonder about the identity of American society. Who are we really, and where are we going? Maybe we need to be concerned with a pandemic of another sort – the kind that has blurred us into a viral meme culture, entrenched in the scene-and-herd mentality of the social media masses.

Remote Yearning: Prompt and Circumstance

Remote Yearning: Prompt and Circumstance 

By Tom Wachunas 

 

"Drawing is putting a line (a)round an idea."  - Henri Matisse

 

          ἡ γὰρ σοφία τοῦ κόσμου τούτου μωρία παρὰ τῷ

       Θεῷ ἐστιν γέγραπται γάρ δρασσόμενος

       τοὺς σοφοὺς ἐν τῇ πανουργίᾳ αὐτῶν  - 1 Corinthians 3:19

 

    Here’s a new drawing of mine called Remote Yearning: Prompt and Circumstance (graphite and acrylic on sketchbook paper). At first, I regarded this return to a black-and-white dynamic as a possible starting point for a more elaborate work replete with lots of painterly textures, along with some robust color and collage elements, and not too unlike a few of my recent Summer pieces on wood panels. Some day, perhaps, but not yet.

    I’m satisfied at the moment to offer it simply as a work of abstract writing -  a codified reaction to the vexing challenges of designing an online version of the course I’ve been teaching at Kent Stark (“Art as a World Phenomenon”) for the past 13 years. For most of this Summer I’ve been reluctantly navigating the technological muck of tutorials and webinars on using digital media platforms and tools for remote teaching. Thanks to the necessary practices that Covid19 has wreaked upon our schools and universities, we’ve become dependent on the Internet, like never before, to facilitate education. I remain unenthused, even questioning the efficacy of “distance learning,” all the while missing the hallowed (and still wisest) traditions of  real, face- to- face teaching…teaching as a true performance art.

   So this drawing is by a complainer. He’s temporarily floating and aimless, cut, dragged, pasted and downloaded (or is it uploaded?) into a sea of infection connections - icons, tabs, hyperlinks and prompts, screens within screens within screens. In the end maybe it’s all just an exercise in remote yearning.

Porcelain Parables

Porcelain Parables

A summer Breeze and a Golden Necklace

The Future Is Bright

These Are Barren Times

Our Collective Existential Crisis

The Taste of Fleeting Success

Black Bear Thoughts

By Tom Wachunas

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven… - Ecclesiastes 3:1

“I create narratives using personal experience combined with animal interactions and semiotics…I strive to reveal human realities by exposing both the light and shadow parts of life…”   -Taylor Robenalt

   EXHIBIT: SYMBOLIC NARRATIVE: CERAMICS BY TAYLOR ROBENALT / at The Canton Museum of Art (CMA), 1001 Market Avenue N. / THROUGH AUGUST 2, 2020 / Hours: Tuesdays-Fridays 10a.m. to 4p.m. / FREE ADMISSION THROUGH AUG.2 /  330.453.7666 / visitors should pre-schedule their viewing time and reserve tickets at

https://www.cantonart.org/reservetickets

   From Merriam-Webster, definition of semiotics: a general philosophical theory of signs and symbols that deals especially with their function in both artificially constructed and natural languages and comprises syntactics, semantics, and pragmatics.

   Though I’m fairly certain that this exhibit was planned well before the onset of the Covid crisis, it nevertheless resonates with our time -  this protracted season of intense societal flux. We’re living in a complicated, dystopian era, poised at a volatile nexus of viral anguish and consuming desire for healing and redemption.

   Taylot Robenalt is a storyteller. Viewed collectively, her porcelain objects are a compelling sculptural treatise on the human experience of life’s dichotomies, life’s challenging dualities. Her exquisitely crafted pieces  merge figure, flora, and fauna into intriguing metaphors. These are codified narratives – symbols, totems, shrines, memorials. They’re emotive reflections on embracing the human spirit - at once fragile and robust, vulnerable and indomitable - as it navigates all manner of existential circumstances.

   To be fully alive is to be touched by the inevitability of cycles, of change - to experience a journey into light, into darkness, and back again.  There are stories here rendered in the dulled colors of mourning, of corruptibility and mortality, such as These Are Barren Times, or Our Collective Existential Crisis.

   There are also brighter episodes of purity, or hope, or joy, such as in A Summer Breeze and a Golden Necklace. Yet, look closely at the woman’s face (the artist’s self-portrait?). She appears about to cry. Is her golden crown on the verge of falling off? Even the graceful white swan looks like it’s snarling, as if to say this moment won’t last. Likewise, in The Future is Bright, there’s still an abiding sense of the temporary, of precarious balancing. The woman’s expression is subtly serious, even stern, locked in concentrated determination to savor all that delicate, beautiful fertility atop her head before it becomes...what? And so it goes, this circle, this yin and yang of being.

    Through all their intricate forms, sumptuous textures, and lustrous hues, Robenalt’s porcelain musings exude a strange charm, unsettling and disarming at the same time. Here are eloquent parables about the eternally changeable seasons of being alive.

Dazzling Devotions

Dazzling Devotions

Merv Corning, Ancient Warrior 

Merv Corning, Baker's Table with Brass and Silver 

Merv Corning, The Bath

Merv Corning, October - Wyeth Farm 

J.D. Titzel, Harmony Church 

J.D. Titzel, Nuthatch 

J.D. Titzel, Remnant Tractor 

J.D. Titzel, Orchard Truck

By Tom Wachunas

“Painting is possessed of divine power, for not only does it make the absent present, but also makes the dead almost alive.” - Leon Battista Alberti

   “There are no half measures when it comes to watercolour. Watercolour demands constant devotion.”  -Pierre Tougas

   EXHIBITS: Reflections: The Artistic Spirit of Merv Corning / Patient Work: Watercolors by J.D.Titzel / at The Canton Museum of Art (CMA), 1001 Market Avenue N. / THROUGH AUGUST 2, 2020 / Hours: Tuesdays-Fridays 10a.m. to 4p.m. / FREE ADMISSION THROUGH AUG.2 /  330.453.7666 / visitors should pre-schedule their viewing time and reserve tickets at

https://www.cantonart.org/reservetickets

   The following two paragraphs are excerpted from CMA Exhibition statements:

   “… In fact, the NFL first contacted Corning (American, 1926-2006) in 1966-67 for watercolor illustration work; their relationship would span 30 years, with Corning becoming, as the NFL put it, "football's pre-eminent artist”…This major retrospective exhibition honors Merv Corning’s importance as an American master of art—particularly watercolor…Reflections showcases not only works from CMA's Merv Corning Collection, but also works from private collections and museums around the country…”

   “Largely self-taught watercolor artist, J.D. Titzel, has drawn and painted since high school. He began his college career as an art major at Wittenberg University but found he couldn’t connect with the largely popular abstract movement…When he paints in watercolor, Titzel builds color slowly in very thin layers of paint. Some areas are 2-3 layers while others are attained in 10 or more layers. This gives the painting more nuances and depth than a single color can achieve…”

   Once upon a time, in a confused mentality far, far away, I was often too cavalier in dismissing watercolorists in general as so many dabblers, casual amateurs, Sunday-painter hobbyists. Mea maxima culpa.

   Due largely to CMA’s ongoing and admirable commitment to collecting and exhibiting significant American watercolor works from the 19th century and forward, I’ve come to savor the medium’s unique character. Many painters, accomplished and otherwise, can attest to its unforgiving nature, its daunting technical demands, and the skills required to meet them effectively. In the disciplined hands of masterful painters such as Merv Corning and J.D.Titzel, the medium is magical.

   Their pictures are representational in nature, speaking a language most would categorize, understandably enough, as realism. But as with any language, there can be differing dialects, accents,  inflections. And that’s evident here. While both artists engage the same vocabulary and basic grammar – identifiable subjects from the visible world – there are subtle but distinct differences in the artists’ syntactic practices.

   Among the most captivating elements in the works by both of these painters is the uncanny illusionism of tactile surfaces. The precision of nuanced detail is at times astonishing.

   But those details can be rendered in different kinds of light. The way Corning laid in his crystalline illumination often gave his colors a surprising solidity and brilliance. The light in Titzel’s works tends to be a bit more diffused, though certainly no less captivating. His visions feel wrapped in a softness, a meditative quietude.

   Looking at these works induced in me the sensation of reading the artists’ personal narratives. Here are stories of their passionate devotions to closely observing their surrounds, their willingness to be immersed in what they were looking at. Here is the joyous eloquence of the practiced, indeed patient hand, and the unwavering eyes that can find profound poetry in even the simplest of things.

   So these aren’t just pictures. They’re vessels of transportation. They can take us to that spellbinding place where we too can be immersed in our own act of seeing.

BON APPETIT!

BON APPÉTIT!

Magic Circle Variation 6, by Rogan Brown (2015)

Heart of the Son, by Michael Buscemi (2016)

Tsunami-Oblivious, by Bovey Lee (1982)

Coringa, by Margaret Griffith (1981)

Collective Portrait #8..., by Amy Oates (1987)

(top) Cabron, (bottom) Untitled (Irises), by Gabriel Schama (2015)

Between the Lines, by Mounir Fatmi (2010)

By Tom Wachunas

   “With this exhibition we can see that the long history, tradition, and art of paper cutting now find a rich synergy with our contemporary art world. The process and art of cutting—complex, delicate, beautiful, tedious, consuming, frustrating, and awesome—can be seen as a metaphor for life itself and the acts of creating: in art, work, and family.”  - Excerpted from curatorial statement prepared by Carrie Lederer, Curator of Exhibitions and Programs at the Bedford Gallery.

   EXHIBIT: Cut Up / Cut Out, at Massillon Museum, in the Aultman Health Foundation Gallery / THROUGH AUGUST 23, 2020 / 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon, Ohio / Phone: 330-833-4061 / HOURS: Tuesday through Saturday 9:30am - 5:00pm and Sunday 2:00pm - 5:00pm

     More info at:      http://www.massillonmuseum.org/499

 

   These recent months of navigating the torrid seas of societal mayhem have radically disrupted my sense of time passing, of place and destination, of purpose and productivity, and otherwise my expectations of “normalcy.” It’s all been a rude reminder that expectations are often resentments waiting to happen.

   But enough with such frustrations. My experience of walking through the doors of Massillon Museum on the first day of its re-opening (June 26) was a therapeutic one. Healing, in fact. After such a protracted period of involuntary fasting, seeing actual art again - in real time, in an actual, physical place designed to exhibit it – viewing Cut Up/Cut Out was just like partaking of a lavish feast.   

  

   This travelling exhibition, featuring the work of more than 50 national and international artists, was organized in 2016 by Carrie Lederer, Curator of Exhibitions at the Bedford Gallery in the Lesher Center for the Arts, located in Walnut Creek, CA. Her inspiration for the exhibit came from her avid interest in the art of paper cutting, historically an often decorative practice with roots dating back to 6^th century China, the birthplace of paper as we know it.

   The very eclectic range of content in this splendid exhibit transcends the immediacy of ornamentation - dazzling as it often is - into compelling symbols, narratives, and metaphors.  In the hands of these artists, the skilled act of cutting a tangible surface or plane (and not just paper here) – of severing, penetrating, perforating, reshaping – is not simply a finely-crafted diminishment or removal of material for decoration’s sake. Rather, the cutting reveals things beyond the apparent. The entire exhibit is an exhilarating reminder that much of the power and beauty of art is in its capacity to transform worldly materials and mundane processes into metaphysical realities…to make the spiritual somehow tangible.  

   The sheer intricacy of minute detail in many of the works can induce a  hypnotic hold on your attention. Look long at the labyrinthine clusters of tiny shapes (hand and laser-cut paper) in Rogan Brown’s aptly titled Magic Circle Variation 6. There’s a practically microscopic intensity in the way the work evokes diving deep into a bleached coral reef.

   Equally mesmerizing and meditative is Michael Buscemi’s Heart of the Son (hand-cut archival paper). All those curvaceous foliate shapes seem to emit their own radiant light, bursting from the center like tongues of white flame.

   Tsunami-Oblivious (Chinese rice paper), by Bovey Lee, tells a riveting story about the power of churning wind and waves. [Please note: The photograph of the work I’ve included here is from the artist’s web site. The piece in the Massillon show is mounted under glass on a dark blue ground.]  Considering the chaotic nature of the disaster unfolded before us, the piece is rendered with an uncanny delicacy.

   Coringa is a commanding and mystical floor-to-ceiling installation by Margaret Griffith, made with all-black hand-cut paper. The piece suggests something at once architectural and floral, posing some intriguing associations. Is it a silhouetted scene from nature at night? Or the animated shadows of sculpted arabesques on an ancient gateway or temple? It dances in space.

    For her Collective Portrait #8: All the people I encounter each day (hand-cut paper hung with monofilament), Amy Oates constructed a fascinating crowd of seemingly transparent figures that appear to float in and out of their own shadows. It’s a delightfully spirited memory of real people, or maybe a fleeting encounter with friendly ghosts. 

   So let me return for a moment to my sense of this show being a feast. I came hungry. I savored the lavish menu for its wild variety of tastes – some savory and sweet, others packing a tangy wallop. I left gratefully nourished. It’s a grand table indeed, set to serve any famished soul.

These Days: Signs and Wonderings

These Days: Signs and Wonderings 

#signsandwonderings, mixed media, 22 1/2" (w) x 24" (h)

By Tom Wachunas

   “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”  - Thomas Merton

   “It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance, and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”  - Henry James

   “The practice of any art, no matter how well or how badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven’s sake.”  - Kurt Vonnegut

   “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in humility that comes from wisdom…” –  James 3:13

   These days, none of us need to settle for just imagining the ethos of human society confused and conflicted, fraught and frustrated. Writhing in our cultural wrecking and reckoning has been our actuality for a very long time.

   These days, Charles Dickens’ anaphoric “it was…” in the classic opening of his A Tale of Two Cities surely lives on as a haunting, potent anthem of our NOW. It IS the best of times, it IS the worst of times, it IS the age of wisdom, it IS the age of foolishness, it IS the epoch of belief, it IS the epoch of incredulity, it IS the season of Light, it IS the season of Darkness, it IS the spring of hope, it IS the winter of despair…

   These days, my artwork continues to trudge along in the mode of painterly assemblage/collage. The initial idea for my recently completed mixed-media piece, #signsandwonderings, was born while I was working in my backyard vegetable garden several weeks ago. Gardening has always been for me a prayerful time of reflection and meditation. My gloved and fisted hand pushes a trowel, pounding it deep into the heart of hardened earth. Call it a labor of love, this act of loosening and extracting, of preparing and sowing. Head, heart, and hand joined together, desiring a blessed harvest.

   These days, I’m caught up in a whirlwind of wondering about what we will reap after this season of sowing such an abundance of viral words  across social media – the codification of our human condition. Or on another level, we can regard the Internet as the digitalization of our tongues in their  uttering words of angst and anger, fear and loathing, as well as, thankfully, words of hope, love, and healing.

   This recent work of mine is visually structured to be a somewhat sculptural hashtag (a.k.a. pound sign). The hashtag is that ubiquitous web symbol - a slanted grid comprised of nine planes - used to identify an idea of importance. Think of it as planting seeds, or “pounding home” a message. The meandering scrawl of my handwritten text (in English and Greek) is drawn from the New Testament Book of James (James 3:3-18), wherein the brother of Jesus offers his counsel, cautionary and wise, on the power of the tongue.

   Don’t own a Bible? No problem. These days, you can always #lookitupoonline. Be blessed.

Massillon Museum Reopening

Massillon Museum Reopening

"What Optimism Looks Like," by Paul Flippin

www.facebook.com/MassillonMuseum

  More encouraging news. Here’s information (excerpted from Massillon Museum’s website and Facebook page) regarding reopening on Friday, June 26. The Massillon Museum is located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. For more information, call the Museum at 330-833-4061 or visit

http://www.massillonmuseum.org/

   As the Massillon Museum anticipates its reopening day, June 26, the staff is onsite and working diligently to create a comfortable and safe venue for visitors.

  New exhibitions await guests. Cut Up/Cut Out in the Aultman Health Foundation Gallery - a contemporary view of an ancient art practice that has evolved over thousands of years. This exhibition, which includes national and international artists, honors both tradition and innovation with a selection of over one hundred artworks by 51 artists representing diverse techniques and approaches to making art. And Paul Flippen: 36days, in Studio M, through July 26, featuring 36 pen and ink drawings by Paul Flippen that examine the emotions and ethics of the end of life, through drawings and text describing the narrative of one family’s experience:

https://paulflippen.com/section/476538-36days.html

  The all-new permanent collection galleries fill the entire second floor of the original part of the building, and the Immel Circus and the Paul Brown Museum complete the second floor of the new part of the building.

  “We want our visitors to be prepared for new guidelines in place to allow for social distancing throughout the Museum, reduced occupancy in galleries, and rigorous, visible cleaning routines to maintain a safe environment for everyone.  The Museum will continue to facilitate inspiring and innovative programming and to engage its community, but with safety first and foremost in mind, and in practice,” said Executive Director Alexandra Nicholis Coon.

Visitors, who will be strongly encouraged to wear masks, will encounter a hand-sanitizer stand immediately inside the main door.  Behind the new acrylic shield at the reception desk, a staff member, wearing a mask and gloves, will be ready to greet guests, offer directions, answer questions, and accept class registrations.

The reception staff will monitor the occupancy of spaces within the Museum and will assist with shop purchases. Sample copies of exhibition catalogs, on a table outside the shop, will be sanitized after each shopper. Staff will retrieve items guests wish to buy from inside the shop.

Anderson’s in the City, the former lobby café, is closed and the exterior door to that area will remain locked. Most of the lobby seating will be removed to assure social distancing.

Signage will be prominently displayed throughout the building to direct visitors and remind them of safety precautions. The floor will be marked to assist with social distancing. Sanitizing stations will be located throughout the building.

The elevator will be limited to two people, with the exception of families with small children. The main stairwell will be accessible.  Elevator buttons and stairway doors and handrails will be sanitized regularly throughout the day.

Interactive components, with the exception of braille labels, have been removed from exhibitions, and gallery doors and railings will be sanitized throughout the day.

Restrooms will be cleaned on a regular schedule, which will be posted prominently. The outer door will be propped open to alleviate touching, and sanitizer will be available.

“We’re anxious to see our regular visitors as they return, and we look forward to welcoming new friends to our safe surroundings and introducing them to the wonderful new exhibitions we have to offer,” said Guest Operations Manager Brandon Rohrer.

Hours of operation starting Friday, June 26: Monday – Closed / Tuesday - Saturday 9:30am - 5:00pm / Sunday - 2:00pm - 5:00pm