Between the seams, a fibrous journal

 

Between the seams, a fibrous journal

Everloving (top) / Because You're Safe

I don't do well

after all these years who is that staring back at me?

you're more graceful than that

My stomach hurts

By Tom Wachunas

“What does it feel like when our race against the clock overshadows the likelihood of preserving memories? Moving through grief, time, and the end of a transformative decade, I explore my origins in an effort to grasp this new life…”  - Sarah C. Blanchette artist statement

“Sometimes you will never know the value of something until it becomes a memory.”  - Dr. Seuss 

EXHIBIT: Sarah C. Blanchette: All Shook Up—textiles and mixed media prints / Through July 23, 2023, in Studio M at Massillon Museum /  located at 121 Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon. For more information, call 330-833-4061, or visit   https://massillonmuseum.org/blog/MassMu-News/MassMus-Studio-M-to-Exhibit-Artwork-by-Sarah-C-Blanchette

From Massillon Museum: “Sarah C. Blanchette is a photo-based fiber artist who works out of the Detroit area. Through repetitive acts of hand and machine sewing and physical manipulations of the self-portrait, she documents her coming of age in a digital world while embarking on a journey toward growth and autonomy in womanhood.”

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   Inside this remarkably provocative Studio M exhibit of works by Sarah C. Blanchette, the very air in the room feels dense, even desperate. Saturated with introspective solemnity. The walls themselves project a gravitas. They’re not supporting bright, eye-popping colors. Instead, they appear stark and heavy, weighted with billowy splotches of …what?

   All the pieces were made with digital thermal print scans printed on velvet, cotton thread, vinyl and batting, and largely handsewn. Blanchette calls them “tactile tapestries,” and “journal-esque monochrome velvet quilts.” Imagery and words are stitched together, gleaned from personal and familial sources, spanning various moments across time, including voice recordings and family communications posted in social media. In her statement, the artist writes that, “…when brought together, these documentations served as resources to express the terror that time is slipping away…”  Blanchette also adds that her artworks “…beg the viewer to consider their weight.”

    So here’s one of those potent occasions when viewing art evokes, of all things, spelunking. Don’t just glance at this art. See into it, as if peering into, and then entering, a cave. A cave holding memories. Some bright and bold, others a bit murky. In any case, what I find most engaging about Blanchette’s works are the intriguing questions they raise about the dynamics, the lifespan, the preservation of memories and the truths they hold, or hide.

   Does a memory have a physique, a measurable mass or weight? Can a memory exude light? If so, will that illuminated physical presence, that present-ness, be necessarily diminished by the relentless passage of time? And during that inevitable passage, will the light from our accumulated memories be dimmed or fade away completely?

    Making art is certainly one of our culture’s most courageous – and loving - acts of memory preservation. As Blanchette so poignantly observes in her statement, her new pieces “…have become the most dependable form of preservation…They won’t ever disappear, even as their subjects do.”

   One more metaphor. Truly compelling artworks are like the sturdiest of ships carrying real treasure, and able to survive the storm-ravaged seas of passing time. Sarah Blanchette’s creations are indeed see-worthy vessels.

Scott Alan Evans Phones Home

 

Scott Alan Evans Phones Home

Alien Egg III

ALIEN

Chestburster (ALIEN)

Ack Ack Ack (Mars Attacks)

Blair Thing

Palmer Thing

By Tom Wachunas

“You know, Burke, I don’t know which species is worse.” – Ripley, from Alien

“Klaatu barada nikto.” – from The Day the Earth Stood Still 

EXHIBIT: Shock! Horror! Whizz! Bang! – Paintings by Scott Alan Evans / at Patina Arts Center / 324 Cleveland Avenue NW in downtown Canton, Ohio / Through July 29, 2023 / Gallery hours: Thursday Noon to 8p.m., Friday 7p.m. to 10p.m., Saturday Noon to 9p.m.

   Imagine, if you dare, watching the likes of Edvard Munch, Francis Bacon or Vincent van Gogh (and for that matter, a host of other expressionist paint pushers, living and dead, do come to mind here) pumped up on some sorta performance-enhancer (not that they really need it), and then executing a portrait.

 Well…they’re heeeere. Get a load of the spanking new works by Scott Alan Evans.

   So yes, the pictures in this exhibit are, for the most part, portraits. In this case, portraits of some iconic characters from Movie Land. To be precise, monsters, robots, and aliens you might love to hate or hate to love. As formal compositions, they’re uncomplicated, never too cute, and all at once simple, stark, halting, haunting.

   In as much as I’ve come to detest the woefully overused term ‘painterly’ as an adequate descriptor of artistic technique, for the moment I plead guilty to applying it. To be more specific, Evans’ acrylic paintings on canvas are ample proof of a very aggressive if not playful hand at work. His is a frenzied - and to some degree delightfully puerile - hand, given to spontaneous moments of laying down colors impasto-style, then quickly adding tonal variations that get unceremoniously smooshed, swiped or scraped. Call it a rude blending. And interestingly enough, these visceral surfaces don’t look so much like the liquid rubbery stuff of acrylic, but rather exude an unrefined, earthy sheen of oil paint. So…painterly it is after all.

   I can see how avid fans of kitschy sci-fi horror flicks, gripped as they may be by feverish nostalgia, could well find these works “charming” in some darker sense of the word. Some of the paintings are unabashedly lurid caricatures. Others have a genuine, humorous edge about them. Still others are truly frightening in their unfettered boldness.

   Whatever your tastes may be, I highly recommend coming to the gallery this coming Saturday, July 15, 7p.m. to 9p.m., to meet and talk with Scott Alan Evans as he discusses his inspiration and processes.

  While you’re there, be sure to ask him: Ack ack ack, klaatu barada niktu?

Live. Breathe. Sing. Love.

 

 Live. Breathe. Sing. Love. 

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. – Philipians 4:8

   And finally, brothers and sisters, as I hope is the case for so many of us in this presently numbing moment, my sadness can be greatly diminished, perhaps even overcome, only by the power of unfettered gratitude. Gratitude for the blessed gift, the gem, that is Gerhardt Zimmermann.

  Thank You, Maestro, for stirring, indeed igniting, my soul. Thank You for listening to what has called you. Thank You for the truly profound impact of your artistry, the sheer nobility and praiseworthy excellence of your loving vision and passion.

   And so to my readers, here is the letter which Gerhardt recently wrote to his family of orchestra musicians.

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Dear Canton Symphony Orchestra Musicians,

I hope this letter finds you well and surrounded by the joy of music. It is with profound sadness and a heavy heart that I write to you today to share some difficult news. After nearly 50 extraordinary years of leading this marvelous orchestra, it is my responsibility to inform you of a significant decline in my health and my transition to Hospice care.

Throughout the past half-century, it has been an absolute privilege and honor to stand before this exceptional group of musicians as your conductor. Together, we have created unforgettable experiences for ourselves and our audiences. The dedication, talent, and passion that each of you brings to our performances have made the Canton Symphony Orchestra a beacon of excellence in the world of classical music. The music we have brought to life, the harmonies we have crafted, and the emotional landscapes we have traversed are a testament to the power of our collective artistry. The Canton Symphony Orchestra has become my musical family; it is the gem that many people search their whole lives for and never find and I was lucky enough to have it for so many years.

Though my body may weaken, my love for music and the incredible talent each of you possesses remains undiminished. I implore each and every one of you to continue nurturing music; embrace the beauty of every note, find inspiration in every measure, and strive for excellence in every performance. Cherish the camaraderie that exists within this orchestra, for it is the bond that fuels our collective brilliance.

Please understand that I will forever be with you in spirit, even if I am unable to stand on the podium. Your dedication, talent, and commitment have made the Canton Symphony Orchestra an artistic force to be reckoned with, and I have the utmost faith in your ability to carry that torch forward. May music always be your guide, and may the passion in your hearts continue to ignite the souls of your audiences. Never stop pursuing the beauty that lies within each note.

Sitting in the orchestra for the first time at Bowling Green, it was as if the heavens opened up. From that moment on, a conductor was all I wanted to be. In life, if you're going to do it, give it all you can. Live it. Breath it. Sing it. Enjoy it. Love it. Sing, sing, sing...

 Gerhardt

Avian Ardor

 

Avian Ardor 

Ring Around the Rosie

Moonlight Duet

Jewel of the Summer Garden

Sugar Plums

Through the Woods

Into the Blue

Clementine

By Tom Wachunas 

“A bird is joy incarnate.” — Myrtle Reed

“Birds are the first and the greatest performers.” — Olivier Messiaen

“My heart swelled with uncontrollable delight.”  - John James Audubon

EXHIBIT: The Golden Aviary – Paintings by Katrina Polhamus / at John Strauss Studios, 236 Walnut Ave NE in downtown Canton, Ohio, THROUGH JUNE 16, 2023 / Gallery hours Monday-Friday 10a.m to 5p.m.

https://john-strauss-furniture.myshopify.com/collections/katrina-polhamus

   Here are some excerpts from the artist’s statement (included in the above hyperlink):

   “ As a former landscape designer turned stay-at-home mother and artist [in Hudson, Ohio], I endeavor to communicate my love for the natural world and home life in my art… Each painting combines realistically-painted birds, a golden structure, and a stylized or patterned background. These elements work together harmoniously to give the painting its own unique mood and/or narrative…The use of metallic gold creates the environment for the birds, and its reflective qualities set it apart from the rest of the painting. The backgrounds are inspired by home decor patterns, sometimes modern, sometimes nostalgic, giving the birds an in-home context…I try to project a feeling of optimism and happiness in my work which are central to who I am as a person and artist."

   These truly stunning acrylic paintings by Katrina Polhamus are endowed with a rich suggestibility beyond simply “giving the birds an in-home context.”  Yes, there are certainly aspects of personal domesticity in those bright, patterned backgrounds that might be local landscapes and gardens, or wallpaper, or curtains, carpeting, even clothing. Yet the “in-home context” also feels like it has acquired a deeper vintage dimensionality and symbolism, compelling me to ask: Is Polhamus constructing shrines, making ornithology a spiritual experience?

   Her birds are indeed superbly rendered with ample scientific precision, capturing all the intricacies, both crisp and soft, of their feathery forms. Her color dynamics are rapturous and not unlike the shimmering luminosity of stained-glass window narratives you could encounter in a church.

   And those gold ‘structures’! They’re much more than stylized perches or cages. Call it a geometric religiosity. Framing and focusing our attentions, these gilded linearities often harken to the calligraphic configurations seen in the illuminated manuscripts made during the Middle Ages. Just as those marvelous artworks inspired fervent meditations on the divine, so too Polhamus’s birds. They send our reverent hearts soaring.

Come What May - PART 80

 

Come What May -  Part 80 

PUN, by Tom Wachunas

The Last Cowboy, by Todd Bergert

The Fall, by Murli Narayan

The Catholic, by William Bogdan

Articulated Agave II, By Diane Belfiglio

Venice Street, by Bruce Humbert

Chrome Lady, by Thomas Kilpatrick

Data Entry, by Daniel Vaughn

By Tom Wachunas 

EXHIBIT: 80th ANNUAL MAY SHOW/ at The LITTLE ART GALLERY, located in The North Canton Public Library, 185 North Main Street, North Canton, Ohio/ Viewing hours: Mon.-Thurs. 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Fri. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. /  THROUGH JUNE 24, 2023

Jury-awarded works (Best-in-Show, Second Place, Third Place) pictured here (open the hyperlink): 

  http://ncantonlibrary.com/may-show-2022/

   This hallowed ritual usually features a remarkably abundant diversity of media and content. While handsomely mounted to be sure, this year’s exhibit of 31 works somehow feels…small. However well-crafted, maybe it’s the preponderance of entries tending toward the formulaic or nostalgic, often  settled into the cute and conventional.

   The photos I include here are of those pieces that I found especially captivating.

   Throughout many iterations of this annual event, Diane Belfiglio has been a deserving and frequent presence. Her recent sudden passing means she won’t be blessing us any more with her unique and sublime captures of sunlight and shadow, making her beautiful watercolor, Articulated Agave II, an altogether bittersweet encounter.       

   For you connoisseurs of classic Flemish-technique oil painting, the masterful draughtsmanship, the startling realism of fine textures, and the chromatic richness in the paintings by Tod Bergert (The Last Cowboy) and Murli Narayan are truly exquisite. Narayan’s painting, The Fall, is a particularly playful application of thinking outside the box. Those autumnal gourds appear to be falling out of the illusory picture frame. An arresting illusion within an illusion.  

   And speaking more of ‘playful,’ there’s Daniel Vaughn’s Data Entry. You might read this dazzling arrangement of Lego tiles as a newfangled sort of QR code. Translation: scintillating rhythmic complexity.

    William Bogdan’s The Catholic is a large and engrossing woodcut print. It exudes a soaring yet fragile Gothic monumentality. A priest, appearing dwarfed by the enormity of his surrounds, stands in the center aisle, facing  the steps leading up to the altar. All the church pews behind him are empty but for one silhouetted figure, sitting alone, encased in what looks like a white body halo. There’s a haunting here. A question, maybe even an irony. Under the towering, vaulted ceiling of architectural heaven, what carries more weight, more actual sanctity? The standing priest with an audience of one? All that elaborate, mute ornamentality of the surrounding statues and icons? Or is it the solitary seated figure emanating white light?  

   Whenever my own work appears in a juried group exhibit that I’m posting about here in my blog (as is the case with this exhibit, which includes my newest work, titled Pun), I’ve always acknowledged the jurors’ acceptance with gratitude and left it at that, with no further comments on my own work.

   This time’s a bit different. So yes, I’m certainly grateful. AND, here’s some shameless self-promotion. My piece belongs here. It’s the ONLY  ‘cutting-edge’ art (wink wink, nudge nudge) in the entire exhibit. You might call it a political commentary. With tongue-in-cheese, however, I think of it simply as a still life about the fomented state of our broken culture.  E Pluribus Unum, shredded.    

Installation Femmetastiques - PART 3

 

Installation Femmetastiques - Part 3 

Violence Against Women

Violence Against Women

We Wrap Ourselves Around You: Angels For Ukraine

Dance With Dementia

By Tom Wachunas

"Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street. Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” —Coco Chanel

“I think what's important is to give space to the range of human experience.”  - Judy Chicago

“As an artist, I never wanted to be fettered by gender nor recognized or defined as a female poet, musician or singer. They don't do that with men - nobody says Picasso, the male artist. Curators call me up and say, "We want your work to be in a show about women artists," and I'm like, why? For Christ's sake, do we have to attach a gender onto everything?”  - Patti Smith

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

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

   For much of art history, the techniques and materials of functional domestic crafts (weaving, sewing, quilting, embroidery and the like) associated with women, a.k.a. “women’s work,” was thought to be intellectually empty and unworthy to be called “high art.” Such work was typically dismissed as mere ornament or decoration. Fortunately, such institutionalized small-mindedness has been in steady decline for decades, thanks in large part to the potency of transformational ideas central to the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s.

   And ‘potent’ is certainly an appropriate descriptor for the three marvelous pieces here by Judi Krew. They’re from her ongoing Hoard Couture wearable art series. Here’s a relevant she said–he said about that series, excerpted from my blog comments about her 2021 solo show at Massillon Museum. First, she said, “…I embrace the mantra of reuse, repurpose, reconsider, and reimagine to guide the overall concept of each piece… The original intent of Hoard Couture, to reduce an accumulation of things, has evolved over time into a series that sometimes looks back at our past and perhaps also forward to our future…” Then, he (I) said, “… we can rightly regard Judi Krew’s works as not just fashion design, but also as remarkable mixed-media sculptures… In all of their astonishing intricacy of constructed details, these exquisitely crafted assemblages are more than merely decorative. They’re declarative…”

The spiritual power of We Wrap Ourselves Around You: Angels For Ukraine is indeed a purposeful declaration and, I dare say, a prayer. Wearing this brilliant and sparkling tribute to the people of Ukraine would be to don the wings of hope and healing.

   On a distinctly more somber note, there’s the interactive Violence Against Women – at once sobering and disturbing. More than simply “feminist” in concept and scope, it’s compellingly humanist. Read Krew’s statement: “Upon this piece are 22 individual pockets depicting 30 forms of violence against women both historical and contemporary. The text is hand stitched and incorporates a small visual reference. The body of the pockets are intended to be “beautiful” individual works of art using craft materials… Within each pocket are laminated stories from victims who suffered these acts of violence. Please reach in and read their stories so they can reach out to you… Do not allow women to remain hidden anymore.”

   In her statement that accompanies Dance With Dementia, Krew writes that she designed the work as a “modified dance costume… comprised of: the artist’s 1984 wedding rehearsal dress; overskirt made from a bedsheet that was wrapped around her mother’s bridal gown (to preserve it) circa 1958; and the front panel of a real dance costume…”  

   The garment is covered with 45 miniature dresses that echo the Hoard Couture series as a whole. Krew tells us that the small pieces are “…made as memories and more able to be stored once the artist passes away and the full scale series is eventually disposed of. When fully assembled, this dancer’s dress serves as a retrospective of the artist’s years making Hoard Couture and a lifetime of playing with art materials.”

    So there is, belying the fulsome visual brightness of the piece, a pensive this-too-shall-pass sadness about it. Here, Krew shows herself to be a gifted poet, evidenced by the panel attached on the front of the garment, bearing the arresting Dance With Dementia poem she wrote:

A little girl grows up to make art / She wears it well, they say / Dancing under gallery lights /

Accolades / Decades / Pieces of herself left behind, until /

An unfinished canvas, an empty hook / a missed deadline / Unsigned /

Did anyone notice? / Were there signs? / Decline /

The stage grows dark / The theater lies empty / Studio spaces forgotten

A.R.T. entombed in bins / Abandoned / Unavailable /

A nice lady gives her some crayons

 Judi Krew, thank you. I keep noticing the sublimity of your work, the fabric of your heart. And I suspect that any dancing you might be doing with crayons in the future would be no less enthralling.

Installation Femmetastiques - PART 2

 

Installation Femmetastiques - Part 2 

Still Life with 2 People, by Marti Jones Dixon

Compassion, by Erin Mulligan

Beach Ponies, by Heather Bullach

Photos by Aimee Lambes

Erika Katherine art

Under Siege, by Sally Lytle

By Tom Wachunas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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