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When asked to write this article my first reaction was
one of apprehension. What did I know about art, except that I liked to
look at it? I began to feel despondent about this assignment. I didn’t want
to do it. I was out of my element. This was over my head. But then I asked
myself one basic question, "Why do I like to look at art?" Other
questions then followed. "What does art do?" "What does it do
for me?" And "Why is it important?"
I realize to answer all of these questions in this limited space would be
impossible. Books are written on this topic! So I’m going to give you the
short answer, my short answer. It is my belief art is thought that keeps
thinking. In Orwell’s "1984" it is said that the only threat to
Big Brother is the idea. Ideas are the most powerful forces on Earth. What
makes them so resilient is that they continue to create, be passed down and
discussed. This is art how affects me. As a powerful idea from the
artist that if communicated well will continue to create.
I decided to call this byline "The Unframed View" because I am
not a critic, nor am I a trained art historian, musician or literature
professor. I am you. The person who likes to look at art, listen to music,
read the book, watch the play, go to the movie, and buy the article from the
craftsman. The views and opinions in this column will be the views and
opinions of someone just like you. This commentary will be about up and coming
events whether they are oils on a canvas or poetry readings. I don’t
proclaim to be right or wrong. Just the person talking to the next person
about how someone’s art affected me and the motifs that sprung to my head
when I encountered it. So without much ado…..
Masterpieces For A New Century: Group Gallery Show
"Nude
in Pink", German sandstone,
Robert Birbeck |
Robert Birbeck
Plain, stark, and free from artificiality, Mr Birbeck
explores the simple stirrings of the human form in his stone sculptures.
The pieces candidly express involuntary gestures and responses.
This is who we are and this is how we move.
All of us.
You
don’t know or suspect a specific person posing for a Birbeck.
It’s human urges he defines, not the human beings.
He penetrates basest instincts. And we are truly naked.
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"Facing
South", w/c, Daniel Brown |
Daniel Brown
When I gaze upon a Daniel Brown I gaze upon my own childhood. I am innocent
again and holding my father’s hand in a Dutchboy haircut and Maryjanes
having all of those Kodak moments in my head. Pictures that you alone see and
flashback to in later years, not understanding the exact circumstance, but
seeing the picture and feeling the moment.
I am nostalgic for Grandfather’s three happy straw hats harmonizing
a
barbershop ditty on his workbench or I look up and see |
the towering, lonely
streetlamp touching the sky. Mr. Brown conveys a time past and those special
youthful instances comparable to being alone in the woods and staring eye to
eye with a deer. In that exemplification, you know that that will not occur
with anyone else in the world, in that spot, on that day, in that space of
time. It’s something that belongs exclusively to you and Mr Brown captures
and reveals all of those private, convivial split seconds that made you
realize you were uniquely alive.
"Empty
Carton", egg tempera,
Loretta Cuda |
Loretta Cuda
This millennium's Van Gogh, Ms Cuda explores the schizophrenic phases of
our lives. For most of us it is in our darkest hour that we see the light and
Ms Cuda captures those feelings of fear, inadequacy, smallness and escape from
the prison our minds create with the deft strokes of her brush.
"Empty
Carton" is the embodiment of such empathy. In a claustrophobic red room,
whose only accoutrement is an empty
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corrugated cardboard box on dark hardwood
floors, you are overcome with the weak, battered, tortured spirit. Through the
window the world is bright and blue and the land is alive, unlike the previous
occupant of the disturbing flat.
The door is cracked with the light of a new day, a new
life; we know the spirit is liberated. It
saw it's new path. It had the
courage to survive, walk through that door, into the light, into the world,
once again.
"Storm
at High Head", o/c, Deane Folsom Sr. |
Deane Folsom, Sr.
Mr Folsom shares with us appreciation for our world. His landscapes reveal
our love Cape Cod. You can smell the sea and taste the salt. Mr Folsom
paintings attack our senses with the perfect blend of color and roughness.
Mr Folsom captures the magic that is Cape Cod. The landscape is bucolic and
beautiful. We are inspired. We are renewed. We will find our way.
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"Pleasant
Bay Cove", o/c, Denise Kelly |
Denise Kelly
Distinctly New England, unequivocally Massachusetts, and adoringly Cape
Cod, Ms Kelly’s landscapes tells us the kind of people we are through the
natural habitat in which we choose to live.
Yes, I am a Cape Codder and Ms Kelly pays homage to each and every one of
us through her paintings. Cape Codders are as temperamental as the sea, as haunting as |
the mist and as provincial as a red barn. Ms Kelly teases our
Puritanism by painting with tenderness and a touch of sensuality. She tells us
we are intriguing beings. Ms Kelly has been having a clandestine love affair
with all of us. Thank you Ms Kelly. We Love you too.
"The
First Seat", o/c, B. Nicole Klassen |
B. Nicole Klassen
There are rules to civility and Ms Klassen attests to those rules with
every painting. There is a fineness and old world charm resonating in each of
her works. They are quiet and calming; patient and serene.
In a hectic and stressed world, Ms Klassen reminds us to the world would be
less so if we only followed the rules. The world can be gentile. Ms
Klassen’s work proves it to us.
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"Strawberries
& Cream", o/p, Shawn Lütz |
Shawn Lütz
Everyone who has ever seen a Lütz, falls in love with a Lütz. The reason: A Lütz is love. Romantic love. The love you first feel when you meet someone.
The cloud nine love. The reason we love over and over again.
Every Lütz is romantic and dramatic. What makes a Lütz so appealing to us
is his technique. You don’t even see a brushstroke in his work. It’s real.
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He informs us with every painting that romance exists. And we believe.
"Turtle
Pool", a/c, George Marks, Jr. |
George Marks, Jr.
Why do I like George Mark’s impressionist work so much? Because every
little dot of color is alive! Mr Marks’s work is exhilarating. (I must
confess, I have always been a fan of the impressionists.) It’s the way Mr
Marks views the world that I find so engaging.
The whole is a sum of its parts and every part is important and contributes
to our lives. Mr Mark’s impressionism edifies that essence. Alone we are an
animated dot, placed together we
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are a bursting illumination.
"Japanesque",
o/c, Robert K. Roark |
Robert K. Roark
So many ideas, so little time! Robert Roark walks the line of being a
Genius and a Madman. A genius is someone who has great concepts. A madman is
someone obsessed with those notions. I’m not quite sure which Robert Roark
is? I do know, however, he makes me think about who I am!
Mr Roark makes you contemplate your own boundaries of thought through his
explosive and intense work. Engaging in
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a conversation with his work is akin
to entering your favorite, off-beat, existential philosophy class - everything
is considered - nature, beauty, purpose, time, play, space, humanity,
three-dimensions, culture, youth, death. You pick the word.
You are perpetually blitzed with passionate thoughts; suggesting,
questioning, answering. Mr Roark will test your limits. To experience a Robert
Roark is to live your life with an insatiable appetite for wonder and
knowledge.
"Joyful
Venus", ilfochrome,
Anita Winstanley-Roark |
Anita Winstanley-Roark
Confident. Noble. Free. And 100% Woman. Anita Winstanley-Roark unabashedly
proclaims femaleness from behind the lens and before it. Her photographic
presentation of women explores joy, grief, carnal desire, fantasies, mysticism
and secrets.
"Joyful Venus" is just such an example. A nude woman lies on the
beach laughing as the surf overcomes her.
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She is emancipated and clear of
judgment. Her nudity is guileless. Her laughter is sincere and uncontrived. In
that lone moment you are filled with all of the natural beauty that is woman,
without the make-up, the 10-question quiz of how to make better love to your
man or lose 10 pounds in two days. "Joyful Venus" in all of its
unaffected splendor reveals woman’s most misunderstood secret - her
enigmatic sensuality.
"Grandfather's
Iris" relief print,
Cynthia Worthen Vascak |
Cynthia Worthen Vascak
The only constant in life is change - and Cynthia Worthen Vascak’s
paintings reflect those ever-mutable moments. The difference, for most of us,
is life is difficult. Ms Vascak would like us to consider the alternative - it
doesn’t have to be.
In her paintings, beauty exists with every transformation. Take
"Grandfather’s Iris". You can see the Irises blooming and aging at
the same time and yet each stage is easy, natural, and beautiful. Just as life
can be, when we choose to live in it, not through it.
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Visit the Winstanley-Roark Fine Arts for their upcoming Champagne
Reception, Saturday, November 25, 2000 from 4 to7 PM and discover what the
"Masterpieces for a New Century" have to say to you.
Artists' Champagne Reception
Saturday, November 25, 2000, 4-7 PM
Show runs through December 23, 2000
Previews are welcome.
Winstanley-Roark Fine Arts
2759 Main Street, Rte. 6A
Brewster, MA 02631
Toll Free:(800) 828-7217 - Local: (508) 896-1948
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