Tactile Soliloquies
By Tom Wachunas
The title of the current exhibit at The Little Art Gallery – “Sheer Obscurity”- presents a bit of a conundrum. Is the art intentionally dark, or its meaning deliberately arcane? Or is it simply a poetic, even cautionary announcement of the art’s “personal” qualities, thereby preparing us for art that is more meditative than merely decorative or “entertaining”? I favor the latter reading, while considering the act of meditating on art quite entertaining nonetheless. In any event, I find the show’s title to be an effective hook on which to hang some observations.
Ken Carter makes hand-blown glass objects. Michele Waalkes makes (for the most part, here) pictures from photo transfers on to translucent as well as opaque fabrics. Hence, both artists work in “sheer” mediums. And both artists share subtle palettes that effectively make their works exude an earthy spirituality.
Carter’s glass pieces are, at their most fundamental level, connected to traditional functionalities of the medium – vases, bowls, and bottles. But those functions seem secondary to the pieces’ truer natures as independently engaging objects – intimate glass sculptures inhabited by an archetypal spectre of timelessness. Many of them look as if they were made from molten geological strata – viscous, swirling, and still gently seething and breathing under their polished patinas.
That sensibility of breathing is intrinsic to most of Waalkes’ pieces, too. Many of them are sylvan visions of interlacing tree limbs that shimmer and shift ever so slightly the longer you look at them. Some appear to go impossibly deep into the picture plane. Into the woods indeed, these are not so much mysterious forests as they are elegant invitations to simply explore and marvel at nature’s intricate, lyrical depths. Other images are fascinating juxtapositions of arboreal motifs with classical-looking architectural settings and quiet interiors – a kind of humanity-nature morphology.
Viewed in the aggregate, these works could well address a wide range of narratives and sensations both private and universal. And so it was unsettling to me to witness two other individuals come into the gallery during my 40-minute visit. They blew through the exhibit in 3 or 4 minutes, never getting any closer than about 4 feet from any single piece. With such a careless embrace, how could anyone possibly see, or perhaps even hear what message might await them? Their loss, I thought. Good art deserves better. Allowing ample viewing time seems a paltry sacrifice to make when the pay-off is the abiding serenity and unique, palpable pleasure for the eyes that this show so richly provides.
Photo: “Sheer Obscurity” (publicity art) from The Little Art Gallery/ left: “Alluring,” Fibers, by Michele Waalkes; right: “Encalmo Doughnut Bottle with Stand,” by Ken Carter. On view through November 17, gallery located in the North Canton Public Library, 185 North Main St., North Canton (330) 499-4712, extension 312
Forgotten was created from a photo I took of an old chapel in Paris, France. I can't recall the name of it, but I believe it was in the Latin Quarter, near a park where we sat and ate pastries. I was drawn to the run-down, isolated feel of it as I walked by. I put an overlay of trees from a photo I had taken at the Genessee Monastery in New York in order to play up the sense of abandonment and intrigue.
Resilience was created from a shot I took at the beach in Holland, MI on an amazingly windy day in November. It was very windy, sand was blowing all around and the waves were crashing in hard. I felt a sense of awe at the display of power. I love the image of the lone tree in midst of it all, buffeted, but standing firm. I incorporated wire to extend and emphasize how the branches were whipping around in the wind. Some of the wire branches flow onto the matt around the image.
Upward Mobility is constructed of two images taken in France. The background is a shot taken out of the window of our hotel room looking upward and the front layer is a photo I took inside the Grand Trianon at Versailles. I like the play of contrasts, a lavish interior juxtaposed onto a humble exterior, looking up and peering forward simultaneously.
The Source was created as a starting point for a maquette for a commission. (Though in the end, they wanted something more abstract, see Circuitous posting). I was playing around with the idea of metaphors for strength and what might be of encouragement to those who find themselves in a place where they need to be braced and encouraged in a trying time (as this was going to be for an ICU waiting room).
Midnight Breeze is a new work experimenting with painting on sheer fabric. I layered the sheer over a piece of fabric that I had painted by actually blowing paint through a device to administer a fine mist of black paint over branches that I had laid on the fabric. I attempted to echo this motif with my painting on the sheer.
