Fall 2012, Volume 13

From the Art Editor

David Barthold’s trees are uncanny, a little creepy in the best possible way, as if some animal spirit was being held alive in each one.  Compare these to his animal etchings which start with the beast and find something enduring and quiet, as slowly burgeoning and stolid as a tree.

Jane Fine contains, even reimagines, a range of chaotic subjects with a consistent verve and technique.  Her painter's touch and sense of line sit between the earnest casualness of cartooning and the spare, dark but deft truths of late Philip Guston paintings.  How rich it is to be serious and have a sense of humor all at once.

Christine Gedeon   Just as stone, sand, water and cement in the right proportions can become concrete to support the buildings in the world, Christine’s "Plots" from her larger series of Stitched Works compel by conflating the disparate worlds of mapmaking, architecture, abstract painting, fiber arts and sewing.  In particular, I am engaged and entertained and moved by how she simultaneously reimagines the efforts of Malevich and Kandinsky, architectural plans and maps, particularly of human activity.

Jayne Holsinger’s Figures in Waterfalls paintings hold time still even as the white noise of falling water resounds.  I'm there.  The point of view suggests a voyeur but the light and activity invite me to interact with these people going forward.  Jayne finds her own spot in a spectrum which includes Thomas Eakins' studies of male nudes, Elmer Bischoff's figures in landscapes, and some of the pre–Raphaelites where they use water as a psychological–symbolic force.

Boaz Vaadia   The layered construction of Boaz’s sculptures recalls everyone's serious business of stacking blocks as a child—but the scale and weight of his units would humble most of us.  I was grabbed at once by the humor and also gravity of his hewn materials speaking in rock language to form people who converse about people for our benefit.  Rock is silent and layered and suggests deeper layers we cannot see.  The visual texture tantalizes but the larger than life scale gives me pause.  It is all right in front of us but also private, like a dog intensely focused on its owners, oblivious of everything else.  

                                                                                                 — Jack Miller