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2010 AUDREY & HARVEY FEINBERG ART GALLERY SHOWS
Opens 1 hour prior to all events (except Kids Matinees) and closes after intermission. Admission to all Art Gallery events is FREE.
COLOR BLIND
Digital photography by LINDA K. DeMARCO
Thu June 10-Sun July 11. Opening reception Fri June 11, 6-8pm
Artist Statement
I can see it so clearly even today some 50 years later. I simply was reaching for an apple on our white kitchen table. I noticed the shadow of the apple was a washed out red, the bananas casted a lighter shadow and the purple grapes created yet another intense shadow much deeper than either the apple or banana.
What a breakthrough at such a young age! I studied color intently from then on. I remember landing in San Francisco in the mid 1980's and looking with amazement at all the different shades of green. There were so many hues and variations, I was like a kid in the candy store.
I enjoy the bountiful array of colors and used my knowledge to create painting and photographs illustrating its ability to draw the viewer in many directions - emotional, visual, sensational, and even auditory.
I found myself an avid student of color theory and had the privilege to teach it at Baldwin-Wallace College a number of years ago. I loved it when students had the same reaction to the cast shadow on an apple on a white surface. It was an Aha! moment for them. Shadows were no longer black or grey, but had subtle color that changed intensity depending on the intensity of the available light.
I was surprised to notice my ability to see color was changing a few years ago. Slowly I have lost more and more of my color sight. Now I have to punch the color up and intensify it to really see what I love - color.
I knew I had to do something with the images I have shot over the years. I have been busy adjusting and printing my photographs from all over the world. I have adjusted the color to accommodate my visual loss. So the result is an image of intense color and vividness. I am learning to let my brain interpret what I see.
GO FIGURE
Drawings by RON WILSON & JERRY SMITH
Thu July 15-Sun Aug 14. Opening reception Fri July 16, 6-8pm
Artist Statement by Ron Wilson
As a young man I became fascinated with drawing the figure and the way different artists represented their ideas of the figure in drawings, prints, pen & inks, and paintings. I began my education copying old masters' drawings and prints. While in college my interest in figurative work continued, but I found the classical approach to drawing the figure was not part of university education at that time. It was the mid-1960s and art students at the university wore black and took themselves very seriously. I found little joy in the work and fellow students I encountered at this time. I drifted away from formal art studies and began doing commissioned pen & ink portraits. While still in college, an interest in theater began to command my attention - I found a joy in that work and a family of support - and I set aside my drawing work.
After making a career in theater as a professional director, actor, playwright and teacher, I came to Case Western Reserve University and The Cleveland Play House 11 years ago. Ironically my original interest in the figure led me into bringing that study of the human body in space and the expressiveness of the figure to the stage as an actor/non-verbal/gestural performer. Forty years of professional activity in the theater has led me full circle back to a renewed interest in drawing the human figure. After studying figure drawing with John Fincher at Wichita State University 40 years ago, I returned to study three years ago in workshops with Jon DeMartin, Tony Ryder, and the inspiring and gifted teacher/artists at Studio Escalier (Timothy Stotz and Michelle Tully) in France. In returning to my artwork I committed myself to truly "seeing" the body before me and expressing what I saw without imposing a symbolic notion on the experience. My primary medium of expression is graphite on paper. The magic of black and white and the gradations between continue to thrill me. I love the alchemical moment when the collection of pencil lines come together to become a drawing that reveals the character of the figure and its fascinating idiosyncrasies. Along with drawing the living figure it is also a joy to sit in great museums of the world and draw statuary by master artists. It is an honor to learn from these great artists first hand and the way they have chosen to solve the challenges of expressing the vitality and passion within the figure. It gives me great pleasure to communicate this passion for the human experience captured in a moment in time and space in the simplicity of graphite.
Artist Statement by Jerry Smith
For the past five years, the artist within me has been reawakening. Having followed a life path that took me further and further away from my formal art training, I began longing to reconnect with my creative self as I entered middle age. These figure drawings represent the beginning of that journey.
I have always been attracted to the human figure as a subject. As a child, I copied the powerful figure drawings of Michelangelo and expressive distortions of El Greco. As a young adult, I became fascinated by the very personal and revealing drawings of David Hockney, Eric Fischl, and Lucian Freud. At the same time, I was blown away by the expressive manipulation of material by artists like Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, and Cy Twombly.
These influences are very much with me as I approach figure drawing today. Staying cognizant of human proportions, I use the figure as an inspiration for making marks and discovering shapes, which are exciting and unique. I am mindful of the silent communication that exists between an artist and his model and seek to connect with the model's energy and mood. I work loosely and gesturally, pushing media around the page while continually responding to the model and the marks as they appear on the drawing surface.
From these studies, I will continue my voyage of rediscovery and push to find my mature artistic voice, informed by myriad life experiences - both joyful and painful - collected in my adulthood.
Jerry Smith graduated from Miami University with a BFA in painting, drawing, and printmaking and received a MFA from the University of Colorado in painting and drawing. He also holds an MA in arts administration from the University of Akron. He has taught drawing at the University of Colorado and the Trumbull County Joint Vocational School in Warren, Ohio, and is currently teaching for Cleveland Institute of Art's Continuing Education and Community Outreach program. Jerry has worked in non-profit administration for 20 years. He served as managing director of the Youngstown Playhouse and the Hangar Theater in Ithaca, New York, as well as in development positions with Ohio Ballet and The Cleveland Orchestra. Jerry currently is the director of development for Young Audiences of Northeast Ohio. He is an Ohio native and lives with his wife, Sue Starrett, in Shaker Heights.
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