Art
view Paulette Thenhaus
Darrel
Roberts & David Griffin
Darrel Roberts provides viewers a chance to experience paint. He is a painter's painter. His
love of the media oozes from each small canvas. No bigger than 12" x
16", but giving the illusion of a pound of paint on each color drenched
piece.
Some paintings have eight layers built up over months, some
years. Marks of brush hairs and swishes of the palette knife are visible. In
places, paint looks as if it where squeezed directly from a tube. The viewer
may or may not like the rawness of technique but one cannot argue with the
palpable appeal to all the senses.
Besides the textures made from art tools, the artist also uses
actual tactile textures such as pumice in images “Chicago Gravel Pit” and “New
Chicago Construction.”
There are works with recognizable subject matter, for instance,
"Winter Fireplace Series." Others are more illusive such as
"Chicago Rubble." Roberts draws inspiration equally from walks around
Chicago construction sites and the city's parks. He is not a slave to
representation by any means, rather, he interprets, abstractly, his immediate
surroundings.
What Roberts creates is akin to sculptural relief. The paint
wraps around the canvas edges. He claims the works are equally impressive when
viewed from a side angle, where the thick paint casts shadows.
Each canvas, though modest in scale, is an eyeful of juicy
paint and color.
___________
Four of David Griffin's vessels in "Nature:
Deconstructed" create an exhibit within an exhibit. A single piece,
"Femella," may be a key to understanding the meaning and structure of
the entire exhibit.
Griffin says he uses traditional vessel shapes, but
"Femella," like the rest, has a decidedly feminine, modern, tapering
shape. It conveys a natural message, too. One wonders just how the elongated
branches suspended in the vase where made. They are actually the real thing,
just shop turned. The vessel is made of layers of man-made materials and
metals, including copper. Plastic resin and trex are also included. The final
product is both manmade and nature-made.
"Vessel #2" in the series incorporates a more common
vase shape set on a metal grating and brimming with cascading leaves of many
metals.
Throughout the exhibit Griffin's fine metal-smithing and
jewelry making precision is demonstrated. There's a delicacy and invention that
is intriguing in the multimedia processes employed in each piece.
The selection of the two artists to show together was a
well-made choice that enhances the work of both artists.
The exhibit continues at the Galesburg Civic Art Center till
May 16, 2009. (309)342-7415.
April 23, 2009