WlcmBcK Show

The piece(s) that I liked the most in this show were Erin Dunn's Woops pieces but I preferred the larger work to the smaller one. Both were filled with mixed media that created a lot of texture and colorful patterns which I loved. I thought that it was interesting that she wanted the paintings installed in the middle of the room as opposed to just normally hanging on the wall. Though I did not like that the second piece was just on the floor resting up against the pedestal however it does go with her idea of the works being sort of "as is" in the gallery. Both pieces reminded me of a kind of whimsical landscapes.

Another piece I enjoyed was actually in the sketchbook of Lyda Craig. She had a lot of nice stuff in there but this one piece stood out to me the most with the Miss America immortal beauty with cut out paper. I not only like the content but the handwork of the cut out paper that has this graphic quality with an organic quality also. I really like how she cut the type. The actual words themselves, immortal beauty, and how they are cut out in a ransom note format I think really speaks loudly to what she's commenting on. The types of things that women do in not only beauty pageants but in normal life to be portrayed as "beautiful" is this unnatural immortal notion. The woman she made has a slightly creepy aspect to her face and in a sort of clownish way which again contributes to this immortal beauty.

Another set of works that I liked were Suzanne Joelson's Easter West paintings. To be honest I just really like the color scheme of the earthy tones and the patterns on these pieces. I like how they are 2 separate canvas's but they are set so closely together and just the actual content of each image flows into one another which I thought was interesting. I have no idea what these works are about and the title doesn't give me any clues. The earthy tones are displayed very "painterly" in the background and the black graphic pattern projects to the foreground in a systematic way. The two balance each other out.

The last set of works I enjoyed were the Hate and Jealousy pieces by Chris Guerra. I actually noticed the Hate piece first and was drawn towards that and once I kept moving around the room I noticed Jealousy across the room in the same spot but on the opposite side. Conceptually and physically there are a lot of similarities. Hate and jealousy are very strong emotions that sometimes go hand in hand. If I didn't read the titles I probably would not have gotten those emotions directly out of the pieces because both are abstractly portrayed. The connection between colors relates to the connection between the emotions. Red is a very strong color that has a lot of emotions associated with it and one of the main ones being hate. There is a nice balance in each piece. I wonder why he chose to have them separate but in the same spot but opposite sides. I think they work separately and being right next to one another would make it difficult for the viewer to see them as separate.

All of the works in the show were very individual ranging from mixed media to mixed content. A lot of the content seemed to be very abstract. I liked the range in media and content because it wasn't overwhelming.