FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Please List
“SANGUINE EXPECTATIONS”
Art created in moments when our lives were changed forever
A virtual exhibit online
July 21–August 28, 2020
40% of art sales from this exhibit will be contributed to Doctors Without Borders
Viridian will soon be open by appointment only, with masks required.
Ayako Bando * Ellen Burnett * Robert Carley * Kacey Cowdrey * May DeViney * Kiffi Diamond * David Fitzgerald * Sara Frucht * Alan Gaynor * Chris Tucker Haggerty * Joni Hand * Flora Hogman * Kazuo Ishikawa * Kat King * Bernice Sokol Kramer * Marco Lando * Pavel Muller * Carol Quint * Sheila Smith * Yana Zorina *
Here we are in midsummer madness, wondering how long it will take for life to again be somewhat normal as our lives continue to be in a state of pause. The days stretch endlessly and yet disappear too quickly, leaving us wondering where the time went. In the midst of fighting a lethal virus, we marched and demonstrated for Black Lives Matter and for those like George Floyd, struck down by a system that no longer works for the good of all. During these strange times we hope that our new normal will be bearable, but reality can be very strange. And so we turn to art for solace and for hope.
Viridian Artists have continued making art, presenting our offerings to our public and giving half our sales to needy causes. Sadly, we must remain closed for the moment, but hope to open soon, though by appointment only with masks and just a few visitors at a time. Until then, we offer you the results of our days passed in solitude, along with the efforts of guest artists, bringing to fruition our hopes and expectations for the future.
Kazuo Ishikawa’s mixed media relief sculpture “Fragments Of Time,” is subtitled: “We see a glimmer of hope beyond the piling hardship" while May De Viney’s mixed media works tackle politics showing demonstrators in one work and the hope & fantasy of a lost future vacation in another. Kiffi Diamond’s assemblage of 2 skeletal birds of metal are akin to dinosaur bones but instead are the leavings of modern age detritus. “Little Luminous Dragons’ Gathering” by Kat King is a painting filled with colorful delicately drawn dragonflies flying and fluttering with hopefulness and cheer.
In her collages, Ayako Bando uses Japanese paper (Wa Shi) “with the intention of living with hope” and a motif of irises with the symbology of hope, faith & charity. With collages of a vastly different style, Bernice Sokol Kramer depicts cherubs inspired by a framed print of cherubs dancing who watched over her as a child. Sheila Smith creates digital collages composed from purposefully destroyed past works, a reaction perhaps to today’s destruction of our daily lives past. “Dance Again!” Chris Tucker Haggerty’s collage/ drawing, shows a realistically rendered couple perhaps rehearsing amidst abstract threatening forms.
Alan Gaynor’s photograph of an empty urban street documents a moment rarely experienced during daylight hours, an eerie reminder of today’s reality. Pavel Muller’s photographs of spraying water and roughly twisted trees are filled with the conflicting emotions that we all are now feeling. Humans’ survival depends on hope, but the artist goes on to say “The world on which my core believes are built seems to have been replaced by a new world. ”Flora Hogman says “I am finding ways to embrace, connect with life through artistic, inventive, creative photography.”
David Fitzgerald’s hand colored photographs are reminders of daily activities with friends and family that no longer are possible, at least for now. Marco Lando’s photograph, “Good Heart,” portrays a girl carrying a cornucopia filled with heart balloons, conveying the wish for a less materialistic and cynical world. It is part of a project that presents young women portraying sacred/traditional images, using toys both fanatically and naively.
Using traditional female skills and materials, Kacey Cowdrey sews images in fabric and photos exploring abstract thoughts reacting to this moment of probing for meaning and solutions. Joni Hand’s piece, “Seen, Sewn, Unseen,” is about a form of healing. The artist goes on to say, “when we experience traumatic events, we heal ourselves to a certain extent, but scars still remain.” Rather than her usual mixed media assemblages, Ellen Burnett’s “Birds of Fate” is a gestural painting of marks suggesting birds flying into and over a turbulent sea.
Three artists work with unusual methods and materials. Yana Zorina creates what she calls “neuro-bead” works using glass beads as her primary media. "Tortured," represents the central nervous system after an accident, attempting to regenerate. In “Hope,”an eye is positioned inside of an hourglass, below a stream of black sand that represents the bad news and negative emotions that bombard us during a difficult time. Sara Frucht uses leaves as a motif in various media to present the comfort that nature has been giving her during this time. One is a painted rendition, but the others are leaf structures created geometrically. One is a laser cut octahedron, the other uses a program she wrote to generate random tree fractals. Carol Quint brings her small sculptures to life creating works with bones. The crazy beauty of her work in this exhibit was inspired by the Hellenistic woman with wings, “Winged Victory,”that she saw years ago at the Louvre.
May “Winged Victory” continue to serve as a symbol of our strength and endurance, for it is our hope that the visualizations of hope created by these artists will instill the same in our viewers as we all continue to confront our new reality with watchful wariness.
Vernita Nemec/ July 2020