WINDBLOWN : Gusts of Autumn Art!

GO GO GO! IT WILL BE FANTASTIC.

LEON APPLEBAUM will visit his major exhibition at HAWK GALLERIES, 162 East Main, on October 24, 11 to 5 pm and October 25, 1 to 4 pm. This artist's work is FIRST CLASS and NOW! He's been working glass over thirty years. His post card image suggests two big GLASS truck tires (or maybe inner tubes) conjoined by glass and floating in space! -- Way to go Tom, it's at your place I once saw TAGLIPIETRA himself working in glass!

PASTELLY & ROMANTIC, -- Vivid, child-spirited watercolors by ALICE CARPENTER will show at SHARON WEISS, 20 East Lincoln, at the November HOP and onward. Pre-images suggest "youthful, spritly, thought provoking."

BERNIECE KOFF WILL SHOW her fabulous, fabulous, flowers -- at least one! -- in PATTERNS IN PAINT at THE LYLE, 615 East Town, to November 18. -- LYLE is a delight, a gorgeous, eclectic, much needed space, an up-to-date new old home! And Koff continues to dare -- in colors and shapes! She has a splendid original way of using her compositional space!

STARRING ALICE SCHILLE: She was independent, often congenial, always keen and engaged -- a sometimes teacher to boot! AND SHE HAD STYLE! She painted independently and often alone and faraway. A world traveler in a tentative era for women. She was a gracious, determined woman who possessed an adventurous spirit and quiet technical ability. Yet, she returned yearly, well, almost yearly, to teach and to paint in Columbus. As curated by JAMES M KENY of KENY GALLERY (in German Village, Columbus, Ohio) the exhibit features Schille's work from 1902 to 1914. -- We all know what dislodged the European sojourns of U.S. artists from 1914 to 1917! During her career Schille painted -- as did her "ancestor," Mary Cassatt -- Dutch-clad toddlers; she captured desert scenes, painted dignified portraits, and solemn donkeys. Highly skilled at drawing, she could render horses, camels, and run-abouts. Her colors glowed; they did not blaze. She was often a woman alone painting outdoors, plein air. She understood flowers, gardens, and high fashion. What to wear for brunch, outdoors, with wicker chairs. She was always learning and practicing. You must see her work for yourselves in ALICE SCHILLE, THE EARLY YEARS, 1902-1914. THE SCHUMACHER is on the Fourth Floor Library at CAPITAL UNIVERSITY, College & Main in Columbus.

ALSO FROM KENY TO COLUMBUS: IN the Schumacher Show Case, works of the techno poetic MICHAEL McEWAN. McEWAN, as was SCHILLE, is a much admired teacher and a very substantial painter. -- I can't wait to see the new works. McEwan knows how to paint, and his students consider themselves lucky!

DOROTHY GILL BARNES in a fresh tradition of earliest Ohio -- combines with talents of BLAIR DAVIS and ADAM BRADLEY -- to offer a major sculpture presentation: GENERATIONS: MARKS IN TIME opens October 22, 6 to 8 pm, in the new PEGGY McCONNELL ART CENTER OF WORTHINGTON, 160 West Dublin Granville Road. Everything in Gill Barnes' work uses material from the Olentangy River Flood Plain. Way to go!

SEPTEMBER FIREWORKS! (IN ART!)

ART ON FIRE! SEPTEMBER ART SPARKS from LIZ: A PANOPLY!
Written on September 18, 2009.

-- In case you're interested, and I know you are: AREO PROSE GROUP will meet on OCTOBER 15, 2:30 pm,at AREOPAGITCA BOOK STORE. (Third Thursday) -- LIZ, that's me, plans to discuss literature about Florence Harding and her husband, President Warren G. Harding of Marion, Ohio. -- YOU ARE INVITED. Our sessions always include time for conversation and the sharing of work. Rebecca Rutledge, AREO proprietor, kindly makes tea. coffee, and cookies, available.

ART DANCES; DANCE WITH ART: And, be sure to dance around the art fires burning in the Columbus area! -- which includes Worthington, Upper Arlington, Grandview, and adjacent areas.

TO October 17 at SCHUMACHER GALLERY: LEE & GRANT. This exhibition features selections from the Civil War Collection of the Motts Military Museum, Groveport, Ohio, and was organized by the Virginia Historical Society in Richmond, Virginia. It shows at Capital University Fourth Floor Library, Monday--Saturday, 1 to 5 pm. Worthy of at least an hour.

THE OHIO CRAFT MUSEUM, 1665 West Fifth Avenue, presents CONVERSATIONS IN FABRIC as curated by Linda Fowler and Tracy Rieger. The post card image, by Susan She, should tweak everyone's curiosity!

FROM THE MARVELOUS KENY GALLERY TO SCHUMACHER: The One the only ALICE SCHILLE: THE EARLY YEARS 1902-1914. Without ALICE SCHILLE -- traveler, recorder of journeys, teacher, painter extraordinary, -- the art lights in Columbus would dim considerably. The reception for the Schumacher exhibition will be Friday November 13, 5 to 7:30 pm. The exhibit opens October 27 and runs to December 5. Aren't we lucky?

MICHAEL McEWAN's DIVERSE LANDSCAPES will show at the marvelous Keny Galleries through October 5, 2009. McEwan's art, glowing depictions of the Ohio countryside -- including Hoover Dam -- is, well, tranquil yet glowing. This artist understands: the manipulation of oil paint, the natural world, and light. He has "the gift to paint simple." -- So what else could be necessary? KENY GALLERY is at 300 East Beck Street in the German Village section of Columbus.

In the CONCOURSE GALLERY to October 23 work inspired by Italy. Everything at CONCOURSE -- which is located in the (UPPER ARLINGTON) Municipal Services Center 1600 Tremont -- is always first class. Whenever I'm able, I attend Concourse Openings which are fabulous and yummy and provide good music. -- A fabulous space with art that's always spanking new!

THE ART HOUSE IS ON FIRE! CHIHULY XIV opens October 2 at the beautiful HAWK GALLERY 153 East Main Street. Call 614-225-9595 to reserve a spot at the opening. CHIHULY is the Glass Master without compare, and he understand public art.

MAHAN, MAHAN: MAHAN Gallery is so cool it's hot in fact almost beyond NOW, it's THE NOW ART SPOT. FRESH MEAT will show there, 717 North High, until September 26. The title says it all, or provokes all. Again, 717 North High.

At 2731 Innes Road, WOODSCAPE ART STUDIO, JERRY TOLLIFSON's art is solid. In more ways than one. His sculptures have even been controversial! The exhibit is titled SYSTEMS OF PARADOX, and can be viewed 2 pm to 6 pm on September 20, 27, or October 4 and 11.

CURTIS GOLDSTEIN will show at the Ohio State University Faculty Club to October 23, and this guy is good. He can paint anything; his scapes can't be beat. We wish him luck and think he is an A#1 artist. In November and December at the Faculty Club: ELAINE FREEMAN, JUDITH HAZEN, ANASTASIA HOROWITZ, BECKY TAFT. Again, I'm familiar with the work of these artists and they are above first rate! The spirit of Anita Loos will hover.

UP AT RGBLIV, where art is always explosive and that's good, the 20th Anniversary juried Exhibition will be fabulous.

LUC TUYMANS OPENS AT THE WEX September 17. Members get in free, general public $5. It's a steal. Find out more at wexarts.org or call 614-292-3535.

The COLUMBUS CENTER FOR PAPER AND BOOK ARTS at EUROPEAN PAPERS will present 25 artists who will work on forms, as in dress dummy forms! October 3, 3 to 5:00 pm, meet the show artists at an Autumn Open House.

Last and far far from least, RICCARDO DAVENPORT, A 25 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE, shows at KIACA GALLERY to October 25 with an artist's talk on October 11, 3 to 4 pm. Be there. Talle Bamazi, artist and director at KIACA is a story in himself. As a painter he's powerful and as a raconteur, unbeatable.

-- I love looking at Art in THE RHODES STATE OFFICE TOWER LOBBY, and until September 30, you can see COLUMBUS: THE CROSSROADS OF OHIO, a don't-miss! I met some of the fabulous artists who are showing there, when I attended the Columbus Free Press Second Saturday Salon at Editor/Author Bob Fitrakis' historic 1900 mansion on East Broad. The house is an historic piece of art, and Fitrakis regaled me with tales which included that Eugene Debs adored the work of poet Whitcomb Riley.

COME HEAR LIZ AND BE A SUPPORTIVE PRESENCE On October 15 at AREOPAGITICA, 3510 North High. I will include James Wright's fantastic poems about Marion, Ohio, the locust trees, and the Hardings, -- Florence and "Warn" -- with whom at one non-smoke-filled time, my father's aunts played croquet. My mother often told me, "When I was growing up my foks talked about THEM: I can remember, your Grandma and Grandpa would say the Hardings did this, the Hardings did that," meaning the Hardings represented the apex of style and fashion, and people imitated them. -- Among the present generation of my family, however, Republicans are few and far between! -- And President Grant is looking better and better!

JOHN DONNELLY AT MARCIA'S!

WHIMSICAL RHYTHMS! -- JOHN DONNELLY, Professor of Art, a much exhibited artist, has long been fascinated the concepts of beauty,art, -- and beauty's stereotypes! His vibrant paintings will show at MARCIA EVANS Art Consultant and Gallery thru October.


Donelly likes, but does not over-use, tree greens and bright reds. His aesthetic taste ranges from The Venus of Willendorf -- to Tinker Bell in Peter Pan -- to Marilyn Monroe, "MM," and "JFK," John Fizgerald Kennedy! John has a deep respect for the great white whale, Moby Dick. -- In fact, Melville's book, especially Father Maple's sermon and the great white whale itself, have been major inspirations for this audacious, -- sometimes in your face -- artist!

Again, Donnelly's work manages to be "catchy," -- that's my description.
At the same time it falls between Pop and Conceptual boundaries -- minimal and fun! John can paint abstracts which are original, complex, and very attractive. He understands layering and over-and-under painting and mixed media -- all that good stuff! When Marcia Evans said she had web images available, I was quite pleased.


Donnelly teaches drawing and painting at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, and, not long ago, won the Frey Award. Among places other than galleries, he enjoys showing his work in upscale restaurants. At Rosendale's his Tinkerbell, as in Peter Pan, evokes much popular commentary.
Donnelly loves Italy and manages to study and paint there part of the time, and he is a successful portrait painter.



MARCIA EVANS is at 8 East Lincoln where everything is always elegant and cutting edge. Cool.

PS. There is an ARTIST'S RECEPTION on Saturday, September 5, from 4 to 7 pm at the gallery. -- See ya!

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BEAUTIFUL 'SCAPES at "SHARON'S!";

BETWEEN TWO TREES is a serene, luminous, and unpretentious exhibit of medium-to-small landscapes, nearly all of them inspired by the Ohio countryside, nearly all of them painted in watercolor-with-oil. The exhibit can be seen at the lovely Sharon Weiss Gallery in the Short North District of Columbus, Ohio.

The artist, ELAINE FREEMAN, is the lyrical creator of these "canvasses" which glow, like small bonfires, campfire coals, in soft rich colors. --Freeman is an astute colorist, and an aware minimalist! Her shapes and her subtle power-hues exemplify the dictum: "LESS IS MORE." Her titles express her "eye" for the rural and the proximate. She lives near Hover Dam. Her titles reveal her "provenance" . . . NORTH OF BUCYRUS; BANDONED FARM; LAKESIDE SUNSET . . . MARSH DREAMS depicts "the end of a road in New Albany, between two subdivisions" . . . OXBOW VISTA, on pastel and Wallis paper, reveals -- with simplicity -- a road in Delaware County. Near-by hangs THE WOODS AT OXBOW . . . "The trees tell their story," Freeman writes, "standing there guarding the road from Alum Creek."

ROSES IN WINTER, a departure from the "scapes", is a successful abstract. The ugly brown roses, starkly "blossom-less", stand tall and proud in an invisible Ohio winter that makes us shudder. --This painting takes place in our imaginations. Freeman is versatile. She is one of the most killed portraitists around. --Yet, ROSES, an abstraction, reveals a "Cold" in which we recognize the raw and unadorned roses of abandoned ditches, fields, and gardens.

-- Go, see, buy. This artist is the master of understatement. If she has a weakness it may be her tendency to over-simplify. In general, I think not. FREEMAN's work is pleasing and engaging to say the least. Her exhibition list as well as her educational vitae are impressive. BETWEEN TWO TREES will show at "Sharon's" thru August 2009. In NOVEMBER Freeman will have paintings at The O.S.U. FACULTY CLUB.

The versatile and spectacular -- I said it and I'm glad -- VIKI BLINN will show at SHARON WEISS in SEPTEMBER. I'll be there with bells!

THE ART SCENE IN COLUMBUS IS JUMPIN' OFF THE MAP! AGAIN: BETWEEN TWO TREES shows at Sharon Weiss Gallery, 20 E. Lincoln, thru August 30. (614-291-5683). Freeman will exhibit at the OSU Faculty Club in November. . . "It was the purple iris I drew in kindergarten that piqued my early interest in art and that image remains a guiding star. . . Sun from my twelve years in California provides the light. Color, light, and shape are the major elements of my art . . . " -- Artist's statement by Elaine Freeman.

-- And aren't we lucky!

MULLEN at LINDSAY. LIZ AT COMFEST.

HURRY, hurry, hurry! Better than coney islands and as hot as electronic rock at COMFEST, KARL MULLEN'S Outsider paintings will shimmy on the walls at Lindsay Gallery 986 North High, at least thru July 4 and maybe longer.


The soft spoken artist hails from Dublin -- not Dublin Ohio -- and is now a resident of Pittsburg where he has been honored by several major awards and grants. Luckily for us, his unusual paintings visit Lindsay Gallery once in a while, once in a green moon I am tempted to say.


For twenty years Mullen has shown in Canada, Ireland and the U.K, and his weird dreamlike paintings -- yes,they are representative -- and narrative -- often present crudely drawn personae. Like, like leprechauns and -- first graders' drawings! The guy knows literature and old books; sometimes his odd figures appear against pages of ancient tomes. He says his dreams are important to him -- I asked him -- and if you like, off beat skilled and original. KARL MULLEN is the guy! (he uses, or he has been known to employ, such weird "media" as lamp soot, walnut oil, street soot, sumi ink, you name it.) His musical band has just the right poom and oom, we hope he comes back soon. Go, see, buy!


P.S. I'll be reading with some terrific poets on Saturday night -- check the schedule -- at COMFEST, I think in the Arts Tent. Check the schedule. It's almost midnight and my eyes are giving out! -- Visit Lindsay Gallery and see Karl Mullens "Primitive", "Dream Like" art He's a quiet, one man COMFEST!!

JUNE 2009 BUSTS OUT WITH ART!

FIRST DAY for the COLUMBUS ARTS FESTIVAL, this time near the one, the only Columbus Museum of Art!--I'm going down there tonight because Thursday is always a special night,and George Tooker will be there! (I hope we're brave enough to negotiate that Arts Festival traffic!)

MICHAEL BAUZA PhD.,will read his poetry at AREOPAGITICA BOOKS at 7:30pm on June 26 He'll read WORD MUSIC! (my title.) Bauza's newest work is based, or rather undergirded, by his attentive love for chamber music, -- even though much of his writing is not ABOUT chamber music! The writer holds a PhD in chemistry and works at Chemical Abstracts. This should be a sophisticated and unusual evening. There is always an open reading at AREO, 3510 N. High, and the imposing ghost of JOHN MILTON is usually hovering around the stacks, and the literary canine, Townsend, keeps watch on the readings and readers.




MORE THAN ARTSPARKS: TAMARA JAEGER's tall, unusual, and pleasingly wacky wood sculptures -- SELECTED ASSEMBLAGES -- will show at the impeccably lovely KENY GALLERY, 300 East Beck, thru JUNE 26. This show is a don't miss because it is substantial and quite unusual. -- Walking thru the exhibit this writer felt that she was wandering in a dream forest where she met characters from fantastical fairy tale books!! Many of the assemblages are taller than real people, and their flat wooden bodies have been painted in flat primary colors -- which are never dull, even when they don't shine!



















JULIA McLEMORE's RECENT FLORAL PHOTOGRAMS are an absolute delight! These BIG flowers, and parts of flowers, are -- well, mind blowing, in that their design and color come straight from the natural world! McLemores artist's statement generously explains her process, but not the surprise that her works give to beholders. McLemore's work, with Jaeger's, will be on exhibit at KENY thru June 26. More information and images at www.kenygalleries.com



ERNEST LOCKRIDGE is a painters' painter. That is, he is agile at painting technique! -- Yet,the end results are not at all conventional. Color and imagination are the wellsprings of his work! Lockridge's CONVERGENCE shows at the CCPBA Gallery at European Papers, 539 East Town Street, until August 29.















The exhibit includes two large and striking images of Monarch butterflies who pause and fly with accuracy and elan! They're big! They're identifiable at a distance, and they remind us that we,as earthlings, stand at a "convergence" at which earth is in peril. (My interpretation.) Lockridge is a retired professor of literature; he taught at Yale and at the Ohio State University. The titles of his paintings reveal the liveliness and the variety of subjects of his paintings,some of which are rich with glimpses of a trip to Iceland.

TITLES: Aphrodite; The River Goddess, Boann; Force of Nature; Penelope; Saffron Robe; Proteus Rising from the Sea. -- You can find more images and info at www.ernestlockridge.net. I believe Lockridge's reputation as an artist will grow as time passes. He is original and his work has substance.

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LISA HALL: POET WITH A PALETTE!

What gorgeous surprises! On a recent Sunday when I needed an art infusion, I found not only a delicious art exhibit, but a gallery space which was new to me! CATERINA Ltd., 571 South Third Street in German Village, Columbus, Ohio, is a tall historical old German Village building. Inside it you'll find color-full-state-of-the-art-pottery and kitchen-ware, and many imported objects which are to die for. --Yet, on the third floor you'll find a bonafide and spacious art gallery! --Caterina Gallery, of course!

HIGH SPIRITED, an exhibit of LISA HALL's medium to large size oil paintings will show at CATERINA through May 15, and they are quite good, quite pleasing, and quite original in an understated kind of way.

In 2008 Lisa and her husband rode motorcycles through the Alps, and the artist stopped to capture the mountainous and pastoral countryside. --Yes, you'll find a small white church nestled in one green mountain valley, and you'll see gorgeous snows and meadows! --You'll find that Hall knows how to "blow you away" with warm (and cool) muted colors! --She's a genius at thickly applied brush strokes --she may use a palette knife, I forgot to ask! --And she understands texture.

Her yellow sun rays dance. The greens, blues, and lavenders she harvests from the natural world become gentle choreography. Some of her landscapes resemble weavings. --Look closely, look from far away!


On TOP OF THE WORLD, the painting which became Hall's post card image, is the closest the artist comes to pure abstraction in this exhibit which is, despite my reluctance to label, "an example of abstractionism with just enough hard edge." The artist has managed to be derivative without being passé. To conclude: when you see Hall's poetic mountain-scapes "you'll want to go there." --These are definitely paintings to live with.

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In the hall SUSAN ASTLEFORDS's glorious blossoms made me think of Shakespeare's sonnets -- his birthday is in April,-- and DAVID PHALEN's photographs are first rate. --Especially the warm and friendly bar scene in Wales. --I'm Welsh-American so I may be prejudiced, but Phalen is darn good. --I'm darn glad I discovered CATERINA!

POETRY AT THE RIFFE!

DEAR READERS: March 27, 2009 I'm writing from a not so good space in illness, but I want you to know about an event at the Verne Riffe Center Gallery, 77 S. High St., on Sunday, March 29 at two p.m. --- Maybe I'll be there, maybe not.

MIMI CHENFELD, FRED ANDRLE, WIlLIAM FABRYCKI, (with me, Liz!) are THE UMBRELLA POETS OF COLUMBUS, and they will give a reading honoring poetry and the visual arts. DAVID FRANCIS SMITH and CRAIG MCVAY will be guest poets. The current RIFFE GALLERY exhibit is Visual Dialogues, which presents art from Germany and Ohio.

Here's my prosaic offering: (abstractions exist on their own merit, but I boldly let these tell short short prose poems to me!)

I.
MY FEELINGS ASSUME COLORS AND SHAPES
when I look at Green #5 by Jana Morgenstern!
Behold: Circles, tubes, abdominal curves, the intestines
of a gorgeous April.
I'm searching for spring! --- I'll love stepping barefoot!
Ah, they are so green, these curves and shapes of art.
As I stand here writing, I can taste spearmmint!

************

II.
BLACK #7 BY DETLEF SCHWEIGER
is my Dresden Ink Blot dress! --- It's so NOW!
Cut on the bias from a piece of charcoal!
Look, I'm a cold-hot-charcoal-piece-of-fabric
when I slip it on.
Years ago, my first art teacher, Miss Josephine Lee,
in Fostoria, Ohio, taught me about
dyeing Queen Ann's Lace, taught me
about Coco Chanel's little black dress.
Taught me how to use my imagination!
And so, today, I muse, "I'll write some
designer lines for Black # 7 by Detlef Schweiger.
I'll tape a map of Ohio to my left shoulder
and locate the Riffe Center in Columbus, Ohio!
--- And look, --- an orange dagger, a good luck patch!
And look, I can see haute couture against mottled snow!
Voila! I can feel stylish and chic
and do anything I want to, and go where I want to go
in my little BLACK #7 ULTRA DRESS!"

Here are some more of the abstractions in the Visual Dialogues exhibit. Click on each image to see a larger version.

GLORIES: VIVIAN PITMAN AT LINDSAY

Wearing elegant, yet simple, Africa-print dresses and matching head wraps, Vivian Pitman and her mother, the artist Barbara Thomas, welcomed guests to their Lindsay Gallery Opening on Friday, February 27. It was a gala evening. Guests and glasses sparkled. Vivian's unique and bright paintings almost jumped off the wall, and so did the more sedate renderings of her mother. All of the small, puppet-like dolls seemed to breathe, even though they are cartoon-ish and stout and dance without strings!

When I asked Pitman what her dolls were made of, she replied, "clay. And anything I need to use and find to use."












Pitman is a self taught artist. She seems to dance, like a break dancer, between colors, words, and "schools" of art. Her liveliness surpasses the terms "primitive" or "authentic." She is unafraid to use bright reds, greens, yellows, purples. She knows how to create textures and surfaces, and she will not reveal her secret: how she uses sand in her creations.

Her composition -- sometimes elementary, sometimes random -- is always effective. Expressive. As in Expressionist! In THE DEATH OF LINCOLN, Pitman, at her most elementary, has depicted the martyred President as resting, his corpse strangely tube-shaped, on bright grass surrounded by a color guard in bright yellow shirts! The crudely painted soldiers are firing a salute, "as they would for a President," Pitman said. An encirclement of creatures that resemble merry go round horses -- or reindeer -- surrounds the scene. And everything dances together. --As I recall, this is a scene in which a grotesque blood red Bird of Death is veering.-- A Pitman may be child-like, but it is rarely, or ever, "cute."

Vivian employs words; most of her paintings include titles or phrases. You'll find an ALPHABET OF SLAVERY: "A is for African, torn from his home. B is the bloodhound to catch all that roam. C is the cotton plant. . ."

One of the small stout three-D puppet-like dolls represents "Eta Moten, singer, actress, hailed as a pioneer for black actresses."--I had to look her up!-- Pitman "saw Moten once in a movie." And many remarkable personages will be seen at this Lindsay show. You will learn much. For example, Virgina Hamilton, who wrote books for young people, is represented.

The slogan,"Only Love Can Drive Out Hate" is visible. So is a heart wrenching Klan Whipping, and a Lynching, and the admonition "KKK. Leave the negro alone!" (in which blood drips from the white man's club!) Gazing at these grotesque depictions we are reminded of the ferocity of anarchist posters that blossomed before and between World War I and II. They said it like it was.


Pitman celebrates history and narrative in a unique way, and she is, indeed, worthy of the title, Griot. History bearer and tale teller. Lincoln, Martin Luther King, yes, and nearly life-sized President Barak Obama, are much in evidence. In one painting the wonderful young President, in profile, wearing a classy green sweater -- I just know it's cashmere -- looks admiringly at a recognizable, if stout, Martin Luther King. They are both happy because Barak Obama has fulfilled The Dream. A wide Stars and Stripes provides a background for the two gifted leaders. In one painting Obama-as-Hero seems to have morphed into Spider Man!

OOOPS! One of Pitman's most outre subjects, unique but not offensive, depicts women sitting at a long table, similar to that in the legendary Last Supper. However,Pitman's "supper" presents, not traditional disciples of Jesus, but women who are squirting breast milk at each other! Pitman said this painting was inspired by Women Who Earn Money by Selling Their Own Milk!

IN OUR TELEPHONE INTERVIEW Pitman revealed that she works part time, is a Christian who loves her church, and that her art career started when she began making ladies hats and selling them. Her mother, Barbara Thomas, a strong yet more conventional artist, has always encouraged Vivian.

About her own art Pitman said, "it's kind of a gift, like a talent for throwing a baseball. You're born with it, but you have to practice. I'm still learning."

She added, "I'm patient and strong, and I can work hard." Pitman likes to listen to jazz and all kinds of music. She is not immune to the power of dreams. And she is wonderfully proud of her sister, the novelist GWANDINE THURMAN who recently published ETHIOPIAN PRINCESS. (see www.kingdomnovels.com.)

Pitman is "engaged" or engagee as the French used to say about socially concerned artists. She was definitely not born with a gold paint brush in her hand. In fact, Duff Lindsay, gallery owner and curator, first discovered Pitman through a contact at The Mid-Ohio Food Bank.

The current exhibition reveals a wide sweep of concerns and subjects, which, like the proverbial maiden in a fairy tale, Vivian Pitman has woven into a mythical assemblage of paintings, dolls, and sculptures.


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Lindsay Gallery is located at 986 North High in Columbus, Ohio. 614-291-1973. VIVIAN PITMAN will run thru March 21. See photos of the Pitman reception.

MARCIA EVANS ON LINCOLN

When I dropped in at Marcia Evans Art Consulting Gallery, 8 East Lincoln, to see the current exhibit, I blinked with pleasure at the large abstracts glowing on the walls. These acrylic paintings by BJR, BRIAN REAUME, are vivacious yet sedate, and their color intensity is warm, not hot! --- Here are beautiful, if not provocative, contemporary paintings.

The artist employs, if loosely, a range-of-colors-and-geometric aesthetic which is "Now" yet "Classic." BJR is a self taught emerging artist with a Masters in literature, and the titles of his paintings describe a mood, an inner journey:

• My idea begins with a story. . .
• Brand New Wish. . .
• This space was designed around me. . .
• I was just going to. . .
  

BJR is quite a facile painter; he knows about hues and layers. He knows how to make colors and shapes dance! His no nonsense abstracts reveal a lively spirit, and his work is decorative in the best sense of the word. His large paintings are perfect for various offices and corporate sites and for many gracious living spaces.

DAWSON KELLOGG, Professor of Art at CCAD, is the glass half of this show, GLASS & CANVAS. Kellogg's tall vessels, at least the ones at "Marcia's," average around 18 inches tall and have a classic urn-like shape. Of translucent glass, they usually emphasize one radiant color, one clear glass tone, so to speak, which has been augmented by compatible hues, chromatic blurrs and shapes, within. Deep blue, for example, enhanced by various blue and purple swirls within. Kellogg, like Reaume, is a Now-yet-Classic master.

The opening reception for Glass & Canvas included live jazz and hors d'euvres, and was quite well attended. THE EXHIBIT CLOSES SEPTEMBER 30.

Next up at Marcia Evans will likely be a SALON show with works which may or may not include paintings by one of Marcia Evans' most sought after painters, JOHN DONNELLY, Professor of Art at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Donnelly's zany and flowing interpetations of everyone and everything --- from Marilyn Monroe to Mona Lisa to a rooster crossing the road --- I think I saw that --- present the hallmarks of a strong and practiced painter!

LINDA WESNER's* colored pencil renderings of rural Ohio have won top national awards. In an inimitable understated (Wesnerian) way, they're breathtaking!

Donnelly and Wesner are but two of the many fine artists who have been exhibited by Marcia Evans. Marcia Evans moved from Granville to her current site, 8 East Lincoln almost two years ago. She has been working successfully as an art consultant for twenty years. She has a diamond cutter's eye for choosing art and art objects from the Mid West and nationwide. She and her gallery can be summed up in a few words. --- New York sophistication with an (Ohion's) - hard-cider-zing!

CAROL PHILLIPS WITT lives in Granville, Ohio, and her smallish, sun-toned, nature-informed "plates and vessels of pressed clay" are to die for.

MARCIA EVANS is open 11-5 Tuesday-Saturday and by appointment. 614-298-8847.

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*note: Linda Wesner's colored pencil renderings will be on exhibit at Ohio Wesleyan's Richard M Ross Art Museum in Delaware, Ohio, thru September 21st.