Bringing Out the Animal...at Mesch,Clark,Rothschild

Reviews
January/February 2015
Bringing Out the Animal in the Artist
at Mesch, Clark, and Rothschild Law Offices

With the recent closings of several galleries in Tucson, we’re grateful for those that survive. We are also grateful for those businesses and non-profits that are providing Tucson art lovers and artists with exhibition opportunities.

For some time now, the law firm of Mesch, Clark & Rothschild has been providing one of the best venues in town for art lovers to see exhibits on a themed subject. It is not an overstatement to say that the firm’s tri-annual exhibitions are a real public service to the art-loving community.

The current exhibit, Bringing Out the Animal in the Artist, is an exploration of ten artists’ visions of the animal kingdom. Each artist has a unique perspective on the animal world, and shares with us a personal view of animal life that gives us new understandings.

You know love when you see it in the work of Edlynne Sillman. This artist clearly loves horses, and she portrays them in her photos in a striking and dramatic manner. Yes, she has work that beautifully portrays wildlife, but her horses are the ones that dominant her vision. We can’t help but share Sillman’s admiration and affection for these gorgeous creatures. Here we see one of her signature works, White Knight. A whole story could be written about this animal. It is worth taking the time to explore Sillman’s website at EdlynneSillmanPhotography Her Ranch Life and Portraits portfolio mark her as a quintessential Arizona photographer.

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ESillman_White Knight_

ADiaz_El Gallito-The Rooster_

One of the two sculptors in the exhibit, Ariel Diaz, spends part of his time in his native Mexico and also maintains a studio in Tucson. In this exhibit, he shows three lovely table-top sculptures. Here we see El Gallito-The Rooster. His metal work is abstract, and it has a lightness and lyricism about it that we associate with creatures capable of flight. See more of his work at Ariel Diaz Martinez.

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Among the most fascinating artworks in this exhibit are the scratchboard paintings of Paul Hopman. On his website Paul Hopman, he explains scratchboard in this way: “Scratchboard is a chalk-layered board with a thin coat of ink applied to the smooth surface. The artist takes a series of needles and removes the ink in a subtractive method. Color is then added with fluorescent chalks and inks to archive a natural look.”

This complex and exacting process produces amazing results under Hopman’s masterful hand. Beyond the process, the images are very compelling, intriguing, and often mysterious as we look into the souls of both familiar and not-so-familiar animals. Hopman is to be lauded for his interest in, and work on behalf of wildlife conservation.

PHopman_Bobcat on Cactus_

GWard_Hunger Walks on Silken Paws_

Painter Greta Ward also gives us an opportunity to look into the soul and character of our animal cousins in her always dramatically-colorful renditions. As you can see from her website at Greta Ward, Ward is a talented painter who works in a variety of themes, among them figurative, abstract, mythological and fantastical, landscape, and animals, including birds. My favorite in this exhibit is her Hunger Walks on Silken Paws. Here we see the nobility, intelligence, and wiliness of a Sonoran Desert song dog intent on finding a meal. We are looking at an artful desert survivor.

David Windsor’s photography has a different vision of animal life. His photos are of a widely-varied selection of animal species from several very different ecosystems. His photos can best be described as “portraits.” They are rather formalistic in a way, almost as if the animals decided to be still just for a bit so that Windsor could photograph them. We learn about both the animals and the ecosystems when we see this work.

DWindsor_Gentoo Penguins_

DKnight_Tropical Butterfly_

“Portrait” is a word that comes to mind as well in the photography of Don Knight. But Knight’s portraits are quite different than Windsor’s. Rather than formal portraits, Knight has a knack for catching animals in a naturalistic setting engaged in routine activities. We might say that Knight “humanizes” them for us in that we see ourselves in them. We can identify with the bobcat kitten exploring on its on for the first time, or with the coyote in the middle of a big yawn. Who among us hasn’t felt that same kind of sleepiness in the sun and settled down for a little siesta? Knight also does some beautiful work featuring insect life such as the one we see here, Tropical Butterfly.

JVergeli_Erinikos_

Jorge Vergeli is one of the sculptors in this exhibit who presents a clear vision of animal life in his lovely sculptures. Here we see Erinikos (The Peaceful One). Vergeli’s animal sculptures combine beauty with a sense of whimsy. They appear to be on the edge of animation. They seem eager to jump and run and fly. I would go so far as to say there is a musical quality about them as if dance were on the list of things these creatures would do once freed from the bonds of the world. Visit Mesch, Clark, and Rothschild’s courtyard to see an excellent selection of Vergeli’s beautiful work, or check out his sites at:
http://joalber.see.me/ and https://picasaweb.google.com/home/

At the opening, I overheard an art viewer describe Jan Mayer’s photographs as “almost surrealistic.” The word “surrealism” always brings up images in my mind of Dali’s paintings, so I went to the dictionary for a definition. I found surrealism described as “aiming at expressing imaginative dreams and visions free from conscious rational control.” Yes, I decided that description could fit to describe Mayer’s beautiful photographs of the natural world, and of wildlife in this exhibit.

Mayer’s photos are digitally manipulated to seem more painterly. Yet her vision goes beyond to a subtly “different” vision of the natural world that alters our view of it. What was mundane and ordinary (and easy to typify), now has a new sensibility. We have been freed for a moment from “conscious rational control” (what phenomenologists would refer to our tendency to “intend” or define our own reality rather than see other equally-valid versions of reality). For a moment, we look into the same world that is a new world of “imaginative dreams and visions.” Here we see a view of heaven from the turtle’s perspective, not the human’s. It’s worth taking a trip to Mayer’s website at JanMayerPhotography to see her work.

JMayer_Turtle Heaven_

Scarlett Taylor’s watercolors in this exhibit are classic and beautiful. However I found myself drawn to her Rhino, a mixed media work with some unique artistic qualities. Taylor explained to me that she cut her own linocuts to print the background papers for this work. Then she added a collaged watercolor of a rhinoceros. Many new to taking a serious look at art tend to overlook the ground or background of a work. Yet, this part of the picture plane is key to creating the visual whole and to establishing a sensibility in the painting. Taylor’s careful attention to detail and creation of her own hand printed relief prints make this work unique and beautiful.

Most of us are familiar with the work of Diana Madaras. In this exhibit, she had several small scale paintings of animals, including many dogs. The signature piece is a beautiful work depicting horses. I found myself drawn also to a lovely rendition of sea gulls on the shore. The portrayal of light on the gulls’ faces and wings is excellent. Mandaras was not present at the opening so I did not have an opportunity to discuss her work with her. You can see more of her art at https://www.madaras.com/

DMadaras_Seagulls in New Jersey_

The art in this exhibit is displayed In the opening reception room, hallways, conference rooms, and patio of Mesch, Clark and Rothschild’s law offices. Call for an appointment to make sure conference rooms are open at the time you want to visit to see artwork. Visit the firm’s website at: http://www.mcrazlaw.com/ While you are there, you might be interested in reading the firm’s statement about “Community & Arts” at http://www.mcrazlaw.com/mcr-for-the-arts/