Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 5, 1990 TAG: 9006050073
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ann Weinstein
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Wrong!
Except for a few scary drops, it never rained. And on top of that, the show was full of surprises, strengths and idiosyncrasies.
Instead of the meditative studies of female nudes that we have seen in the past from Eileen McCaul, her photographs of black male nudes are bandaged, if not battered. Their political implications may not be intentional, but in the context of an arts protest folder circulating in the park, they are unavoidable.
Kathleen Lunsford's lovers and figures in the "Nipples" series are surrounded by painted undulating bands. I don't know what Jesse would think, but they made me smile out loud. Radically different, Marcia McDade's new work combines classical references and contemporary imagery into a dark vision of loss. Marsha Heatwole's animal pictures begin in humor and end in understated ferocity.
Art and cultural references amplify Linda Gorly's satiric sense of humor. Painted in very mixed media, Vera Dickerson's optically stimulating figures mix Christian mythology and contemporary technique. Winston Whalen's honest black and white nude male torso contrasts with coy but, uh, tastefully draped female nudes by Vonnie Whitworth.
Judy Bates' realistic watercolors set lush and abundant table settings. Norris Coleman maintains an amazing, realistic approach to a panoramic view of Roanoke and its surroundings. And "White Trees" by Harriett Stokes is freely drawn and open-hearted. The naturalism of Ernest Johnson's watercolor technique distinguishes his rural scenes, while Peyton Klein's educated slap-dash technique captures the rampant exuberance of an iris patch.
In the sculpture court, Christaphora Leise builds chunky, dense figurative forms in crudely applied and carved plaster, while John Torres carves marble forms with smooth and chiseled finishes. A smoothly finished marble nude by Betty Branch reverses the usual order of things. Its texture is neutral, but its rounded compact forms are highly tactile.
Working on the ultimate picture plane, Mimi Babe Harris constructs and paints chair, table and seated figure in one continuous three-dimensional flow of figure, object, pattern.
Layers of thick swirly painting are the turbulent icing on Sherrye Lantz's sculptures, which combine glitz, glitter, gilding and geometry. The restrained geometry of Bruce Cody's meticulously constructed and cleanly finished wood sculptures contrast with Mary Jane Burtch's exuberant wall reliefs made of painted wood and metal.
John Muse's unorthodox sculptures of a torso, a bolted book, clustered light bulbs and curved, split rubber tubing combine wire and a queazy latex finish. Lest you miss the references to sex and perversity, a pile of limp, blunt scissors is titled "Castration Anxiety."
Mabel Basile paints primitive landscapes with colorful movement and verve, while Barbara Norman-Lashley's dot and dash landscapes let in air and light. Margaret Hairston's landscapes are painted with faux-folk simplicity and Marion Warner's with the force of rudimentary mountain tops.
Allen Clague combines almost things, drawn in black and white, with the activity of a colorful mesh of urgent brush strokes. Ed Bordett paints the activity of people, flowers, stripes, skies, shadows, fire escapes and landscapes.
A clarity of stringent, asymmetrical balance in Mary Whitehurst's watercolors contrasts with the blizzard of color in Belva Hicks' paintings. Ned Johnson translates the tactile, mottled technique of wood-burning to descriptive drawings, watercolors and oils.
Bill Warden's black and white photographs capture the romance of the railroad in billows of steam. Bill Owen's abstract photograms contrast bright incisive forms with deep black. Tim Shepherd applies saturated color over black and white prints, thereby adding visual depth to the flat photographic surface. Printed on Kraft paper, Shawn Murray's altered and augmented black and white photographs are bold political images.
So much pleasure and so little space: Katherine Zuidhoek's bizarre, boxed, romantic vision. Kathy Pinkerton's ambitious 8-by-12-foot paper pulp painting. Mark Woodie's new pastels and Eric Fitzpatrick's exaggerated perspective. The dissolving faces in Terry Lyon's charcoal drawings of the homeless and the pleasure principle in Gary Arseneau's large, decorative portraits.
by CNB