THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 5, 1995 TAG: 9501040133
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER SUFFOLK
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
THE SUFFOLK MUSEUM-Suffolk Art League exhibition is a show of the '90s - no baskets of fruits, flowers in vases, old homes in remote locations.
The title of the presentation, continuing through Jan. 22, lets you know what to expect.
``Pain and Pleasure'' is an intriguing look at printmaker/photographer Harriet McCullough's pain- and pleasure-filled life.
Her work is as exposed as her husband, Robert, who served as the model for her exhibition of abstract drawings and photographs that tell the story of Icarus, a figure of Greek mythology. The tale is ancient, but the method is new: computer prints, digital collages produced by a Macintosh computer, digital camera and computer scans of round objects.
``Icarus was escaping from an island where he was a prisoner,'' said McCullough, first-prize winner of the 1993 Suffolk Art League Juried Exhibition. ``He was told not to fly too close to the sun, but with the freedom, he flew too close and died. He took a risk. It's about risk-taking. Icarus had the pleasure of flight - experienced fatal consequences.''
Pain and Pleasure.
McCullough's Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition features computer prints, screen prints, drawings and photography.
The latter is put to good use in a series of images from a book the artist is in the process of printing. Screenplated images created with a digital camera were manipulated on a Macintosh computer along with scans of objects that produced a series of nudes.
The inspiration is an Emily Dickenson poem describing the rejection by one individual of traditional social behavior.
It is the message, the feeling, of McCullough, whose work is as fascinating as the Norfolk artist herself. Married four times, she is part of a family embracing several religions - Lutheran, Baptist, Episcopalian, Catholic, Jewish. McCullough and her daughter, 12-year-old Karen Goldberg, are Jewish.
The Suffolk Art League's show, often featuring inanimate objects with human traits ``is about my personal growth,'' said the artist, who prefers not to discuss the number of years involved in that growth.
McCullough, a December graduate of the Fine Arts Program for Visual Studies jointly run by Norfolk State University and Old Dominion University, explains that ``growth is a balance of pain and pleasure. If you're not so balanced, you're not moving forward.''
When she moved into the field of photography, she discovered a new artistic world.
``There's something about working behind a camera. With drawing, you have direct contact. With a camera, there's space and distance between you and the subject.''
Like everything else she tackles, her photography is out of the ordinary.
McCullough made a book, soaked it in water and left it to dry into twisted, abstract forms.
``The resulting photographed images can be viewed as metaphors for the transformation that occurs when the pages of paper that make a book become art through the imagination of the writer,'' said Linda Bunch, administrative assistant of the Suffolk Art League.
``With drawings, you get involved with texture,'' McCullough said. ``It's sensual because it's hands-on.''
McCullough's drawings of seed pods and flowers begin traditionally but evolve into abstract objects ``representing metaphors for mixed feelings of masculinity and femininity,'' she said. ``They are very sexual images.''
She creates such images not to shock but to explain life as she views it.
Pictures of books with openings and folds are, she says, ``feminine-oriented. There is a lot of sensuality in the drawings.''
Many artists leave interpretation up to the viewer.
McCullough, who lives near the ODU campus where her husband teaches graphic arts, wants to teach printmaking at the college level.
``I love working with people, watching them create,'' she said. ``It keeps me young.'' MEMO: ``Pain and Pleasure'' an exhibition by Harriet McCullough, is on display
at the Suffolk Museum, 118 Bosley Ave., through Jan. 22. The hours are
10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. For
more information, call 925-0448.
ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Harriet McCullough with two of her drawings that she says are
``metaphors for mixed feelings of masculinity and femininity.''
by CNB