THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 6, 1995 TAG: 9509020162
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 146 lines
JANICE GAY-MAKER rises each morning, goes to an altar she has in her home and, with candles lit and incense burning, chants a prayer that has to do with devotion to the mystic law of cause and effect.
Gay-Maker is Buddhist. She believes we're all responsible for our actions, that bad deeds will be paid for in the end - or in the next life - and that all of us owe a deep respect to the world around us.
When Gay-Maker picks up chunks of brilliantly colored pastel oils to create, the inner peace she's gained from her religious beliefs comes through on the canvas.
``Many people who walk in here for the first time are struck by the tranquillity of this place,'' Gay-Maker said, smiling, as she recently sat in her studio at d'Art Center in Norfolk and stroked her young son's hair. ``They notice. They say it's peaceful here.''
This weekend Gay-Maker will traverse worlds from the busy metropolitan city she lives and works in to the quiet country life of Isle of Wight County when she is the featured artist at the second annual River Boardwalk Art Show.
The show, sponsored by the Isle of Wight Arts League, will be on the boardwalk at Smithfield Station from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Gay-Maker is just one of the regionally known artists who will be in the show. There will be oil and watercolor painters, sculptors, stained-glass artists and more lining the boardwalk this weekend.
But Gay-Maker may be the only artist in the show with something of a cosmic connection to the league. If you could trade places with anyone, she was once asked, who would that someone be? ``It's taken me 10 years to change my karma,'' she replied. ``I'm not ready to take on anyone else's.''
And that's exactly what the Isle of Wight Arts League is about right now: changing its karma. After a slow period last winter when gift-shop sales were down, classes were fairly inactive and art sales slumped, the league suffered a financial crisis that resulted in the president and one board member resigning and a nearly depleted bank account.
But loyal league members this summer have been busy restoring that karma - reorganizing and planning for a dynamic future.
``There was some real concern,'' art director and founder Ann Hubbard said. ``But that's all in the past. We're getting on with what we were doing, and we've got all kinds of wonderful events planned.''
That has been made possible, Hubbard said, because of a very successful summer. New artists have opened studios in The Collage, the Victorian home on Main Street that houses the league. A ``Christmas in July'' event that featured pet portraits was highly successful, even bringing the league a spot on a local television channel.
The league got more good publicity with a feature article in Portfolio magazine and still more when the gallery and the people involved were highlighted by Bob West on ``Points West,'' a feature TV news program.
A lot of the good things that happened over the summer were the result of the board's aggressive action in hiring a part-time director. And a lot of them happened, Hubbard said, because of a few loyal arts supporters who heard about the league's distress and mailed in donations to keep the arts alive in Isle of Wight.
``We're no different from any other arts organization at this point,'' she said. `` Sometimes, we do struggle. But there's a vitality here that just doesn't seem to want to go down.''
Although the arts in the county have been supported for years by two smaller, less publicly oriented groups - The Brush and Palette Club and The Blackwater Art League - the Isle of Wight Arts League has focused on being more of a place for the people.
Both smaller groups are associations designed to allow artists to get together, create and learn. The Brush and Pallette Club, however, does hand out an annual scholarship to help a high school student headed for an art education. That club also will sponsor a show in downtown Smithfield later this month.
But the county league has struggled to keep an active gallery open where citizens of all ages can learn, create and enjoy, Hubbard said.
And things are beginning to look up financially.
``I feel very encouraged,'' board member Ed Condra said. ``We have been on kind of a rocky road. But there has been a nugget of dedicated interest, those who have hung in there. The light is at the end of the tunnel.''
Much of the success has come from hiring the part-time director, Condra said.
``We never before really had someone who could - day in and day out - get out in the community and tell everybody repeatedly what the league does and how important it is to the community. The decision to hire someone to do that has paid dividends.''
And league members hope the boardwalk show will bring them even more good public exposure, Hubbard said.
``The show is growing, and it certainly helped the league last year. Part of that is because the boardwalk is such a pretty place for an art show. It's perfect.''
And part of it is because the show has attracted such high-quality artists.
Bob Holland, who held Gay-Maker's place as featured artist last year, will be exhibit his work this year at The Collage, linking the league's Main Street headquarters with its fall show.
Gay-Maker's grandfather was a noted nautical artist in New England. Her grandmother was a musician, as is her mother. She has a niece who is an artist's model and recently modeled for a sculpture of the angel Gabriel to be placed in a Chicago cathedral. The girl's brother is studying art and music.
``I believe there is something in the genes,'' Gay-Maker said, smiling.
She most enjoys creating landscapes, especially those - like farms, fields and forests - that she believes may not always be around. She has numerous awards for her works, which are displayed at galleries in Nags Head, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Richmond and Long Island.
Her respect for the environment is evident in her series ``Threatened and Endangered Landscapes.'' Her religious convictions come out in another series with titles like ``Waiting for the Ferrymen,'' depicting the Buddhist belief and representing dying; ``Things Ancestral,'' representative of death; and ``Lunar Future,'' an interpretation of reincarnation.
Gay-Maker works mostly in oil pastels, using vivid colors with delicate strokes.
On Monday, Sept. 11, Gay-Maker will be teaching her special techniques with pastel oils in a workshop at The Collage.
Gay-Maker, who has a hint of a Boston accent combined with a soft Southern drawl after nearly 10 years in Hampton Roads, will be at the boardwalk show all weekend.
And if art isn't in everybody's karma, there should be something at the show that everybody can enjoy. The league has arranged to have music, dance demonstrations - even karate. There will be other entertainment, door prizes, a display of the ``Save the Bay'' art contest held recently at Gatling Pointe and a children's area for face painting and paper making.
It's all this weekend - on the boardwalk. ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color] Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Janice Gay-Maker is the featured artist at this weekend's River
Boardwalk Art Show. And the show is a key rebuilding step for the
Isle of Wight Arts League.
Staff photos by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Janice Gay-Maker with some of her work at her studio in the D'Art
Center.
NEXT WEEK
The Virginian-Pilot's annual Arts Calendar is a comprehensive look
at what's happening in the Hampton Roads arts community. Look for it
in next Wednesday's issue of The Citizen.
by CNB