Two artful looks at wit and whimsy
By Victoria Dalkey
Bee Art Correspondent
(Published June 27, 1999)
Fun is also the order of the day in several of the works at Big
Art's "Visual Conversations," a show of collaborations
between local artists. Kathy Higgins and Jeff Winger offer a series
of tacky faux trophies for, among others, "Most Valuable
Slacker," "Most Valuable Baby Boomer" and "Most
Valuable Brown Noser." Ken Magri and Dan Samborski examine
the rivalry between cats and dogs in a pair of works that pay
tribute to their favorite pets. Samborski's sculptural painting
of a dog is set in a surreal, Renaissance interior while Magri
gives us a Warhol-like grid of garishly colored kitties with a
text outlining the stupidity of dogs.
Savage satirical humor characterizes a number of collaborations
between Mick Sheldon and other artists. "A Not So Typical
Annunciation While Fishing Off the Dock" combines a tapestry
of a radio announcer by D.R. Wagner with a hand-colored woodcut
by Sheldon in which the Virgin Mary with a fishing pole and a
sunbather loll on a dock as the angel of the lord approaches in
a rowboat.
Images of Ku Klux Klansmen appear in many of Sheldon's illuminated
boxed constructions, including one made with Jerry Ross Parrish
in which klansmen made out of paper cones bear the faces of students,
in a somber take on the Littleton massacre. It's a scary, dark-edged
piece, as is "Dangerous Pursuit," a construction done
with Diane Richey Ward which combines a robotic creature with
a pipe head, dangerous-looking fish hooks and a drawing of a skull.
In contrast, a sense of luxurious elegance characterizes a
collaboration between Kim Scott and Craig Maclaine. "Fountain
of Experience" combines a three-dimensional painting of colored
squares reminiscent of the work of Joseph Albers with a house-like
form of copper embellished with enameled foliage and butterflies.
It's lovely.