"Citizen Soldier", Bronze.

Jim Brothers
Citizen Soldier

24 hours

Veterans of Foreign Wars Centennial Plaza
406 West 34th Street
Kansas City, MO
816.756.3390

Permanent installation.

VFW site: http://www.vfw.org

On Memorial Day, we honor the fallen. This is the day, whatever one thinks about war, to honor those who came back from it alive — and are doing so even today.

Jim Brothers has done both; he created six bronzes for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va., and is the sculptor of today’s featured piece, Citizen Soldier. The life-size bronze stands at 34th and Broadway, forming the centerpiece of the Centennial Plaza outside the national headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The statue depicts the same man, once as a Vietnam-era  soldier and once as a boldly striding businessman wearing a VFW hat. The positioning makes it appear as though the soldier is laying down covering fire for his future self, both pairs of eyes locked on the same goal.

It was dedicated in 2001, along with the rest of the Centennial Plaza, to mark the 100th anniversary of the organization’s founding. Eight years later, we’re still making veterans.

Funny, they called World War I  ”The War to End All Wars.”

Speaking of that conflict, though, a visit to the National World War I Museum at the Liberty Memorial would also be more than appropriate today. It’s only a short drive — or a decent walk, for those who don’t mind stretching their legs — from VFW headuarters. And on the way, or afterward, you can check out Brothers’ iconic The Scout statue in nearby Penn Valley Park.

And, while this might sound like a cliché … if you run into a vet today, don’t hesitate to say, “Thanks.”

"Abracadabra", Acrylic on Canvas.

William Rainey
Magic Show

10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Blue Gallery
118 Southwest Boulevard
Kansas City, MO
816.527.0823

Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.
Runs through: Dec. 1.

Gallery site: http://www.bluegalleryonline.com

For generations, people have watched magicians perform amazing illusions and wondered, How in the world do they do that?

In today’s tattletale snitch information society, where no secret is absolutely safe and few are even moderately so, one doesn’t have to wonder: There’s a television show dedicated solely to exposing the techniques behind famous feats of vanishing, metamorphosis and grisly death defied.

One common thread runs through each illusion: Every step, even the seemingly insignificant, is carefully laid out and choreographed. Split-second timing ensures that audiences see only what the magician wants them to see … and it all looks seamless.

It’s kind of funny, then, that William Rainey gave his solo exhibition at Blue Gallery the title Magic Show.

Rainey’s acrylic-on-canvas art is anything but seamless. It’s a riot of color and shape, juxtaposition and interposition, line and squiggle and occasional image. The eye doesn’t know where to start, and a viewer can find his or her gaze pinballing all around the canvas with no stopping point in sight.

So much for establishing control … and that’s fine by Rainey.

I require nothing special of the observer, he writes. Each viewer may see and feel what they see and feel, and play their own themes and improvisations. That way we can both be surprised.

The idea of theme and improvisation is a key component of jazz — which is Rainey’s soundtrack of choice when he’s creating.

Jazz is an improvisation on a theme, a blend of elements in the space of time. My art is like that, Rainey writes. My paintings always begin with drawing nonobjective shapes, the use of line to define area and to push the limits of real and abstract. I can’t imagine painting something exactly as it is. That’s what a camera is for. For me, color and my own emotions play the themes, blending the elements in the space of the canvas.

There are recognizable shapes in a number of the paintings: a partial list would include several gloves and a slice of watermelon in Hocus Pocus, a butterfly’s wing in Metamorphosis, a royal crown in Abracadabra (today’s featured post). They are less representations, though, than additional bits of shape and color in the larger abstract.

If there’s any trickery going on here, it’s an elusive illusion. There is a kind of magic, though, that happens when an artist pulls together so many variable elements into one cohesive theme.

That’s what Rainey has done here — not with smoke and mirrors and false bottoms, but with skill and spark and vision.

"Liquid Pink", Stitched Fabric.

Erin McAllister

2:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m.

JP Wine Bar
1526 Walnut
Kansas City, MO
816.842.2660

Hours: 2:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m. Monday-Saturday
Runs through: Dec. 5

Artist’s site: http://www.ekmcallistertextiles.com
Gallery site: http://www.jpwinebar.com

As anyone knows who has ever tried to “throw together” the perfect outfit, arrange an “impromptu” dinner party or maneuver a “chance” meeting with an intriguing stranger, it can be a lot of work to make something look uncontrived.

Erin McAllister’s fiber art, on display through early December at the East Crossroads location of JP Wine Bar, appears organic and spontaneous at first look — and second, and third. It’s the product, however, of an incisive vision and a painstaking process.

I obsessively layer and organize multicolored fabric circles systematically in relation to one another, McAllister writes, then add deep lines of thread to generate a feeling of organic movement; this movement is often influenced by biology, maps, social relationships, lines and spaces. By combining materials in my work I create a unique environment where the individual pieces are important to the success of the end product. Every piece has its intended relation to another and together they are united.

The finished result shows all of McAllister’s influences, but without overtly shouting This represents (fill in the blank).  Take, for example, Liquid Pink, today’s featured piece.

All sorts of associations come to mind — everything from neural pathways to reproductive biology (all those little tails, you see) to highways and bedroom towns feeding into a city. Taking the blue circles as male and the pink as female, according to the common associations for those colors, the piece could be seen as a commentary on tangled interpersonal relationships.

It isn’t merely the composition, though, that makes McAllister’s art work. Her use of color, texture and small details — a tiny skull and crossbones here, a repeating weave or pattern there, a sudden flash of light hitting lamé at just the right angle – draw the eye in and give it plenty of reasons to stay and look around for a while.

The characteristics and possibilities inherent in fabric were among the things that drew McAllister along her artistic path.

I  work with fabrics as my medium because of the rich colors, textures and patterns they embody, she writes, and also because of the undeniable textural familiarity and emotional connection that textiles convey.

Something else is undeniable: that McAllister’s art can’t be mistaken for anyone else’s. Even from a distance — say, across a crowded wine bar immediately recognizable as hers.

She’s worked hard for that, too. After all, a signature style – especially one this compelling — isn’t something you can just throw together.

"GAS-O-LINE", Wood.

Mark Cowardin
From the Ground Up

2-4 p.m.
(Opening reception; artist’s talk at 3 p.m.)

Epsten Gallery at Village Shalom
5500 W. 123rd Street
Leawood, KS
913.266.8413

Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m Tuesday-Friday, 1-4 p.m. Saturday-Sunday
Runs through: Jan. 3

Artist’s site: http://www.markcowardin.com
Gallery site: http://www.villageshalom.org

Occasionally, I find myself at a loss for someone else’s words — Mark Cowardin’s, in this case.

I went searching for a statement to go along with From the Ground Up, Cowardin’s solo show at the Epsten Gallery. No luck. There’s a statement from the gallery, but it’s written in Artspeak. (The key passage, though, refers to a new body of work that defines the home as a specifically un-built environment.

Further digging brought up Cowardin’s words from earlier this decade, however, and from what I’ve seen of this show — which opens today with a reception from 2-4 p.m. — his views haven’t changed much:

My works are meditations on isolation and separation, he wrote then. I believe man’s concern and respect for life lessens as humankind increasingly moves away from nature. Growing development and technology create barriers between humans and the natural world, and also between humans and other humans. These barriers contribute to a disturbing loss of community, and a loss of respect for the natural world.

Cowardin’s work at the Epsten more than hints at that disconnect and disrespect. GAS-O-LINE, the wooden sculpture pictured atop this post, might seem absurd at first. Who puts gas in wooden containers, after all?  But the piece also has serious points to make about overconsumption of trees and fossil fuels — ways in which humanity burns down its own house, so to speak.

And speaking of speaking, and chances to hear artists discuss their works in their own words, Cowardin will give an informal talk at 3 p.m.  (and I’m betting it won’t be in Artspeak).

"Cudalbi Women", Photographic Print.

Andrea Nigh
Viata: Life in Romania

11 a.m.-4 p.m.

Hilliard Gallery
404 E. 18th St.
Kansas City, MO
816.561.2956

Hours: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday
Runs through: Nov. 28

Artist’s site: http://www.andreanigh.com
Gallery site: http://www.hilliardgallery.com

One of the dangers in taking pictures of people and their hometowns is that the subjects can become objects: a collection of curves and surfaces to reflect ight, rather than real people and places with names and histories and personalities. Another is the tendency to want to embellish reality, to make things seem more dramatic, or decrepit, or glamorous than they really are. 

Andrea Nigh avoids that pitfall in her photo essay, Viata: Life in Romania. The photojournalist-turned-portraitist brings both skill sets to bear here, without veering unduly into detachment or sentimentality.

That said, Nigh’s photographs, on display this month at Hilliard Gallery in the East Crossroads, show a deep and genuine regard for the village of Cudalbi and its inhabitants. (The show also  contains images from Transylvania, including the castle which was  home to Vlad Tepes – the real Dracula.)

Viata is the word for life in Romanian (a language akin to Italian); It is the best word to describe the Romanian people and their culture, Nigh writes. In the face of poor living conditions and post-Communist regime, they are still a vibrant, happy and resilient people. 

How poor? Appallingly so, by our standards — at least materially.

The majority of these people survive on a monthly income of $60 and live without running water, electricity or modern day luxuries — objects we take for granted on a daily basis, Nigh continues. And all the while they are hospitably, gracious and giving with what they do have.  …. This essay is not only a reflection of the living conditions and reality for the people of Cudalbi; it is also a celebration of their pride and culture — a culture that, although it seems poor in many ways, is very rich in family, land and “Viata”.

There’s a lesson there, obviously. Several, really. One is that even in the current struggling economy, this is still a rich nation compared to much of the world. Another is that “stuff” isn’t as important as friendships and family. And yet another is that we don’t really need all the things we think we do.

And a deeper lesson – which Nigh teaches without preaching — is that art can open eyes, minds and hearts not only to other lives and places, but also to a deeper appreciation of our own.

"The Garden", Cut Paper.

Angie Pickman

6-7:30 p.m.
(Opening Reception)

Crosstown Station
1522 McGee St.
Kansas City, MO
816.471.1522

Hours after opening reception vary; check Crosstown Station site.
Runs through: Nov. 30

Artist’s site: http://www.ruralpearl.com
Gallery site: http://www.crosstownstation.com

There’s a quote (perhaps apocryphal) attributed to Michelangelo, in response to a query about how he created his marble masterpiece David: “I just cut away everything that wasn’t the statue.”

That’s the approach Angie Pickman takes to her art, albeit in a far more fragile medium.

My life philosophy revolves around achieving simplicity, winnowing away at all the things that are not needed so that the individual can be reduced to the rawest, purest being possible, Pickman writes. I think at this level, one is more readily able to truly observe and take in the natural beauty that exists around us. Cutting paper is metaphorical for this — the cutting away of all that is uneccessary to reveal the subject in a simple, bold form.

Pickman’s simple, bold forms will be on display this month at Crosstown Station, although tonight’s opening reception is the only time you can be guaranteed of seeing them without a cover charge. (Crosstown Station is a live music venue; hours and covers vary.)

Today’s featured pieces, The Garden, is among several new works Pickman will debut tonight. Like her others, it’s executed in a silhouette style that’s intricate but never fussy. And like the others, The Garden has a decidedly retro feel — not from a few decades back, but from more than eighty years ago.

She explains:

I began cutting paper in 2003 after seeing “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” – a cut paper stop-motion silhouette animation from 1926 by Lotte Reiniger. (Editor’s Note: Two fragments of the film — which is the oldest surviving example of feature-length animation — can be viewed here and here.) I gave up art for a bit while I was busy co-building a bakery in Brooklyn, and when I picked up my x-acto knife again in 2007, I knew that it was meant to be. I felt… complete. I had always wanted to be “an artist” – I knew from a very young age that it was my life calling, but it took me a long time to figure out in which medium this would manifest itself. The traditional forms taught in school never quite felt right, but when I saw Lotte’s work, something clicked.

It’s still clicking … and cutting … and removing, bit by bit, everything that isn’t Pickman’s simple, lovely work.

"Propaganda --Wear PINK", Mixed Media on Archival Cardboard.

Milosz Konefal
What the Boss Doesn’t Know Won’t Hurt Him
(be economical and make art at work)

11 a.m.-4 p.m.

The Base Gallery
2012 Baltimore (Downstairs)
Kansas City, MO
816.398.8109

Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday
(Artist’s receptions 6-9 p.m. on First Fridays)
Runs through: Nov. 30

Artist’s site: http://www.miloszkonefal.com
Gallery site: http://www.thebasegallery.com

The story can now be told: Milosz Konefal had a lot of spare time — and spare cardboard – at his former job.

He put the two together, added some leftover spray paint and made art: big, bold, geometric works which, sadly, he couldn’t show to his employer.

(Hey, it beats Solitaire.)

Konefal has since switched jobs; the paintings went with him when he quit the old one. Now, they’re on the walls at The Base Gallery in Konefal’s solo show, What the Boss Doesn’t Know Won’t Hurt Him (be economical and make art at work).

(Konefal tells the story far better than I can, and you can hear it by going to tomorrow night’s First Friday reception from 6-9 p.m.)

Despite the humble materials (the cardboard is of archival quality, however), this doesn’t look like hastily executed, DIY work. The cardboard’s rough surface and seams actually enhance the pieces by providing textural and structural counterpoints not only to Konefal’s big circles, blocks and lines, but also to the finer details.

That’s an important consideration, Konefal notes in his artist’s statement.

I always ask questions about my paintings and myself; to me, there is no difference between the two, he writes. I wonder who I am, who I will become, if the painting I am making is about how it is being painted or about what is actually being painted. Is it about symbols or surface? This ambiguity opens boundaries for play. I’m not completely sure of anything. The imagery I paint is so that I can explore what interests me at the moment and in a place that can be lived in.

Konefal also addresses, albeit obliquely, a key ethic of this show.

I like the idea of joining opposites: colors that seem to fight each other for presence however, in actuality coincide together in harmony. By painting detailed areas and abstract shapes in the same space, I am able to see all these opposites combined and contained. This allows me to compare, contrast and exploit these ideas.

In this case, the opposites are not only visual, but temporal: the demands of being at work, in opposition to a creative urge that recognizes no time clock.

Under the less-than-watchful eye of his former employer, Konefal has succeeded in fusing those opposites … with art coming out on top.

"Star Factory", Digitally Altered Photograph.

Steve Karol

10 a.m.-9 p.m.

Blue Valley Library
9000 W. 151st
Overland Park, KS
913.495-3850

Hours: 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday
Runs through: Dec. 1.

Artist’s site: http://www.zhibit.org/stevekarol
Art in the Stacks site: http://www.jocolibrary.org/templates/JCL_InfoPage.aspx?id=2740

Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase, “The medium is the message.” He was writing more about television and the printed page than about artistic media, but it’s true; different physical materials can change the feel of a work entirely.

For Steve Karol, the medium is decided not by the message, but by the subject. His work ranges from the faithfully representational to the hauntingly surreal, and does so over a range of styles and media.

I have worked in oils, acrylic, watercolor, mixed media and photography. Currently I am exploring digital manipulation of my art and photography, the main focus being landscapes and abstracts, writes Karol, whose show opens today at the Blue Valley Library. My approach to art depends on the subject I am pursuing. For instance, I prefer to paint people in oils, landscapes and abstracts with watercolor, and hard-edged subjects using acrylic.

The three-panel piece above, Star Factory, is a digitally altered photograph. And while it was taken in a real place, there is much of the abstract in it due to Karol’s tweaking of colors and sharpness. It’s at once familiar and entirely alien.

Whatever his style or medium, Karol’s message underlying message remains the same.

My philosophy is that art should be an expression of three main concepts: beauty, emotion and an idea, he writes. Since there is much malevolence in the world, I feel one has the obligation to point out what is beautiful. At the same time, it is important for the artist to express inner tumult and happiness alike to show how he feels and learns about his relationship with others and his environment. This expression is an important release. It can perhaps bring an inner peace. … Of the three concepts , perhaps the expression of an idea is the most important. That idea can be a number of things – political or religious, an opinion or a fact, a new concept or an old tradition. It can be a way to right a wrong. It can also bring about change.

Whether it’s being passed along via the strokes of brushes on canvas or the clicks of shutter and mouse, Karol’s is a message worth taking in.

"Striped Orchids", Watercolor.

Bess Duston

6:30 a.m-10 p.m.

Homer’s Coffee House
7126 W. 80th St.
Overland Park, KS
913.381.6022

Hours: 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Saturday
Runs through: Nov. 30

Gallery site: http://www.homerscoffeehouse.com

Some paintings are so realistic that they look like photographs from a distance. For Bess Duston, that distance is less than arm’s length.

Duston strives for photorealism, and she achieves it. Her watercolors and seriagraph prints, now on display at Homer’s Coffee House (in a joint Images Art Gallery show with Dennis Littleworth), are so crisply rendered and finely detailed that at first it’s hard to believe they weren’t produced with the click of a shutter.

In truth, the processes are far more painstaking. Duston, who has taught elementary school art and worked as an artist for Hallmark, does begin with photographs, for source images. But that’s just the starting point.

The serigraphs take several months to complete, she writes, as once the composition is completed and the drawing is done in the size desired for the completed work, I will do a separate ink drawing on a transparent film for each color in the piece, transfer the drawing to a prepared screen, and then print the edition in the desired number. I usually do between fifteen and twenty-five separate drawings, transfers, and printings for each edition.

Whether in watercolor painting or screen-printing, I look for strong contrasts in the pieces that I produce. Portraying the beauty that surrounds us is the challenge I give myself and I hope this is evident to those who view the pieces.

It is … and so is Duston’s skill at meeting her self-imposed challenge.

Striped Orchids, the watercolor which appears at the top of this post, is a prime example. It isn’t simply that the titular flowers are reproduced flawlessly. It’s the fact that the bare tree in the background is, too — providing not only another layer of detail, but also a spare counterpoint to the lushness in the foreground.

(And if you think you’ve seen Striped Orchids before, you might be right even if you’ve never been to one of Duston’s shows. Kansas City Voices magazine reproduced the painting in its November 2007 issue.)

Don’t let that — or this — be your only exposure to Duston’s art. Spend some time with it in person … just inside arm’s length.

"Red and Blue Reaching", Fiber Mosaic.

Lori Miller
Atmospheres

8:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m.

Kansas City Kansas Public Library
(Main Branch)
625 Minnesota Ave.
Kansas City, KS
913.551.3280

Hours: 8:30 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday
Runs through: Nov. 19

Artist’s site: http://www.lorimiller.com
Gallery site: http://www.kckpl.org/FINEARTS/exhibits.htm

Violating the rules today, or at least pushing them. It’s for a good cause: namely, presenting an art form that hasn’t yet been represented.

Besides, Lori Miller’s from Iowa, so we’re still keeping things Midwestern today.

Miller works in fiber mosaic, cutting bits of fabric and applying them to a black background. It’s the same principle as tile/glass mosaic, but softer both texturally and visually.

While Miller has worked from her own drawings in the past, the works in Atmospheres — her show at the main branch of the Kansas City, Kansas Public Library — are largely done in a new  freeform technique.

 I just lay down the image lines onto the base fabric and mosaic the pieces as I go, Miller writes. This approach has been allowing me to incorporate more color and texture variations.

Red and Blue Reaching, today’s featured piece, is one of those done in the freeform style. It, and several others, have a stained-glass-window feel about them — not merely visually, but in terms of content and emotion as well.

By using a mosaic technique, I feel I give expression to how I see the world, Miller writes. Even with all the world’s imperfections and chaos, I seek out the beauty and grace in the everyday. I believe there will always be an amazing balance between confusion and hope — and I want the viewer to feel that connection through my fragmented images.

A shot of hope on a Monday is always good … rules or no rules.

My work isn’t wrought with angst or inspired by sorrow; I guess I’ve been blessed to try and look on the positive things in our world. If we have hard times, why wallow? (Perhaps this might be one reason I don’t always fit into the academic art world, hmmmm…)

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