Shannon Joy Burch

 

Crown /d with Stars

These two  seem to be the centerpieces for this exhibit -- everything else feels like figure studies made in our workshops.

They feel deeply personal - but also like posters for a movie - possibly science fiction.

I'm more interested in the untold story behind them than in the paintings themselves. Same thing with the lyrics to the King Crimson song.

But not with the poem by Yeats.  Knowing the backstory, if there is one, would only distract from the flow of language.

MIsha - painted, appropriately enough, with the chiseled planes favored by the Soviet school.

Model and artists --- one of my favorite subject matters.

Roberta - one of our favorite local character models

Kuhn Hong: Ethiopia and Chicago

 

 

In the Chicago portion of the show, I was most fascinated by his spot-on portrait of Phil Kanz doing what he's been doing on our third floor for at least thirty years.

 

 

 

 

 

 I also enjoyed his tributes to the safety protocols of the  Pandemic

 

And here is his fine depiction of a regular model who is quite identifiable from his back.

..

Dr. Hong's travel documentaries seem to belong to an age before color photography

Cass Waters : Microbial Animism

 

 

 

A Means for Heat, 2020 

Every decade or so, an incredibly talented young person from out of state finds the Palette and Chisel - the last one being Tim Rees back in 2010

 

 

(Note: according to Misha from Minsk, the Hebrew text is Job 25:5 - the gist of it being, in Protestant translations, that if even the moon and the stars are not perfect, how much less are human beings in the eyes of their creator - to which one may conclude:  "so why even try?" )

 Cass has confirmed that she was relating it the N.I.V. (Evangelical) translation as copied below.

 
Job 25:5, 6
"even if the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in his sight how much less man, who is but a maggot, and son of man who is a worm"

 

 Cass is so gifted!  A tight sense of form - a strong, wild spirit - a vivid imagination.

She could become a successful illustrator  (i.e. sensational)

- but I hope she becomes a Rembrandt - i.e. a maker of profound and beautiful paintings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What an amazing self portrait of a young woman at the threshold of life.

The other portraits are pretty good too. 

She paints the flesh as well as the aura.

An expressionist portrait to rival Oskar Kokoschka

Spencer

The artist's companion depicted as some kind of saint.

 

Wonderful, quirky cityscape

A charming landscape --even though it appears to be nothing more than scrubby trees by the edge of a parking lot.

Self portrait as an ancient Roman - looking down through the centuries.

(though it's quite possible Cass has yet to see much ancient art)

This piece refers to Demian, by Herman Hesse

So where does Cass go from here ?

She'll spend the summer at the New York Academy of Art.

I hope they can help her find whatever  she needs.

Most  P&C members, like myself, for example, try to make something joyful and pleasing. 

Cass is more like a spiritual visionary - and like the current leader in that genre, Odd Nerdrum, her vision is dark. Same thing with two of leading artists associated with the New York Academy, Steven Assael and Vincent Desiderio.  I have no idea why anyone - especially the gifted - would choose to express the dark, depressing side of life. But perhaps it hasn't really been their choice.  As Cass suggests in one of her texts, we are full of  hitchhiking microbes who have a will of their own.  It's amazing that we can  even tie our own shoes, much less feel good about the human experience.