current exhibits

in the downstairs G.B. stuart gallery

Elevate: honoring the ordinary

We create and apply the meaning in our lives. Some people worship money, some worship trees. There is no exact science or rulebook to follow when it comes to dignifying an item, person, place et cetera with our respect, care, and attention. This open-ended dynamic breeds strife, because if I think that the most delicious fruit is a strawberry and you don’t, we may have to start a war about it. Scott Meier and Becky McDonah have a much more amiable approach than that. Elevate: Honoring the Ordinary is a joint exhibit of old-world style paintings (Meier) and metal reliquaries (McDonah) that metaphorically build upon what may be considered unassuming items or practices. Through precise and elaborate work, they each have projected their singular artistic representations of the value of a portrait or, say, a roll of toilet paper.

Scott Meier’s approach to oil painting is period appropriate, using linen canvases and holistic portraiture styles to emulate the era of the Renaissance. Renaissance portraits were meant to capture not only the physical appearance of a person but their entire presence. Meier has achieved that and more. These portraits are entire chapter books to be parsed through and deliberated. The people he paints have a gaze that is never-ending. They are looking at you and past you, towards something you have yet to notice. Meier’s works are scattered with little hidden meanings. A bird, a chest, a sword, everything is metaphorical. He has developed a personal language of iconography that is as captivating as it is question-inducing. The colors, muted and reminiscent of soft velvet, add to the hazy, dreamlike depiction of these people. In The Unopened Treasure, you can follow the motif of openings or closings around the canvas: the volcano behind the figure is about to erupt, the chest he holds is locked as well as the bracelet around his arm, and the armor around his neck is unbuckled. Interestingly, in The Prodigal Son the center stage man with a gentle smile is holding a key…Meier has stated that he “[uses] the figure and symbols to connect the personal and the universal”. You will lose yourself looking into these worlds of multi-layered purpose and find yourself again in the face of someone you don’t know.

Becky McDonah’s craftsmanship is clever, infinitely detailed, and forces you to consider the subjective nature of symbolism. Her method for redefining what we find “precious” is to build intricate, metal sculptures called reliquaries. A reliquary is simply defined as “a container for relics”, but McDonah’s work is anything but simple. Reliquaries, via their complex design and intention to protect, instruct the viewer to revere the object it holds. McDonah plays with this manufactured status and applies it to items we might deem typical or easily accessible. She pulls apart, literally and figuratively, the pieces and associations of an object, such as a marshmallow. Inspirational Ashes: A Reliquary for Campfire Remains and a Marshmallow is a tribute to a common summer pastime. A real marshmallow is housed inside a silver replica on a copper spear, surrounded by a ring of metal rocks mimicking the coals of a fire. Next to the “coal” ring there is a small glass container of ash, and the base of the entire piece is a round glass box that holds burnt wood. Some of her reliquaries can be worn, such as the necklace of Reoccurring Rejuvenation: A Reliquary for the Shower Curtain, Toothbrushes, & Dental Floss. This adornment features pieces of shower curtain and toothbrush heads framed by molded silver and brass. The clasp of the necklace is a silver drain, and on the back of the middle pendant is a useable shower curtain rod with metal rings you can move. McDonah masterfully constructs meaning, bit by bit, and never shies away from the seemingly mundane. Every player serves their part. Every part is as important as the other. Her reliquaries hold dear not just a singular object but the entire practice and purpose surrounding that object. McDonah will make you laugh with her creativity and ponder what makes it funny in the first place.

While I can’t unequivocally proclaim that a strawberry is the most delicious fruit and make everyone believe it just because I said so, I can eat a strawberry every day. If I eat a strawberry every day, does that prove its importance to me? Repetition, ritual practice, and intention combined can convince us that there is meaning beneath the banal. Scott Meier and Becky McDonah have translated their bedded perspectives on the ordinary versus the extraordinary and exposed how these words only mean what we want them to.

Written by Rachel Haas-Gutin

in the upstairs gallery

Wild Elegance

This retrospective is a collection of photographs and digitally manipulated photos in memory of Anne Cherry. Anne was a pillar of the South-Central Pennsylvania art scene. She was a volunteer and student at CALC regularly, as well as a volunteer and board member of SHAPE for decades. We thank Anne for everything she has contributed to our local communities through her creativity and selfless ethos. She has left a permanent mark on us that we cannot forget, affecting our appreciation for and dedication to art in ways only she could.

Wild and elegance, two words that have innate tension but blend seamlessly when represented by Anne Cherry. Similarly, her artwork and lifestyle were indistinguishably connected. She courageously explored all that nature had to offer, which brought her to places others wouldn’t go and influenced her creative style tremendously. Her wild side was balanced by her elegant demeanor and attitude towards everything she put her mind to. As her son Kurt Smith recalls, “Everything she created, cooked, built, or photographed was composed with a smooth sense of style”.

A camera was her creative tool of choice, and it would follow her through all her adventures. Cherry’s passion for the outdoors and collection of photographs grew, bringing about new, inventive ways to depict her vision. From traditional digital photography sprouted a different medium: digitally manipulated photos. As Cherry analyzed her photography in its original form, she was able to spy new compositions, shapes, and textures she could enhance digitally. By focusing on one part of a flower, magnifying and adjusting it through digital programs, she was able to create what she called “Natural Abstracts”. The nature she captured was transformed into studies of color and movement, where flowers become abstract mountains, waves, patterns, and more. When you take away the initial, full perspective, you create an entirely different subject open to all interpretations. Cherry’s eye for beautiful, underlying arrangements is a testament to her specific point of view and passion for nature and art.

Written by Rachel Haas-Gutin