Earth, Wind, Water and Fire

At one time people were so silly they thought everything in the universe was composed of just four elements... Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Then it was atoms. Now we are so smart, we know everything is made of Charmed Quarks, Gluons and several different flavors of Bosons. Artists think everything is made of Grumbacher, Winsor and Newton. The debate rages on - as you will see in the following selections from the current exhibition at Arts Upstairs.

Barbara DeBaun showers us with "Passing Storm" and recalls a simpler time somewhere between the Hudson River School and its American folk art roots.

 

 

 

 

"Sunset Utah" by Bronson Eden takes us up, up and away - through many layers of clouds while still firmly anchored on the ground.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You are too late to buy "Fire, Earth, Air, Water".

Dakota Lane sold it already. Tuff noogies

!

I totally love "Night Visitor".

George V. Hlinko has captured the creepy wall-eye peeping tom of your nightmares. Perhaps I read too much into the symbolism, but the window frame resembles a cross, keeping evil out and candle light in.

Whew, what a relief... Wipe the nightmare cold sweat off your hands before thrumming tattoos on one of Ken Lovelett's "Lap Drums." And be sure to buy it before touching it.

Luvos Lerner brightens my day with a daisy called "Flower". This is what happens when all four elements are mixed with magic and become a blossom.

I once saw a video about DeKooning that showed how he would start with a brilliant series of simple strokes and gestures (like Lynn Fliegel's "Air & Water") and then go on to wipe it out and repaint over and over again until it lost all of the original spontanaity and became a mushy scumble of goo. I'm glad Lynn didn't make that mistake.

Margaret Owen tickles my eyeball taste buds with "Red Kimono Mountain". The candy forests and fields are applied in her delicate signature impasto braille that even blind people could enjoy. I want to lick them but restrain myself.

 

 

 

 

A little birdie told me to visit the "Seahouse" by Marvella Casali.

When I got there, the mermaid sang me a song that made me wreck my sloop on the rocks.

Believe it or not, I'm still on that island, sipping cocoanut shaped daquiris while swaying on a hemp hammock.

 

 

 

 

 

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be a bee and land on a flower like this? Of course you would sip nectar and get your hind legs all caked up with yellow pollen.

"Autumn Swirl" by Mindy Wright makes beauty in the eye of the bee-holder.

 

 

I never saw Pluto or even Uranus for that matter. But it's easy to see that the entire solar system ammounts to a hill of beans in this almost edible "Mnemonic device for learning the order of the planets" by Nancy Howell & Mark Lerner. Anyone care to explain the penetrating reference to Mary?

 

 

"Yellow Dress" by Patricia Bolin just blew me away.

 

Sometimes I wish I was a girl so I could get away with wearing one of those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Richard Treitner gets away with it all the time.

 

 

Richard is "Floating through life eating all that I can"

so how does he stay so skinny?

 

 

 

 

This parchment encrusted painting by Shelli Lipton is titled "Some Old Timers Say". You probably can't read the writing but it's all about fire and water under the bridge. When things burn, sometimes they are bridges.

 

 

 

 

 

Sparrow writes wrongs. That's his right.

 

But "How to be a writer" reminds me of the "draw me" matchbook art school.

 

I wonder if this is how he got his artistic license to write?

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, another Mermaid! Did you see "Splash"? I loved the way Daryl Hannah ate the lobster. Susie Capalbo portrays a more tender moment in "Water Finds Fire".

 

Well. that wraps up another Art Safari with Dave Channon. Come on down to the next opening at Arts Upstairs. It's always the third saturday of each month at 7 PM in Phoenicia.

See yoiu there!