Artist Warner K. Varno Soars in Her New Show, "Bright Wings"

On Friday, August 3rd, the Swift Gallery premieres an engaging new body of work by full-time artist and part-time San Diegan Warner K. Varno. The opening of Varno’s “Bright Wings” show coincides with the monthly Gallery Crawl at Liberty Station.

Varno in her studio.

The images that make up the Bright Wings show come from three separate series. They all share a strong representational component, a brilliant palate, and thematic links that are figuratively or literally uplifting.

Each canvas is a rebus of unlikely juxtapositions. Birds join bones and blooms, vegetation and Victorian wallpapers, not as still life, but more like tapestry. Varno’s canvases vibrate with entrances and exits, and half-hidden objects.  Although the color palate ranges widely, the works share an inherent luminosity, and a depth borne of finely layered transparency. Varno’s brushwork is as meticulous, crisp and unforgiving as a medical illustrator. Yet the precision of the images does not lead to obvious interpretation. In the dense canvases a true sense of nuance and mystery emerges.  

The Falcon House 2 x 4' x 5' Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. 

Varno writes:  “I am interested in grappling with our delicate humanity.  The process of creating these paintings is an acknowledgment of these life cycles and it is in the spirit of renewal that I find the source material for the artwork I create.”

Warner K. Varno is an artist in transition, settling into a part time residential relationship with local artist and legend James Watts, and looking for new living space that somehow bridges the gap between Colorado and here. Her more recent works have engaged that search for home palpably. The emergent imagery of the nest and the house have come strongly into her recent work, which is hardlysurprising as Varno also approaches motherhood, with the expected birth of her first child in October.

Please join us on August 3rd as we open Bright Wings. -Wes

Hometown Encounters Remind Me of My Own Artistic Roots

First, about me. Let's get right down to it, I had to get out...

As a creative young man, I was an odd bird in Lenoir NC.  Lenoir was a hard working town. If you weren't farming (and even if you were), most people spent their days turning out the highest end furniture and custom upholstery, a town full of craftsmen. In spite of having some of the best artisans in the world, I remember the arts be largely absent  from my experience, except on TV, where I saw occasional creative programs for children full of modern art and design.

No one I ever knew went to an art museum on purpose. I imagine there were many people who loved and even collected art in my small town. Still the standard art of my experience was the ubiquitous last supper, or Currier and Ives.  I heard lots of derisive comments about "modern art" without ever figuring out that the art I loved was modern. The furniture designers knew there was an outside world, but with a pragmatic understanding that the future wasn't for everyone. Some design forms and fabrics for upholstery echoed the traditions of Cubism, Futurism, Bauhaus and even Abstract Expressionism: clean, bright, unburdened by narrative.  However they always shared a showroom alongside more popular Victorian and Baroque designs.I figured out over time that this "modern art" was not new, and the adults around me affronted by Picasso or Braque were 50 years behind the times.

In 1962, when I was born, Broyhill Furniture released Brasilia Line, based on the futuristic architecture of  Oscar Niemeyer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Montagem_Bras%C3%ADlia.jpg But Victorian was still the rule of the day.

I did get out...at 16, to Vancouver, British Columbia, where Emily Carr College (Now University) of Art& Design and The Vancouver Museum of Art  moved me from curious observer to art-junkie. When I returned in my early 20's, things had changed drastically. Both the long-running  Annual Sculpture Celebration and the very active Caldwell Arts Council itself which  hosts touring exhibitions of note, local shows and workshops, made Lenoir one of the more artful small towns in the region. I also became aware that there were, and presumably always had been, a lot of great local artists practicing around town. Over the next many years, as Lenoir blossomed, I spent more time away.  Finally, I was following the siren song of love and career back to the west coast, this time to the lower-left.  

I currently live in San Diego CA and curate the Swift, and every element of my life is intimately tied to the arts in one way and another. But North Carolina never really left my heart again, and this place which holds my heritage and most of my family, including my beloved mother and sister. And it was a need to see my dearly missed family that sent me on a trip back to the Old North State ( I won't call it Tar Heel Country, because I am, for my sins, a Duke fan).

While making my compulsory visit to downtown Lenoir, I was saddened to see much of the recent redevelopment failing with the current economic realities. I took a walk around the quiet and empty blocks that had seemed so revitalized and alive before the real estate bubble burst.  Then a bright storefront and a name on a wall caught my eye.

There on Main Street, was the studio of local artist Charlie Frye, a hometown original, who walks the blurry line somewhere between raw and fine art. Frye's work was a revelation on my last visit, because he is a painter in Lenoir who doesn't simply focus on landscapes the beautiful Appalachian Foothills. I was particularly struck with his series of hometown portraits, and his literary portraits.  

Charlie's primary reason for being lies in the need to paint. And his recent one man show in neighboring Wilkesboro NC demonstrated he can do this on a large scale. Frye's work, although it is often of and about place, also discloses a complex interior landscape, a place where characters populate a personal mythology. His portrait of Edgar Allen Poe conveys a personal viewpoint, in a way, the place Poe occupies in Charlie's own mythology, in relation to other characters which live there. Charlie is a skilled portrait artist and a excellent draftsman of the figure, although he never does nudes. (Gosh no, not here. I guess you could call me a conservative in that sense. ) By "here" I don't know if Charlie was referring to Lenoir, or his studio in specific...in the studio he supports his paintings by teaching classes in art to people of all ages, from individual adults, to groups of home-schooled children. Charlie comes to this naturally, having entered the arts after working as a teacher.

Charlie stands before a couple of his haunting anatomical chart paintings which reflect a historical narrative about the displacement of native peoples. His work can be serious, or lighter, as in the crayon self-portrait he holds, done as an example for his students.

But for an aspiring artist, Charlie feels anything but limited by his surroundings. His work is always local in spirit, and he seems to draw strength from the kind of rootedness that being a native son provides. One landscape is painted atop a large roll down county map, of the kind that used to be in classrooms all across the school district, it serves as a sophisticated sort of layer on layer depiction of the landscape, an aesthetic argument that sometimes, "the map is the territory."

Another indication of Charlie's commitment to the region is his "Made in Lenoir" movement. Charlie promotes and markets wares made in Lenoir from his storefront studio and on his website. If you buy a painting from Charlie, it will come in a frame which he manufactures, or orders locally made from another local artisan.  He is deeply in touch with the fine wood-working history of Lenoir, and is himself a skilled craftsman.

It might be tempting to see Charlie Frye as a kind of oddity, but I feel in a way he represents some version of a larger, generational shift in American culture. It used to be that rule-one of becoming a successful artist was to move to the biggest city you could manage to reach, and spend years working your way up the food chain of galleries and patronage. Artists like Frye are redefining success by staying put, and asserting that artists have a place in all communities. If you reflect on the recent trends such as shop-local, brew-local, eat local, ideas which have become mantras of the green revolution, a local artist makes perfect sense. But artists are still often thought of as outsiders, or hobbyists, who have no place in the working life of a community.  

If you're looking for Charlie Frye, go to Lenoir, Head down Main Street, and park when you see the red wall.

Charlie Frye envisions a place for artists in community which is neither elite nor specialized. To that end, he has begun working as sign painter, hand painted, illustrated signs of the kind not seen in town since the era when wall mural advertisements were a commonplace on Statesville Brick walls. This kind of utilitarian art, the making beautiful of the commonplace is where the tie of the artist to the community has it's deep and abiding roots. They say a man with his heart in the community gives heart to it as well. I'm grateful to Charlie Fry for continuing to provide that spark.

 

Tonight Only: Unspoken: Love letters by You

Missed the opening? Take our new Time and Love Survey On Line

It was a gorgeous opening with a wonderful crew of volunteers to help out with the hallway installation. Over the course of the evening we used 48 pens and gave away 38 cupcakes, and the monoprints went from empty to full.

Docent Francine worked the crowd handing out pens and engaging the public in completing the installation.

Also we hade a good crowd come through the video area, some in and out, others sitting through the whole selection. It was very pleasing to see the level of engagement. survey on line now, free

 So you missed the show? Couldn't make the opening? As an artist, I still want your input!You can take the reduced (due to site constraints)  10 question survey on line.

Just click on the link below, and it will be almost like you came in person . Cheers-Wes

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/6RCPCFL

Feb. 3rd Time is Love: International Video Show and installation appear at the Expressive Arts Institute

"Love is in the air" and as we all know "time flies." What happens when they meet?  Art of course. Todays post is to tell you about February 3rd from 5-9 pm, when two different art experiences will happen at the Expressive Arts Institute and the Martha Pace Swift Gallery. The first is a touring international video show which is sponsored by Larry Caveney's Garage Gallery. Time is Love 5, curated by Kisto Assangni will be presented for two showings at 6:00pm and 7:30 pm. The video exhibition will take place in the studio and due to some brief nudity will be an 18+ event.

Meanwhile back in the Swift Gallery, Curator Wes Chester will invite the public to speak up in his installation "13 Questions about Time and Love" created especially for the show, where the first 48 attendants will be invited to respond to the questions about the nexus of time and love. And those who finish the task, in addition to immortalizing their opinions on an art piece, will be rewarded with a love-themed cupcake. If this isn't an art date made in heaven, what is? Hope to see you there.. 

Tonight's the night

The Dark and Stormy Night Gets Darker: The loss of David Webb

The house was full, the poetry reading lovely, the food, provided by gallery patron Stephanie Swift filled and warmed the rain weary guests . I was just thinking how lovely the evening had come out inspite of all misgivings, when I was approached by a slight woman in a cocoa powder colored leather jacket who looked intensely at me from beneath a mass of long blonde curls and said, "Where did you get these David Webb paintings?"

Man Feeding Deer- David Webb Acrylic on Canvas 30 x 30

The Woman tured out to be local painter and Broker's Building personality Madeline Sherry, a friend of David Webb, and the news she had was shocking. David Webb, one of the featured painters of the show, was dead... "He died on September 11th..."

It may seem odd to the reader that we could be showing the work of an artist without knowing of his passing, but then, this was the nature of  David Webb. David, a prolific painter,  was often homeless. He had lived his life "up and down the 101" said Jane Fyre, the president of the Creative Arts Consortium.

It was Fyre who had supplied Webb's works from pieces owned by friends, or by the CAC. She had hoped to locate Webb before the show, but it was not to be... and not being able to locate him was not unusual. She'd expected, within the three months of the show's run, to find Webb in his usual haunts. Instead, as we opened, we learned that a brilliant and gifted artist was gone.

In His Head- David Webb, Acrylic on Canvas, 48" x 48"

David Webb was a prolific painter, who although he often lacked a home, always rented a storage locker (or two) for his paintings. After his passing, Madeline Sherry and another friend became the de facto conservator of his works, a stunningly complex task. The paintings number in the hundreds, not only canvases, but works on paper and cardboard. There are even canvases cut from frames and rolled carelessly. If Sherry's description even approaches the truth, simply cataloging the works could take months.

If you regularly read the blog, you have noticed Webb's style varies widely, from chunky abstraction to finely drawn figurative works. So what's in those storage lockers? It's difficult to predict, but it is also hard to imagine that there isn't work of importance and power in those wildly strewn frames and rolled canvases. The CAC's Jane Fyer provided a tantalizing hint, with an old photo of David with a work called "Three Men." The location and condition of the painting is unknown at this time.

Webb with his Painting, Three Men

In a narrow hallway, perhaps of a small hotel, which was his common home, David Webb stands with a painting of breathtaking power, directness and a disturbing subtext which the viewer can only begin to glimpse. The space is cluastrophobic, barely able to contain him and the work. The date on the photo reads 10-10-96- a chilling reminder that he would be gone in five years, passing on the tenth aniversary of our greatest national tragedy at the age of 56. In the photo, he looks strong, and full of life. It's easy to imagine him striding past the numbered doors, down to where the corridor turns, and dissappearing from our sight. 

David Webb is gone, leaving a wake of glorious, beautiful and painful images, his life both tragic and yet a cause for celebration. A life lived by and for art is never wasted.

There will be an evening of rememberance for David Webb on December 2nd, from 5- 8pm, at the Swift Gallery. The evening will feature more of Webb's extrordinary images, and a reading by Webb's brother, screenwriter and author Michael Blake. Blake, who won an Academy Award for his work on Dances with Wolves, will share a film and verse rememberance of his late brother, "Boy in the Rain."  Please come to help us remember the life and work of David Webb, this unknown artist whose profound and powerful works continue to delight, excite and move our hearts in his absence.