By Dorothy Shinn
Beacon Journal art and architecture critic
When I first began writing about art for the Akron Beacon Journal 33 years ago, there were few galleries in Akron, the local arts community was a small, close-knit group composed mainly of artist-illustrators who worked for major corporations, and the dominant art style was realism, despite the fact that there were three art schools in the region trying to introduce students to art produced after World War II.
Judy Gaiser painting "Hare today, Gone tomorrow", inspired by an attack this summer by a chicken on one of my farming friends on Manitoulin Island, Ontario in the Summit Artspace Kaleidoscope 2011.
Akron was mired in the past, but on the brink of a transformation. A series of events would bring major changes to the way art and artists were considered and would create what an art show juror recently called “a thriving art colony.”
Although he was controversial and brought work to Akron that some thought was “indecent,” John Coplans, director of the then-Akron Art Institute — now the Akron Art Museum — from 1978 to 1980, was the catalyst.
He brought in a series of eye-opening exhibits, setting such a high standard that those who followed him could do nothing less. He also started a monthly art magazine, Dialog, that eventually was co-opted by the Ohio Arts Council and became a major Midwest news outlet for art.
Art may not have been taken seriously before Coplans, but it certainly was afterward and that continues, thanks to a series of strong directors at the museum up through its current one, Mitchell Kahan, who has done so much to strengthen its collection and its national stature.
And thanks also to the folks who formed the Akron Area Arts Alliance and Summit Artspace, where the visual arts have found a supportive home, and where strong exhibits have justified that “thriving art colony” comment.
The remark was made after the jurying process for the current show at Summit Artspace, Kaleidoscope 2011: The Alliance for the Visual Arts Holiday Show. It came from juror Barbara Gillette, who also observed that the show attracted strong entries in photography, the figure and portraits.
The second juror, Robert Raack, also gave kudos to the high quality of the work, but tsk-tsked artists for prizing technique over content and personal vision.
Baby steps, Robert. We’re getting there, as a good look at this solid exhibit bears out.
Kaleidoscope is presented by the Alliance for the Visual Arts in Akron (AVA), a group representing more than 500 local artists from the Akron Society of Artists, Artists of Rubber City, Cuyahoga Valley Art Center and Women’s Art League. Kaleidoscope 2011 had 183 works entered by 106 artists; 75 works by 57 artists were chosen.
Marita Bitans of Medina won first place for her photograph Still Waters. Stow’s Chris Morrow took second place for her digital image Under Lock & Key. Third place went to Joan, an oil-on-canvas portrait by Carol Paquay of Wadsworth.
The judges also awarded honorable mentions to Reflecting, a photograph by William Beuther of Brunswick; Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow, an oil painting by Judith Gaiser of Kent; The Horn — Bowl and Shore Bound, ceramic by James Leslie of Ravenna; and Cold Front Coming, an oil painting by William Peck of Stow.
Bitans is a medical illustrator as well as an accomplished artist. She has done illustrations for textbooks such as Zollinger’s Atlas of Surgical Operations, and creates large medical panel illustrations for attorneys and doctors.
Her house sits on three-and-a-half acres, which serve as inspiration for much of her creative output, which she sees as a relief valve from the demands of her 20-year career.
She often photographs what grows in the garden or what she happens upon in the wild, then works with the powerful photo-editing software she uses for her medical illustrations to give them the depth and texture she likes.
“I have a fascination with textures and patterns,” she said, referring to Still Waters, a digital image of lily pads growing in an area on Catawba Island near Marblehead.
After running the image through a filter, she also went back in and outlined forms along the bottom, then enlarged the image and printed it in three sections so that she could present it as a triptych, a strategy that also enabled her to overcome the size limitations imposed by her printer.
Another image, Peeling Layers, is a digitally enhanced photograph of onions from her garden and demonstrates how a combination of an artist’s eye, intuitive framing and the deft and light use of digital filters can produce a handsome image.
Morrow’s work is the epitome of the right combination of artist’s instinct and an intuitively deft handling of the subject. Her second-place image, Under Lock & Key, is testament to both perseverance and good choices.
One of the things artists who use the computer have to learn — sometimes the hard way — is when to stick with an old program and when to upgrade.
As many of us have found out to our dismay, computer programs that we have relied on for years can be abandoned by their makers or inflated way beyond our ken or pay grade.
Morrow said she discovered this when a program she loves, Painter, was rendered inoperable when she recently upgraded her PC’s system software. She had to take it to a repair shop, where they uninstalled the upgrade.
But Morrow, who is by and large a self-trained artist, doesn’t rely solely on her software. “I just choose the images I like,” she says modestly.
The thing is, she consistently chooses and photographs exceptional images, and that, plus her light touch with the editing, says volumes about her artistic bona fides.
Paquay’s Joan is a frank homage to the late Alice Neel, who, along with Andy Warhol, helped for a time to revive the art of portrait painting in America.
“I do like Alice Neel’s work,” Paquay readily admitted. “She’s one of my very, very favorites.”
Summit Artspace Kaleidoscope 2011 show Title: Still Waters Artist: Marita Bitans from Medina Medium: photography Award: 1st place
The subject of her painting is a woman who sat for Paquay when she was working on her MFA at UNC-Chapel Hill. She stopped work on the painting before it was finished and recently took brush and palette to it again.
“I’ve done that with several of my paintings,” she confessed. “I find when you do that, you stop thinking of it as a portrait and start thinking of it as a painting, which is helpful.
“She was an interesting gal,” Paquay said, speaking of Joan. “She had a hard life, but she was a really nice person. I liked her big, big eyes.”
As strong as the winners were, the works by those who received honorable mentions were equally impressive. It’s too bad there aren’t enough top awards to go around, as there were several other works that were also deserving of special mention, such as Judy Bennett’s mixed media sculpture Equis Chariot, and MaryAnn Mosyjowski’s altered book Process Not Perfection.
Maybe they’ll have their chance when the People’s Choice Award is announced. Determined by the votes of gallery visitors, it will be presented during the First Night Akron celebration on Dec. 31. The winner will receive a kaleidoscope created by Akron glass artist Bob Pozarski.
So get out there and vote.
As always, Summit Artspace sponsors artist workshops during its exhibits. Two of these remain to be given: figurative clay sculpture with Joseph Blue Sky today and pastels with Candace Bennington Dec. 10. Both will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. For more information, call 330-376-8480 or go to http://www.summitartspace.org.
DETAILS
Show: Kaleidoscope 2011.
When: Through Dec. 31, noon to 5 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. today for Sunday Sampler.
Where: Summit Artspace, 140 E. Market St., Akron.
Information: 330-376-8480 or http://www.summitartspace.org.
Dorothy Shinn writes about art and architecture for the Akron Beacon Journal. Send information to her at the Akron Beacon Journal, P.O. Box 640, Akron, OH 44309-0640 or dtgshinn@neo.rr.com.
