REALISM PLUS at GALLERY V

"Art's a staple. Like bread or wine or a warm coat in winter. Those who think it is a luxury have only a fragment of a mind."
Irving Stone.

JAMES MOORE
There is only one James Moore and he is showing at Gallery V thru October 15. Moore paints in oils on canvas, or linen. He has reinvented, thru hard work and inspiration, the painting technique possessed by old masters. -- Yet, his offerings are not of fruits and vegetables lusciously arranged on silver trays; neither are they sumptuous depictions of curled shrimp and gleaming grapes among crystal goblets. No. Moore prefers simplicity, austere groupings.
Six Red Tomatoes glow against a red plate and a soft coral cloth, for example.--And are they gorgeous! -- Pause, take a breath:
White Onions & White Bag imparts to onions an earthy luminosity.--Yet, they are just three or four plain white onions; we've seen them in our kitchens. Thru Moore's painting they become special because they re presented without distraction. We focus on them.
Orange Squash is a field-marred pumpkin, dull orange, and
so real you want to thump it. Bright Lemons dance in a brass bowl.-- Ah, those White Peaches made me think of sunrise.
Moore's fruit and vegetable series are around the same size, 22 x 28 inches. Each same-kind grouping is set against the neutral tones of a wall and a linen cloth. You can see the texture and creases of table fabric on these relatively small paintings. You can count your breaths in the presence of the ordinary.
GONG, TINGSHA, AND SINGING BOWL
From across the room it gleams, and it rings, if silently. James Moore's Gong, Tingsha, and Singing Bowl is oil on linen, 36 x 40 inches. Here is a legendary "golden bowl", but it's actually brass, and it's actually a disc, and from across the room it does appear to be actual gold. It shines, yet no actual gold or glitter has been used. Moore, the alchemist, can depict gold without using gold. (I know how, and I'm not going to tell you. I certainly can't do it myself.)
The gong can be rubbed or struck with the tingsha. The singing bowl, which is much smaller than the gong, will sing when it is struck, or rubbed around the rim. Echoes and reverberations await.
The brass gong, its "cymbals" and it's "striker," hang from a carved wood frame that one might find in a meditation center. These meditational objects take up most of the canvas, with dull shadows and textured linen behind them. They balance each other in a proper compositional way. Gong, Tingsha, and Singing Bowl is truly a
remarkable painting.-- Koan: All that glitters is and is not. . .
TAMIE BELDUE
In her artist's statement Tamie Beldue explains why she choose graphite for her lyrical renderings, portraits, actually, of nearly life-sized nude women: "I primarily use graphite to reinforce the concept that pencil can be erased as easily as facial expression, or as the way a bone pressing against the skin can disappear."
True, Beldue's realisticlly depicted women, each one by herself, stands or reclines (to paraphrase Virginia Woolfe) in a "canvas of her own" and exudes an ephemerality, a delicacy, of aspect.
Yet, these are strong women, quietly self confident, happily at ease with themselves and their bodies. They look as though they might be attorneys or tennis stars when they're not posing. Their figures are substantial, neither Renoir-voluptuous nor fashion-model-thin. They're earnest, centered, and like all good models, totally unconcerned with their painter or other viewers.
Each "painting" has been executed in fine soft blacks and grays, of course. Because Beldue's sophisticated yet monotone palette consists of pencil, ink, and sometimes watercolor.
In Traverse, 25 x 48 inches, Beldue's model lies full length on her stomach, yet her head is turned, and she's looking straight at us from an ordinary neutral sofa. In this windowed room everything is as gray as rain. The sofa and the woman take up most of the canvas. Beldue is an expert, a poet, at drawing the human figure. Her renderings of feet and hands, always a challenge, are especially marvelous. Again, Beldue's
women do tend to "fill up" their separate but equal canvases. The backgrounds, although compatible, seem unimportant, yet vital. That is why I sometimes refer to Beldue's nudes as "portraits," and that's a compliment.
Anatomy With Albinus definitely takes place in an art school. The model is seated in a familar "at rest" manner, and a drawing
explicating the musculature of a male -- as in Albinus' seventeenth century On Anatomy -- his back turned, his arms outspread, --stands on a platform. -- One is reminded of the late nineteenth century and all of those photographs in which smocked and bereted students, some of them women in long skirts, worked at their easels, with models, in echoing drop clothed studios that resembled museums. And that's a compliment.
James Moore completed his MFA in Painting at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena California. From 1986 to 1993 Moore was Assistant Professor of Art in Columbus College of Art and Design. He currently teaches at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California.
Tamie Beldue completed her MFA in Drawing and Printmaking at the University of Cincinnati in 2005. She is currently teaching at Columbus College of Art and Design.
Realism Plus will show at Gallery V, 694 N. High St. in the Short North, thru October 15. Call 614-228 -8955.

GISELLE VISITS COLUMBUS

THE WORLD'S MOST ESTEEMED BALLET WILL BE PERFORMED AT THE OHIO THEATRE BY WONDERFUL BALLETMET
I can't wait! She's in the wings(!)and she's gorgeous! She's got the stamina of a long distance runner, the integrity of Joan of Arc, the passion of Emma Bovary, and the lightness of a Cocoa Puff!
She's Giselle, a ballerina/heroine nearly two hundred years old, going on eighteen. The ballet, Giselle, was first performed at the Paris Opera in 1841, even before there were gas lights. The vivacious Carlotta Grisi danced the title role.
As entrusted to Artistic Director Gerard Charles in 2005 by the spirits of the original choreographers, Jean Coralli, 1779-1854, and Jules Perrot, 1810-1892, the choreography is bound to be first rate.
Charles' derived choreography for Cinderella was crystal-slipper
perfect. Not too old, not too new. Not too busy or too flashy, and never dull. It was a champagne and candy kiss evening, and the audience seemed to love it.-
Giselle, the ballet, possesses an eternally glorious score -- peasant dances, love trysts, hunting horns, moonlight and redemption--as composed by Grisi's friend Adolphe Adam, who wrote specifically for the ballet. A few measures of this, a couple of bars of that--bourree and jete there, levitate here. Pause for a forbidden kiss.
With Carrie West and Christine Mangia alternating as the soulful and perky Giselle,--and with Dmitri Suslov and Christian Broomhall as Albrecht, Giselle's flim-flam aristocratic lover,--the dancing should be expressive and of highest quality. (Believe me, our heroine Giselle is no Desperate Housewife.)
Into a disheartening environment of war casualties and Katrina's devastation, Giselle's ageless story continues to beam flashes of beauty and hope. I can't wait.
In Conclusion:
With choreographic works by Stanton Welch, James Orrante, Gerard Charles and Maria Glimscher, Balletmet continues to win kudos
and fellowships in New York and other places. I'm proud of all the BalletMet dancers and I wish them the best.
BalletMet Columbus will present Giselle at the Ohio Theatre September 22-25, 2005. For tickets call 614-229-4848.--Best wishes from Liz.

A RESPONSE TO BETSY DEFUSCO's PAINTINGS

A Personal Response to Betsy DeFusco's Paintings: Three paintings by Betsy DeFusco are on exhibit in Made In Ohio, Diverse Images, at the Riffe Gallery thru October 16. DeFusco's large and wonderful abstracts are "about" light and painting, if abstracts can be "about" anything. Annegreth Nill, curator, refers to DeFusco's abstract paintings as "perceptual." --Yes, the longer I look at them, the more layers of aesthetic meaning I receive, perceive. The embodiment of light and color as a dynamic, is always present.
The artist has painted a red strip, a wine-red blend, on at least one edge of each canvas. In each painting, razor straight lines, vibrant pastel stripes, appear with bewitching irregularity.--DeFusco's stipes are translucent. Colors appear thru colors. This artist is an over-under color weaver, and she's a darn good painter!
On each canvas one sees a pale gold, with variations on yellows and whites, that emanates from an unseen nucleus, infuses the canvas with radiance.
WINDOW TO THE SUN is an apt title for this large square oil painting.
Pale yellow emanates from the center, evolves to dull wheat-hued bars, straight edged, of course. Red ribbon runs across the top and bottom. Greens,--pale, bluish,forest,--frame each side. The green sides are shadowy, like a pond Gazing we can "see" many kinds of windows. Our sight itself becomes a window, interior or exterior.
SEA CROSSING , also, is square and large, and at least as tall as I am. Again, the center is light-filled, and we note the red-gold bars. Various blue stripes hem this splendid painting in, and, of course, because this is a sea crossing, wide blue stripes dominate. Color strips/stripes have been painted upon other color strips, and you can see them all. Like the sea's, the painting's variations are endless and pleasing. Although the possibilities for revelation are endless DeFusco has tamed the sea. The poet ArthurRimbaud said it, "Eternity. It is the sea mixed with the sun."
OCEAN VIEW, the third painting, is long and narrow, around 72 x 30 inches. On the left side this rectangle is bounded by a wine-red strip, and on the right side, a straight brown strip. Various blues --faded Alice, bleached navy, aqua sateen,--have been interwoven with yellow stripes. Fine burgundy lines pin the painting down at strategic places. Ocean View has overpowered my professionalism; I've begun to think of fabric and ribbons! I recognize the tan stripe as a sash from Gran's attic! Her
church-going dress!--An orange streamer sails like a roman candle! The various blues attack me and catch me off guard, and images attack, like jay birds. My best friend, Helen Marguerite, and I wear blue and white plaid dresses. We have long brown braids and people think we're sisters and I'm allowed to call her mom, "Aunt Loma." We're seven or eight. We whirl in the wet garden. Our skirts stand out, our black patent shoes crush bachelor buttons, and our plaid ribbons stand out with our braids as we whirl and whirl! We love to buy ribbons and hair bows at Kresges. Our favorites are white satin criss crossed with egg colors and dinner mint stripes. We know who Elizabeth Arden is. We're allowed to buy face cream and nail polish and Blue Waltz perfume.--We're discouraged from buying candy cigarettes, but we do, and we paint our nails red and we whirl in order to dry them until Mother calls, "Stop, you'll muss your dresses!"
This prose poem/review is dedicated not only to Betsy DeFusco but to my childhood pal, ever a beauty queen, Helen Marguerite Taylor who died in August after a heroic battle with lung cancer. She and I--we're whirling in the sunlight of Betsy DeFusco's paintings.