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Wednesday, January 30, 2002

Cheryl Paswater – The Bungalow – Jan. 30, 2002 – 3 stars

Non-narrative, non-Pop, found image paintings are the stuff of pure aesthetics, here void of Rauschenberg hidden meanings, or influence, and with no revolting against anything going on. They are familiar, mundane, cultural paper images collaged into ambiguous landscaped colorscapes, suitably matted and framed. Bubble wrap, graph paper and some interestingly scribbled poetry get doused with slaps of pure bright mauve and hill green cakey paint to form easily attractive and well-composed pieces with no meaning necessary. Through Feb. 14, 2002; 317-253-5028. – Mary Lee Pappas

“Behold” Sandy Day and Sara Vanderkleed – Hoosier Salon – Jan. 30, 2002 – 2 1/2 stars

Day's strength is with oils. Her stronger, bolder brushstrokes in oil paint befit her sometimes heavy-handed style, creating a maze of yellows, greens and pinks in representational, painterly spots of color, like in the foreground of "Thistle Down," one of many pleasant, tranquil, easy-breezy landscapes. Her true-to-life-color pastel people and landscapes are on the traditionally illustrative side. Vanderkleed's abstracted fields of deep and warm-toned watercolors undulate into dreamy wave landscapes (that turn out to be not that abstract at all after all), made possible by her carefree handling, risk and fate-trusting strokes. One artist's work compliments the other and both are successfully shown together. Through Feb. 15, 2002; 317-253-5340. -Mary Lee Pappas

Greg Brown's misfit masterpieces


NUVO Newsweekly, January 30 to February 6, 2002

Page 8

Mary Lee Pappas


An eccentric repository for orphaned kitsch paintings, Utrillo's Art Gallery, appropriately named for a so-so artist whose work was mass-marketed in the 1950s, falls someplace between a thrift shop and a gallery. “I collect art from the thrift store,“ Greg Brown, artist an owner of Utrill's Art, states. Provincial grandma art, religious kitsch, student stuff, paint by numbers and 1950s schlock reproduction popular prints are among the genres of original kitsch art paintings he emancipates from thrift shop shelves. Some are kept for his personal collection, others are sold.


“More people’s paintings are going to end up at thrift shops the museums,“ Brown says. “Thrift stores make art valuable,“ and affordable for anyone to own.


Brown has been conducting misfit masterpiece search and rescue missions since opening his first shop at 10th and Rural in December 1994. That venue became a successful free-form arts space for five years, before moving to the current location at 3318 E. 10th St., where the focus is kitsch recovery and frame sales. Original fine’s cell anywhere from $5 to $500 to a clientele Brown described as “a real wide variety.“ He adds that some people are embarrassed to admit they like this instinctive, thrift shop sort of art. Regular Utrillo customers “are right across the social spectrum. All shapes and sizes and colors and economic conditions – everybody. It’s neat that way.“ Brown’s collecting advice is, “start cheap and work your way up.“


Brown is supporting the local arts in a very fundamental way. He understands, validates and celebrates the simplicity and necessity of self expression. He knows and already practices with the Arts Council of Indianapolis is preaching in their new the Arts Can Help add campaign: “The arts play an integral role in the daily fabric of our lives… We work hard to support the creative and meaningful work of our arts and cultural organizations as well as our local talented artist.“ The difference is they see “critical activities for the arts community," as their website and TicketCentral in the ArtsGarden, stating, “Your assistance is needed to help us continue to create the best climate for the arts to thrive."


The anonymous, untrained and amateur artists whose salvaged work winds up at Utrillo's paint in a style affectionately dubbed “naïve." Brown defines naïve artist as those “who have a sense of art history and strive to paint in a European style,“ though they actually have no training, sense of depth, composition or color. Creating art is purely joy filled and experiential for them. “I like that kind of sweet art,“ Brown explains.


Some naïve art comes straight from artist to him without the second-hand retrieval effort. Jerome Neil, Jan Boyer and Harry Blomme are three such artist in Indianapolis who are represented at Utrillo's. “I try to promote stuff I love personally,“ Brown says. “Different artists have different needs for representation. I promote amateur art and naive art because I feel it’s important to validate."


Brown, who received formal art training at Indiana University in Bloomington, recently examined his fascination with naïve art by attempting to paint similarly styled figures. “One thing I was really bad at was figures. I thought, I’m gonna do something I don’t know how to do." Humbled, he gained valuable personal insight about how art should be approached. “That was the hardest thing.“ Brown says. “The simplicity embarrassed me. Why could I love it in somebody else and not love it for myself? That’s when I really started to examine my attitude toward art.“


Brown deduced the art he loved represented emotional, private and meditative qualities derived from the primary, free and flexible act of making art. Naïve art became for him, “people really trying really hard to do something they wanted to do." They are honest artistic efforts that liberate personal creativity, produce pride, create a sense of fulfillment and artistic accomplishment. Brown concluded that the sweeping demographic eureka, that anyone can paint, was precisely why he sells and collects this kind of work. “They do it for love and I think it comes through."


Brown adds, “Art is not for the elite anymore." The arts have to be for everyone now, as elitist dwindle and charitable anonymity seems passé. “It’s a breakdown of dominance,“ Brown says. 


Paint by numbers kits, recently celebrated an annual exhibition at the Smithsonian, and once thought to be a violation of art by arts aficionados, testify to the power, need and desire for personal expression – even if simulated. Realistically themed kits introduced people to art, supplies, the process of creating, personal expression (albeit predetermined) and gave them works of art to hang in their homes. The paint by numbers paintings, which Brown collects, became a popular pastime in the 1950s when increased prosperity, consumerism and leisure time were on the rise. The art experience suddenly became easily accessible at an affordable price.


“People are starting to look toward art. The inherent experience of painting and being creative is a good common ground,“ Brown says. “The breakdown of the rules will disperse art into the general population. Some people will be offended and some people are gonna be thrilled. I see the universality of it, but I also insist on my own personal path." Brown knows the principle of joy that creating and observing art produces – and how that experience can be muddled or lost in the arts administration underbrush of grants, commissions or capital campaigns. Of his forsaken finds, he says, “They’re worth more than three dollars to me."


Jerome Neil


“This is my think tank,“ Jerome Neil said of his Wheeler art studio. Born and raised in Chicago, a lifelong Midwestern inhabitant, Neil has been humbly selling (his painting start at $65) and exhibiting his work here and there for four decades. The Wheeler has enabled him to pursue his newfound, full-time artist life. Paintings of airplanes, dinosaurs, trains, cowboys, landscapes, musicians, monorails, Dick Tracy, Roman soldiers and an R2-D2 portrait – “I’m on a Star Wars kick for the kids“ – are perched, displayed and stacked anywhere space allows.


“There’s no special topic. I paint what I want to,“ he says of his diverse imagery that stylistically hops, skips and jumps, from traditional tree filled landscapes to energy and people filled murals. “Figuring out what color you’re gonna to start with is hard, but they’re nope problem,“ he says of his even more different, yet proficiently composed, tribal and angular abstracts. Most of his can’t-pin-the-tail-down instinctive works are randomly named after song titles from his jazz record collection and fueled by his love of world history.


“That is it. That’s the main thing,“ he says of his passion for the past. A whole new series of Paris, London and Amsterdam Street scenes and architectural paintings, inspired by a recent tour of Europe with his children, have begun to creep across what little wall space is left. Could the painting of Notre Dame be named “April in Paris “or “Cool Boppin'"?


“It was wild taking a boat trip up and down the Thames,“ he recalls, explaining that he was too busy “taking in the sights" to paint there. He is currently executing dual images of Piccadilly Square: “All it is, is a place with a bunch of stores.“


Neil usually paints two or three nearly identical paintings, keeping the best of the set for himself. He toils with paint texture to achieve small strokes of painterly thickness as he elaborates on and enhances the finished work – a testament to his compulsive personal perfectionist tendencies.


“Changing light changes the color and movement and presents problems,“ he says if his ceaseless touchups on always evolving paintings. When asked why he painted in oils, Neil matter-of-factly says, “I like the smell of it. “


Wednesday, January 23, 2002

'Zeit ist Kunst" = Time is art

Art Review:  'Zeit ist Kunst' + Time is art

Artworks by Rae Witvoet and Klaas Weert

NUVO Newsweekly January 23 - 30, 2002 

Mary Lee Pappas




Rae Witvoet's Bio - https://www.artland.com/artists/rae-witvoet

Rae's obituary - https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nwitimes/name/rae-witvoet-obituary?id=25569910

Memorial for Rae in NUVO - https://nuvo.newsnirvana.com/arts/visual/memorial-rae-witvoet-1950-2007/article_008dfa38-edb4-5f76-be14-2880caacb47a.html

Rae Witvoet, Klaas Weert, artwork, painting, Lincoln National, Fort Wayne, Sand Ridge Bank, Chicago, Julia Carson, Frank O'Bannon, Ford Foundation, JJC, Hubbard and Cravens, Indianapolis, 911, Dutch, A Moveable Feast, IPALCO, Holland, Indianapolis, Indiana, artist, Amsterdam



Wednesday, January 16, 2002

Annual Herron School of Art/IUPUI Senior Photography Exhibit - Eye Blink Gallery - Jan. 16, 2002 - 2 1/2 stars


Uninhibited spice of life variety is the usual fare at student shows, whether it be Herron or high school, because exploring all media is still available, creativity is encouraged and competitive and the inevitability of a non-art day job has yet to kick in. This body of senior Herron photo work, as a whole, doesn't quite hit the experimentation or risk-taking level that an art school education should allow. An animal rights interactive installation of fur coats and photos does effectively force viewers to participate voluntarily and react/think involuntarily, howver. Overall, the artists' work didn't look challenged from a subject/content perspective - their talents not pushed beyond technically commendable work. But the black and white farm animal images were well-composed and had a personality all their own. Through Feb. 28, 2003; 317-636-6363. -Mary Lee Pappas

Scott Westphal - Munce Art Center - Jan. 16, 2002 - 3 1/2 stars

Five minimalist bronze sculptures make for a mighty art statement when seen corralled together as a body of work. Too often, Westphal's ever so gently wavering steel beam-fabricaw forms have gotten lost in multiperson shows by being stuck against walls as if they were curatorial second thoughts. This small sampling of oxidized bronze work, set into a small, unassuming gallery space void of colorful abstractions, is really perfect for allowing the blocky work to trust the space and create a striking visual experience - you'll forget that the evolving Munce Art Cerrter's floors are brick patterned linoleum. These five, truly minimalist, sculptures softly quiver and stretch out of their industrial facade irtto organic geometrical forms recalling the sensibilities of Indiana's own niega-minimalist David Smith. "Vaas," a piece contorted irvto a domestic vase form, tinkers with the illusionism of space and traditional aesthetics. Through Feb. 23, 2002; 317-873-6862. -Mary Lee Pappas

Wednesday, January 09, 2002

Lyanne Musselman – Out Word Bound – Jan. 9, 2002 – 2 stars

Closed Dec. 29. Out Word Bound is a most excellent bookstore worth visiting regardless of whatever art may be hanging on its walls, and in this case, it's a smattering of forgettable black and white charcoal pet portraits. The face-forward, straight-on doggy likenesses were definite renderings of individual, distinctive pups that made this artist's work look commission worthy and cheerfully admirable, yet mundane and dull from a 10-foot distance. It looked like practice work when creative juices were indisposed or dormant. Close inspection revealed sloppy technical understanding of a pooch package and hesitation with drawing materials. A mere two stars doesn't mean that this artist's work stinks altogether, it means that Miss Musselman has the potential faculty to do work that could garner more stars with patience and practice. Cheers! – Mary Lee Pappas

The Photography of Ben Winans of Brookville, Ind., 1902-1926 - Indiana Historical Society – Jan. 9, 2002 – 3 1/2 stars

Rita Kohn gave a thumbs up review of the Winans photo collection book in the Oct. 11, 2001, issue, but after revisiting the exhibit four times, I thought that a review of the 34 (of nearly 3,000 shot by Winans) exhibited images themselves were worthy of accolades again. History is dictated by and large by authors with opinions and enduring images like those that Winans chose to shoot of modest, everyday Brookville, Ind., life where he spent his entire existence. Nestled in the rolling hills of Eastern Indiana, a stone's throw from Cincinnati and casket Mecca Batesville, Brookville was in its unassuming glory days when Winans snapped it up in its very ordinary grandeur without spectacle or staging. This is no-frills, turn of the century small-town Indiana life at its purest. With journalistic artistry and straight-forward distinguishing style, scenes of the 1913 flood and antiquated hard time rural lifestyles are captured in his crisp glass plate images thankfully accompanied with historical data about the captured event. It gave me quite a thrill to see my own great-grandfather's pharmacy (a stepping stone resident after leaving Kentucky and before moving to the Old Northside) in the backdrop of a most somber and humble Brookville funeral procession. Through Feb. 3, 2002; 317-232-1862, www.indiaiahistory.org. - Mary Lee Pappas