Rick Epley - Cafe Patachou (River Crossing) - March 3, 2004 - 1 star

A gallery owner recently asked me, "Who do you think is buying all of these art supplies at art supply stores and craft stores?" Painting prowess doesn't always lie in a particular brand of paint, a certain grade of prefab canvases or any other marketed utensil pointed in the direction of aspiring artists. Aside from acquiring a painting mojo (a very beautiful thing), there is an element of fine tuning that needs to occur, a level of craftsmanship that needs to go hand-in-hand with desire and is to be aspired to. Epley's sequences of strictly decorative, layered squares lacked substance, depth and a sense of color even though the paintings displayed possess bright palettes. These works, filling the north wall of the restaurant, did just that - they filled a bare wall. Through March 31, 2004; 317-815-0765. -Mary Lee Pappas