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Columbus, Ohio USA
Return to Homepage www.shortnorth.com
Columbus, Ohio USA
Art: Elizabeth Ann James, Columnist
November 2006
www.lizjamesartscene.blogspot.com
LIZ JAMES ART COLUMNS
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Marcia Evans, Art Consulting and Gallery
Gorgeous art in a gorgeous spaceArt is probably the most important visual aspect of any environment. It sets the standard, along with the office furniture or sophisticated interiors. – Marcia Evans
Marcia Evans beside a Shawn Morin sculpture. Artist John J. Donnelly and sculptor Shawn Morin are presenting a two-man show in the Short North through November 30. Theirs is an exciting exhibit, and you can see it in a beautiful new gem-of-a-space that is curated and owned by Marcia Evans, art consultant, at 8 East Lincoln St.
Donnelly, widely known as an artist, teaches at Mount Vernon Nazarene University where he is a professor of art. Morin, widely known as a sculptor, teaches at Bowling Green State University.Morin’s sculptures soar
Shawn Morin’s sculptures are “classic” and quite powerful. They are highly original yet not at all edgy. Morin understands the power of simplicity, of tradition, and of massive shapes and attractive lines. He knows how to mix “stones,” that is, when to use a pink marble block or when to include a natural charcoal swirl.
Many of his works seem to concern, if loosely, spirit or flight. #3 Pentecost, a cast bronze, is around three feet tall, excluding its base. This narrow bronze contains flecks and is tall, eagle-like. It exudes a fierceness (not a ferocity) that stirs the emotions. Yet Pentecost is non-representative. It doesn’t appear to depict a bird or anything else.
One recognizes something inherently spiritual in all of Morin’s powerful sculptures. Reoccurring Daydream, around four feet tall, in marble, granite, and glass, again, seems to suggest flight, perhaps the exultation of spiritual strength. The attractive piece, mainly pink and gray, includes cylinders, small blocks and an innate carbon smear that glitters. In the center of the column, Morin has carved a sharp line and an oval, suggesting, perhaps, a light, a birth, all kinds of things. Unlike some of the other pieces, which appear to fly, Daydream is crowned by a blocked arch.
The pieces on exhibit range from three to four feet in height, on base, and are an appropriate size for either indoor or outdoor purposes.
Shawn Phillip Morin earned his master’s in fine arts from the University of Georgia in 1986. He is currently an associate professor of art at Bowling Green State University, where he has been a faculty member since 1990, and area head of sculpture studies. Since 2000, he has had four one-man exhibits in noteworthy venues. His list of purchases and awards is extensive.Donnelly’s canvasses dance
John J. Donnelly holds a master’s in painting and drawing from Indiana University.
His work has appeared in over 25 successful venues since 2000, and his work appears in numerous private and public collections.
Donnelly’s large impasto paintings, oil paint with beeswax, vibrate with strange shapes and with peculiar – as in specific – color tones and combinations. The artist tends to “draw” with his hefty brush.
In Broken, a barely visible chalk-blue stone head, laurel-wreathed, rests among a bluish tangle of strokes toward the bottom. Broken, broadly described, is an abstract expressionist painting. Whether the lower strokes represent the sea or the forest floor, is irrelevant. Outlined petal shapes (they resemble big impatiens) flow over the canvas, and so do a myriad of unabashed strokes, dots, squiggles. Amid this perceived spontaneity, there’s a composition that’s valid. Splats, red petals, gleam exactly where they should. We notice bleached magenta, scratchy olive, velvet royal, an odd fleshy pink. By means of paints and over-paints, Donnelly achieves perspective, depth. The viewer finds herself in an aureate space, and it doesn’t matter exactly where that space is.
Donnelly loves Italy. His paintings, small and large, honor a pre-classical, mythic era, as well as the haunts of Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. The wild Tuscany sun infuses most of his canvasses which are gloriously earth-based. As an instructor, he plans to take a student group to Italy in January 2007.
The artist’s small oil-on-rice paper paintings have a crayon feel, and they are marvelous. Santa Croce I, a slice of a village, displays sections of two small apartment houses. We note a series of recognizable rectangles: windows, doors, painted walls. A mysterious yellow arch. Bright green shutters. Even the chalk blue sky is divided into cloudy rectangles. The sun has provided Donnelly with his geometric point of view.
The Marilyn Code by John Donnelly Monroe and Mary Magdalene Meet Lucrezia
Donnelly’s skill equals the late Roy Lichtenstein’s ability to paint tributes that honor major painters and art traditions. John was not afraid to impose Walt Disney’s Tinker Bell on a wild homage to Saint Theresa. When a friend gave him a paint-by-number Mona Lisa, Donnelly, saturated with Da Vinci Code buzz, painted Marilyn Monroe’s ace over Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The result? The Marilyn Code!
Ohhh Lucrezia is a lady of royal blood. Her writhing orange tresses and veils drip in a multitude of golds, tans, reds, red-purples. She’s décolleté, and despite her apparent spontaneity, the height of sophistication. As to color and design, she’s solid. Lucrezia’s eyes possess a slightly uneven cast, yet she can look straight through you. Pay attention – she’s orange sherbet laced with arsenic.Donnelly in Black and White
Donnelly’s black-and-white ink drawings, astutely executed, suggest the austerity of some Chinese brushwork. Yet, they are undeniably Donnelly-esque. The guy has a sense of humor. In Beehive, on large manilla paper, a few black specks appear “suspiciously” above a sparsely drawn woman. (If you read Winnie the Pooh, you’ll recognize the “suspicious” bees!) She’s a line drawing. She wears a short dress. She steps high-heeled and gingerly into a void for which her hairdo, geisha-like, provides a title, Beehive.
His three small “Bronzino” series of dry point/drawings are quite pleasing and sedate, and his ink drawing Healing is a marvelous rendering of a medical procedure.About Marcia
Although she’s new in the Short North, Marcia Evans has been in the art consulting profession for over 15 years. On September 11, 2001, Marcia, as art consultant, was present with Betty Montgomery at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Richfield Facility for the Bureau of Criminal Investigation where she placed original landscape prints and paintings by Ohio Artists.
“After September 11,” Marcia recalls, “art wasn’t a necessity. After September 11, the corporate art market crumbled, and I drew in, and waited, until a more positive cycle began, and then I made my move to this space.”
Evans received a fine arts degree from Ohio University. She is a core member for the Ohio Arts Council’s Per Cent for Arts Committee and has worked on special projects for the Dublin Arts Council. She’s especially talented at placing corporate art, although her consultancy includes private homes. “Art,” she explains, “always represents individual style and taste whether the consumer is seeking advice which will enhance a home living space or an office environment. Art is the first thing you see when you step inside the door.”
Kurt Shaw’s marvelous 10’ x 12’ wall sculpture art/clock in the glass atrium at Progressive Medical in Westerville, the result of her efforts to commission the artist, is admired for miles around. Evans has sometimes toured new facilities in a hard hat, and although she selects original paintings and sculpture for sites, she recently placed approximately 660 mixed media prints and paintings on paper in this newly expanded facility.
Everything at Marcia Evans, including the raku, glass, and the marvelous barn-log shelves and desk, is one of a kind. The view through the back window is great, revealing a lovely space for openings in nice weather.Marcia Evans, Art Consulting & Gallery is located at 8 East Lincoln St.
Hours are 11 to 5 Tuesday - Saturday and by appointment. Call 614-298-8847.
email mevans@meartconsulting.comwwwlizjamesartscene.blogspot.com
email info@shortnorth.com [Attn: Liz]© 2006 Short North Gazette, Columbus, Ohio. All rights reserved.
