Ann Smith, executive director of Featherstone Center for the Arts, and I were speaking about how inexorably art and health are entwined after walking through Featherstone’s new exhibition, “An Abundance of Color.” In fact, when I first entered the large, light, and airy Francine Kelly Gallery, I noticed that my spirits had immediately lifted. As Smith says about the show, “I think it’s fun, and will brighten the day of anyone who comes in during March. What’s always amazing to me is the different interpretations of the artists.”
Colors galore appear in all shapes and sizes and mediums among the 70 artists’ 118 pieces. Rather than being arranged by subject matter, which ranges from completely abstract to very realistic, it has been curated by colors. Each wall or section shifts from one group of associated hues segueing to another. On the first wall to the right, the oranges and reds in Laura Clancy Murphy’s enticing landscape “Path by Beetlebungs” are picked up by Marston Clough’s abstract field of color for the sky in “Red Return,” and then morph into shades of purples and blues in Billie Jean Sullivan’s monotype abstract landscapes. At the end of the wall, the hues all seem to party together in Harriet Bernstein’s small acrylic painting, “Mardi Gras,” which although abstract, definitely elicits a sense of celebration.
Around the corner is a completely geometric, electric quilt by Wendy Nierenberg, “Woven Color,” reminiscent of the first half of the 20th century painter Piet Mondrian — if he had played with bright, radiating hues. Opposite diagonally are Ken MacLean’s two small, intricately rendered pieces bursting with geometric colored shapes, one in yellows and another in shades of red that are picked up farther down in Paul Doherty’s photographs “Creamsicle Sky” and “After the Storm ‘B.’”
Several artists created eye-catching abstract explorations of a single color, such as Mitchell Gordon’s shades of yellow in “Lobsterville IV” and blues and purples in “Lobsterville X.” While his titles refer to a real place, others are more interpretative, such as Leslie Baker’s shocking-orange, loose-edged Rothko-esque rectangle in her aptly titled piece, “Oh, Wait!”
Some artists walk the line between recognizable imagery and abstraction. Alison Convery’s “Which Came First” is a whirlwind abstract composition of eggs and roosters. Among other artists who straddle the line between abstraction and realism is Alejandro Carreño Garcia, who animates his enormous composition with phantasmagorical Cuban- and Afro-Cuban-influenced symbolic images that encourage us to make up our own narrative for his painting “The Comeback.”
While two-dimensional painting, photography, prints, collage, and hanging quilts dominate, there is a plentiful diversity of other treasures. The pottery ranges from Frank Folts’ large ceramic bowl that swims with shades of blue to the large, unusually shaped sushi plate and accompanying brilliantly designed ceramic chopstick holders, and two distinctive mugs by Chioke Morais (Bent Wing Pottery) in which the loop of the long handle arches like a steep bridge from the back of the mugs all the way down, seemingly anchoring them onto the flat surface on which they rest.
The jewelers create wearable art, some of which include Ivory Belle Jewelry’s delicate necklace and earrings fashioned with a rainbow strand of beads, Helayne Cohen’s two covetable freshwater pearl and beaded Austrian crystal barrettes, Sam Cameron’s two wonderfully multicolored beaded necklaces created from lampwork, millefiori glass, and semiprecious stone, along with Jennifer Strachan’s necklace, “Blue Treasures,” which carries unique charms.
Fabric abounds too with Susan Pratt’s aptly titled “Vineyard Winter,” a hand-dyed silk scarf in a riotous play of purples and pinks. The dark denim in each of Linda Wurm Bryant’s jean jackets picks up the various blues in the large textile depictions of a cottage that whimsically includes a bright yellow flower and an adorable wide-eyed, skunk-like creature. Another cottage-inspired textile work is Saundra LaBell’s “Rainbow Road” pillow that evokes the candy-colored gingerbread houses in the Campground.
Smith mentions that she thought originally everything would be bright, but noticed how some artists subtly explored more muted colors. “I think because I’m such a colorful person in my attire, I immediately jumped to vibrancy, exuberance, and brightness,” Smith says. “That’s what is so beautiful about these community art shows — this is each artist’s interpretation of our theme. It makes it fresh.”
Circling back to the connection between art and our well-being, Smith says, “Everyone is wired for art and creative expression. And that’s the message we try to have here. We try to make this organization accessible to all. It’s free, open every day, and it’s a place where people can be refreshed, revived, and inspired.”
Before I left, I took one more turn around the gallery. Seeing Heather Sayeau-Dunn’s two fabulous, enormous pieces in which flowers burst forth with colorful lifeforce set against abstract, floral-patterned backgrounds reminds me that spring is on the way. Featherstone’s May show “The Art of Flowers” will be here before we know it.
“An Abundance of Color” at Featherstone Center for the Arts through March 26, open 12 to 4 pm each day.
