“In our life, there is a single color, as on an artist’s palette, which provides the meaning of life and art. It is the color of love.” –Marc Chagall
Featherstone Center for the Arts’ exhibition “Kiss, Kiss, Hug, Hug” provides a welcome refuge from the mountains of frozen snow, the bitter cold, and the pressures of the world around us. The 66 Vineyard artists in the show remind us that there is plenty of love to be found on our Island.
The exhibition is the kickoff of Featherstone’s 30th anniversary, and the theme originated with artist and instructor John Holladay 20 years ago. Sarah Beth Belanger, Featherstone’s operations manager, curated “Kiss, Kiss, Hug, Hug” with assistance from colleague Savannah Berryman-Moore. “It was great to see a community response that was strong so early in the year, when not all of our regular artists are back [on the Island],” says Belanger.
The large acrylic painting by Minka of a bicycle built for two greets us before we enter the Francine Kelly Gallery. Stretching across the wall over the desk opposite the gallery entrance, the two empty seats invite us to imagine sitting with a loved one on the neon-orange tandem bicycle.
Other pairings are more explicit. In Sandy Pimentel’s mixed-media “Embrace,” a couple, arms wrapped around each other, are caught in a moment of love. Pimentel renders the figures in subdued brown washes, punctuated with touches of gold and silver glitter, making the image sparkle with life.
Nearby is Alejandro Carreño Garcia’s “Angels in Love.” The striking pair stand face to face, depicted in startlingly strong colors against a red background holding them in place.
A pair of black wire figures dances upon a piece of driftwood that looks like some quirky reptilian creature in Kathy Poehler’s mixed-media sculpture “Frolicking Friends.” Here, as in her seaweed collages, Poehler literally draws from the Island’s waters to create her artwork.
Debbie Milne’s acrylic painting captures another sort of love. Two figures stand with their backs toward us, looking out at a vast landscape in “Georgie and Van: Sibling Love at Grand Canyon.” The pair’s vivid red and green hats draw our attention to their heads at eye level, so it is we who seem to be gazing out in awe at nature’s vast beauty.
Another pair stares at a very different landscape in Lynn McCauley’s “First Date.” Here, the silhouetted figures, also with their backs to us, look up at the luminous hills, drawing our gaze along a winding path into the sun-drenched distance. Then there is Jenn Scherr’s ornately decorated “Reflections of Love,” which asks us to fall in love with ourselves.
There are artists with a tender heart for animals, who abound in the exhibition. Scott Bliss skillfully uses sea glass and pigment for “Kiss Under the Blood Moon.” Two birds, with bodies made from sea glass, face one another, beaks just touching in a kiss as they stand on a swing hanging from a painted tree. Green glass “leaves” dot the branches, with an orange-red stone “moon” serving as the orb in Bliss’s title.
There are more birds of a feather in Pamela Carroll Crigler’s colorful acrylic painting, “Are You My Mardi Gras Mama?” There is familial love, as well, in Allison Roberts’ nattily hatted mama bear who stands gazing sweetly into our eyes. She holds posies, though whether for us or her little cub — who peeks out just behind her — is up to us to decide. And two adult felines in Sheila Fane’s “Blue Cat Family” silkscreen print look on as what appears to be their offspring contentedly eats from a bowl set between them. Three wire-frame pups frolic adorably along a piece of bark in Marston Clough’s “Hearts Leap” sculpture. Robin Gottesman’s quartet of black-and-white photographs titled “Bickering” visually conveys the story of two birds whose relationship is quite literally on the rocks. The two stand on a large stone surrounded by water, squawking at one another so loudly we can virtually hear their screeches in the territorial dispute.
Deborah Black’s title “Will You Be Mine?” immediately signals the meaning of her piece. She wraps her remarkable floral-patterned handmade paper into a cone shape that calls for a large imaginary bouquet to be placed inside. Other artists’ titles speak to the kiss, kiss, hug, hug theme. Crigler transforms her blood-red bloom into a symbol of love in her title “Amor-yllis.” Ann DuCharme’s gouache-and-colored-pencil work “I Heart Pomegranates” speaks of culinary adoration. Similarly, Ann Meleney looks down at a collection of luscious tomatoes whose round shapes and linear stems are the letters in the title of her lovely watercolor, “Summertime X’s and O’s.”
We also need to identify the amorous symbol in Denys Wortman’s enormous drone color photograph, “Heart of the Sea.” Seen from high above, the swirling white forms a pattern that outlines a heart-shaped silhouette in the calm water.
Jewelry also makes an appearance, including Sam Cameron’s striking “Forget Me Not” necklace, crafted from freshwater pearls and a vintage brooch featuring a golden cherub leaning on a red-and-green blossom. Ellie Bates uses a turquoise, white, and silver palette of glass, pearl, and clay beads, with an attached heart-shaped cloisonné pendant.
Employing his signature style, Washington Ledesma paints a bold, colorful Noah’s Flood–like image on a large canvas in “Alegria.” Each creature, including flying fish and stacked domestic animals, exudes the happiness conveyed by the meaning of the title.
Belanger comments, “I hope that folks see all the different ways that love can be expressed. We’ve had a lot of folks come in and say that this is just what they needed.”
To a visitor standing in the gallery, “Kiss, Kiss, Hug, Hug” feels like a warm embrace, a beautiful replenishment for our spirits this winter.
“Kiss, Kiss, Hug, Hug” is on view at Featherstone Center for the Arts through Feb. 22. Open daily, noon to 4 pm.