Five creative visions whirl in from Kaua'i
By Victoria Gail-White
Advertiser art critic
Five Kaua'i artists have unpacked their goods at The ARTS at Marks Garage. Clay, collage, painting, sculpture and video co-mingle in a creative whirl throughout the gallery. The artists — A. Kimberlin Blackburn, Jolly Bodine, Sally French, Melinda Morey and Carol Kouchi Yotsuda — are all seasoned travelers in the art world. With three months preparation, they have developed works that are stimulating, humorous, sensual and colorful.
Through Oct. 4 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday The ARTS at Mark's Garage 1159 Nu'uanu Ave.
A new series of ultra-chrome prints (a printing process using Photoshop and archival inks with an Epson printer) by A. Kimberlin Blackburn reveals aspects of her life and family history. "It is ironic that I, who am a tactile person, like a flat print," she says. "I'm a textile, fiber, chunky person and yet I love the computer." Each one of her flat prints is the result of approximately 40 layers of scanned photographs, objects and her own artworks. "It satisfies some story-telling need in me," she says.
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And she has some fascinating stories to tell. "No More Dancing" is in memory of her mother, who was nine months pregnant when she was diagnosed with polio.
"Everybody has some tragedy that was difficult for the family to assimilate," she says, "and it was hidden so the family could cope with it." Now that her parents have passed on, Blackburn finds the layered work cathartic. "It gives me the opportunity to be the witness," she says, "and not pass judgment. I can re-learn something that didn't make sense to me as a child, but as an adult makes a lot of sense."
The print "After this she became a dove" prominently features a photograph of her grandmother dressed in a military uniform with several other uniformed women. "In her youth," Blackburn says, "she charted plane movements during World War I. Later in life, she was a peace advocate."
In her series on same-sex couples she explores another "hidden" aspect of our culture. Captured in her photographs of these couples (surrounded with images of flowers, writing and other significant objects) is the affection and tenderness that exist between them. "Central Park" addresses a sense of place and "Mercy" examines our universal need for mercy.
Sally French's work may puzzle a lot of people. Fortunately, some of the pieces of that puzzle fit together in her large six-panel "Beebop Series" of oil, alkyd, pastel, graphite and prismacolor paintings on wood presently on display. French won the Director's Choice Award at the Artists of Hawaii Exhibit in 2003 for one of the panels in this show, "Balzo Talks Bubblespeak."
Trained as an illustrator, French loves to draw and uses cartoon and other characters in her paintings as metaphors for members of her family and parodies of social situations. She has an acute awareness of how her own family and home occurrences mirror the more global family of mankind. She says, "A character is happy when it is round. I consciously made all my forms rounded to refine these new forms to their most powerful image." French works sequentially but, as evidenced by her award, the panels can stand alone. She began the Beebop series after 9-11. The bees, which appear in many of the panels, represent, for her, our culture and the human dilemma at large.
This series begins with the panel titled "Goodbye Hello Kitty," which addresses the emotional impact of her daughter's leaving home for college. Panel two is titled "Jack Rabbit Gaks." "Gakking rabbit isn't anybody in particular," she says, "just more about being overwhelmed and listening to that voice." Balzo in panel three is her husband.
In panel four, "Olive on Pepto Bismol," a large black cartoon of Olive Oyl (from the Popeye cartoons) holds the umbilical cord that is continued in the subsequent panel five, "Little Jesus Farts False Profits." "Olive Oyl is the processor," says French. "She looks out over the culture and absorbs. She tries to do something about it but she can't. The baby Jesus is the future sucking in the bubble of bees and releasing it as warning. The baby is busy. The golden umbilical cord is a tie-in to the golden cord in other religions related to meditation and a connection to the divine."
She says the final panel, "Danger Duck," represents her son. "He is the future generation and the male energy going forward."
"Seduction," one of the series of Jolly Bodine's fantastic chairs, appeared in the International Shoebox Sculpture Exhibit. It is a miniature snake-fabric-covered chaise lounge cushioned with red faceted jewels and painted red pointed nails. This entire series is thought-provoking in that it challenges our concept of security and comfort. Powerful in contradictory elements, Bodine juxtaposes covered cracked eggshells as a chair's upholstery with teeth underneath the cushions and claw feet in "A Delicate Balance."
Melinda Morey, Bodine's daughter, is a video artist who uses the ocean and shoreline in her 28-minute video. The video includes segments titled "What's Not Seen," "Migrate," "Stall," "At the Edge," "Peep Show Trilogy," "Easter Island" and "The Dream." The subject for her film evolved from using pink and orange marshmallow Easter bunnies as actors.
Carol Kouchi Yotsuda's ceramics span philosophical and spiritual concepts. Her series of "Gods of Right Action" and "Feng Sui Personalities" features colorfully-glazed figures. The concepts of compassion, patience, good humor, positive words, cooperation, fair play and truth are displayed on the wall next to a cabinet of 25 cubicles that each house a figure of the elements fire, wood, water, metal and earth as well as their combinations. There is a questionnaire nearby that will assist you in finding out which of the five elements fits who you are now. Take it, it's entertaining.
