Shows

Nature Icons: Masks of the Great Face Behind.  May 30-June 30, 2024

Touchstone Gallery
901 New York Ave NW
Washington DC 20001

Opening Reception: Saturday June 1, 4-7pm

Closing & Artist Talk: Sunday June 23, 2-4pm

Contemporary icons like a smiley face and other digital shorthand images form a language used for branding or to display a range of emotions. We see these every day. Age-old icons, however, generally refer to religious works that, the world over, are humankind’s creative efforts to visualize the unseen forces in their lives. These images may be less common to most.

In my solo exhibition Nature Icons: Masks of the Great Face Behind, my focus remains with ancient icon types rather than the more recent techno articulations. I began exploring Orthodox icons, Niche santos of the Southwest, and Christian saints before morphing into years of increasing interest in First Peoples masks and storytelling.
While all are about making the unseen visible, about revealing a message that requires inner hearing and inner seeing, they do have significant differences. Byzantine Orthodox Αγιογραφία painters present images of a remote heavenly divine in formulaic human faces and forms, revealing a tenet that humans are made in the image and likeness of the divine. These solemn, ritual storytelling objects are often embellished with precious metals and stones, and are made to last a long time.

On the other hand, Yup’ik women and men of Southeast Alaska create masks that cover their human face so as to bring the holy spirits of their environment into focus. They dance and tell stories to incite merriment as well as to respect the inua spirit of creatures in whose honor the dance is given. It’s their way of making prayer, of honoring the life force, and of bringing invisible life spirit into visibility. While mask expressions vary from playful to intimidating, the holy inua spirit portrayed is local rather than distant. Made from cedar, feathers, and leather, these iconic masks are often short-lived.

 

Altered Terrain: Changes and Consequences

Da Vinci Art Alliance
704 Catherine St., Philadelphia, PA 19147

May 31-June 18, 2023

Opening Reception: Saturday June 3, 4-7pm

Closing & Artist Talk: Saturday June17, 12-2pm

To see other images of this series, click on “artwork” then “transformed Terrain” on this website home page

In this series of art work,  I fashion a language of  images that tell stories of changes in the earthly landscapes we call our home. Like Magritte, who paints “the apparent visible and the hidden visible–which, in nature are never separated,” my work points to the invisible hiding within the visible landscape.  Thinking like a surrealist/biologist/up- cycler, I pair light bulbs with jawbones, forks with planet Earth, rubber duckies and live ducks, and sextants with tractor shovel loaders to name a few.

My prolonged focus has been making ink/acrylic drawings or collages which are built around these real, yet symbolic objects or repetition of a single object.  Although seemingly unrelated to each other, they actually reflect the increasing impact of humankind upon Earth’s living biospheres.  In most of these environmental works, a large figure dominates and tells a story of humankind’s casual abandonment of the living home we call Nature in favor of alternative “paradises,” those brain children of technology: consumptive life styles and rising energy use.  Figural inspiration comes from 17th century Dutch paintings of powerful wealthy sea merchants (profiled largely above the horizon line) and the fruit and vegetable collage busts of Italian artist Arcimboldo (1526-1593).

My finely honed technique and a strong concern for the environment pair up with a personality characterized by a questioning bent and a sense of humor to form these story pictures; metaphorical tales of the American landscape and our disconnects/connections to it.  The fun for me is in trying out unusual combinations of forms and solving the mysteries of the links between them.  I hope viewers can connect the dots between apparently unseen causes and the seen effects which we are now experiencing in the wake of spiking temperatures, worldwide wildfires, and ravaging storms.

 

Her Garden House: Metaphors Unearthed. March 28 – April 30, 2023

Touchstone Gallery
901 New York Ave NW, Washington DC 20001

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 1, 4:00-7:00 pm

Meet the Artist: Sunday, April 23, 2:00 – 4:00 pm

The art works in this exhibit are metaphors unearthed from those countless wild gardens and natural biomes in need of restorative care on this island “house of gardens” we call Mother Earth.  Human gardeners, in tandem with the insects, birds and other wildlife, nurture their small individual plots while also being healed in the process; thus, perpetuating this magnificent web of seen and unseen, physical and spiritual life.

I portray my mother and grandmothers who toiled in fields and vegetable gardens, preserving the fruits of their labor to nourish their families.  Akin to other unique gardeners they are power women, queens of their domain.  All the while, these transforming characters counter the extractive economies that threaten Her Garden House.

The French painter Matisse wrote, “the secret of my art…consists of meditation on nature, on the expression of a dream which is always inspired by reality…I learned to push each study in a certain direction.  Little by little the notion that painting is a means of expression asserted itself, and that one can express the same things in several ways,” as one explores color and shape with collage elements, paint, and sculptural odds and ends.

 

Landscapes: The Panorama Within

March 3-29, 2023

The Buzz Ware Village Center
2119 The Highway, Arden DE 19810

Opening Reception: Friday, March 3, 5:00-8:00pm

302-981-4811; www. ardenbuzz.com

This series of paintings and niche boxes is inspired by a life-long hero’s quest, an individuating trek in which the person evolves over a lifetime of discovering one’s inner guides or archetypes.  While these are personal expressions, the hero’s journey is a worldwide phenomenon.

As Jan Phillips, a noted photographer and author explains, “…in the process of giving shape to archetypal images, we may find our way back to our deepest truest selves.  In the course of manifesting what we hold within, of transforming spirit and ideas into matter and language, we experience the holy delight of creation.  And as we give form to spirit, so are we informed by it and healed by it.”

From March 4-29, 2023, The Village Center Gallery will be open by appointment to the public.  Call Rosemary at 302-475-8343 or email her at rosealuckett@gmail.com to enjoy the exhibit.