Blog - Page 2 of 2

By Walter Ault
Correspondent – Montgomery Media

For a few years now, a group of conscientious individuals has been taking on the challenge of bringing culture — primarily through the utilization of art — to the borough of Norristown.

This popular effort has been concentrated on DeKalb Street, near the Montgomery County Cultural Center. However, what many people don’t realize is that Norristown already has a real cultural gem — a very old, plain-looking brick building that sits alongside the Schuylkill River. It is a haven for art, artists and art lovers known as the Norristown Arts building, home to 21 residence studios and the Pagus Gallery.

Furthermore, through July 31, the former costume factory is also the place to view a provocative exhibition of abstract art titled “Color, Geometry and Abstraction: a national juried display of 69 works by 37 different artists from six different states.

The exhibit was envisioned and organized by Pagus Gallery director Ryan Earl, a 28-year-old artist from Norristown.

“I wanted a show that brought together artists from different backgrounds,” Earl said in a recent interview. “And I wanted artists who were relatively new as well as established, with the hope of getting momentum for the gallery and for Norristown. These are works,” Earl continued, “that focus on color and geometry. That is what I wanted. These are important works that need to be seen.”

Along with Ryan Earl, the other person largely responsible for the current exhibit is Ireland native Tim Hawksworth, an accomplished artist who purchased a former costume factory and converted it into the arts building in 1996.

According to past newspaper articles about Hawksworth, his idea was to provide a nurturing environment for artists of all kinds, one that offered freedom for exploration and development, as well as the appropriate space.

Hawksworth has become well-known for his benevolent efforts for artists as well as the community at large, exemplified by the affordable studio space he provides, as well as workshops and outreach programs. Of course, both the artists and the surrounding community benefit from the Pagus Gallery’s occasional shows like the current one.

Two of the artists with works featured in the exhibit are area residents Anna Belle Loeb, from Chestnut Hill, and Lisa Basil of Norristown. Both have three pieces of artwork in the show, and both had flattering things to say collectively about Hawksworth, Earl and the arts building itself.

Loeb is a retired lawyer and grandmother who has been painting for 10 years. But it’s only been in the last four years, Loeb explained, that she has been doing original pieces, thanks to the encouragement of Hawksworth.

“When I met Tim, I started painting original works. It was like a miracle,” Loeb said. “In the beginning it was hard to tap into my imagination. Tim,” Loeb continued, “taught me a lot about creativity and developing my own style and showed me how to paint what I feel and understand.”

One of Loeb’s most intriguing works is called “7 Seconds.” It is a painting inspired by the recent mass shooting in Arizona in which U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords was critically injured by a deranged assassin. The painting is a microcosm of the world, or at least the way Loeb sees it, with both good and evil. There are flowers, seemingly innocent people, bloody handprints and a pool of blood.

Lisa Basil, a 1991 graduate of the Moore College of Art, is an artist and photographer who has had exhibits in both genres. In recent years, she explained, she has become heavily involved with encaustic art.

“There are a lot of techniques involved in encaustic art,” Basil said. “Sculpture, printmaking and painting are all part of the process.

“Essentially,” Basil continued, “you combine beeswax, resin and pigments, heat the mixture and then form it into a work of art.

“This is an excellent show,” Basil pointed out. “It brings artists, art lovers and their families to Norristown.

“It is really an impressive show, with quality work,” Basil said. “Ryan did a great job putting it all together. I’m grateful this gallery is here. It is hard to find good quality places that show all kinds of art in a truly professional way.”

Everyday for the last few weeks I go to the studio and draw a horse.

In the drawings the horse always faces left. The head is down and mostly they stand still. I’ve always liked horses but that doesn’t explain what is going on. You see I’m interested in these drawings. I’m taken by them and they are teaching me.

I spend a long time just trying to draw the horse – to find it. Then I try to get it to sit in the drawing, to catch the surface. I work at this a long time, making and unmaking the horse.
It appears impossible. I don’t know how to do this. My frustration helps me get into the physical nature of the stuff. I scratch into the surface with pencils, nails and anything at hand. I thump the oil stick into the paper, smooshing it around. I let it go and get the materials working ahead of my mind. This energizes the drawing. The marks start to have some conviction. Things are happening. Then at some moment in this process something will cohere. It will come back at me off the surface, holding energy, pulling paint, mark, image, together. It is like magic. It has the feeling of a gift. It is as though a living thing has deposited itself into the drawing. When I say that it is alive I mean it is fully convincing, it has an organic unity. It has structure like a plant has structure and it holds the energy of its making. I think this is the reason I keep going back to it. I’m hungry for this magic where things come alive out of the movement of the stuff, out of a process that stands me on the edge of my knowing.

I did know some horses. They populated my childhood. When I draw I’m trying to draw a particular horse. It is an effort to reestablish contact. It is nostalgic, sentimental personal, and reverential. It comes out of gratitude and longing. I learned from animals especially these horses. The time I spent with them was unencumbered and spacious. It took place outside. The learning was in how the horse connected me to that outside world. Whether it was the horse’s nervous response to a sound or their alertness to changes in the wind, the horse’s body relayed information. The animal’s finally tuned responses to all the energy and change in the environment came fast and clear. When the river was swollen and menacing and the sky moved fast, she would be full of flight. Her eye was wild. She was skittish. All the changes and complexity of the seasons in that valley appeared directly wired to the horse’s psyche. Her survival had programmed her to be well informed, up to the minute, responsive, ready to go. Her readings had to be clear and there could be no separation between thought and action, message and response. For me the animals were a conduit of secret information. They gave me a special read on the natural world that was passed to me through body movement and stance. I was taught attentiveness. How I was taught made me a painter and what I was taught showed me my content.