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Artist Jack Breit himself is a bit surprised by his current show's subject matter: It reveals how unexpected insights can be unearthed by a shift in perspective.
By BRANDY STARK
© St. Petersburg Times, published April 4, 2002
Local artist Jack Breit is more than a guru of digital imagery. He holds a black belt in karate and is a professional golf instructor and a master diver. His greatest weakness: the lure of pecan pie.
Breit's current show, aptly titled 'You Really Don't Know Jack," holds just as many surprises as the artist himself. A refreshing mixture of modern iconography and subtle context, the pieces reveal new ways of looking at familiar surroundings.
"I'm dealing with images that I don't usually deal with in my traditional works. I'm starting to look at my environment, to bring in images of sunsets, florals and birds. Four years ago, I wouldn't have dreamed of doing works with such imagery. I'm doing them now," Breit said.
He was inspired to try these ideas when he viewed the works of artist and family friend Anne Winslow. "Looking at her paintings, I saw that this woman, who is of my parents' generation, could turn her passion to florals and landscapes. It subtly changed me. I started to think that she had planted seeds of ideas in the garden of my mind. The next thing you know, I'm taking photographs in the back yard and scanning live clippings into my computer. I kept my originality, but it took direction from her."
That inspiration appears in Eye of the Beholder. Brown, bowed sea grape leaves mingle with bright red flowers, scattered across the canvas. A piece of paper, perhaps a postcard, lies among the flora, with the eye of a woman peering out. A conch shell breaks the image, its bright pink drawing attention to the camouflaged fins of a lion fish.
Stumbling Towards Ecstasy holds the quadrupled images of a dragon, originally belonging to the merry-go-round at Lowry Park Zoo. Gathered in pairs, the dragons face each other, their shimmering blue scales and contoured tails hovering over a cross-like form created of arrows. Flowers, one of them appearing to melt, lie over the image. The background of the piece is derived from a texturized steel toolbox, manipulated into the form of a frame.
Pasta, Pane & Passion is a compilation of 13 images: the pink Cadillac is from a 1950s magazine ad, while the figures peering out the windows are augmented photos of real sculptures. The background is composed of pictures snapped during a trip the artist took to the Cinque Terre region of Italy.
"I want the viewers to become archaeologists and treasure hunters. I want them to dig through the layers," he said. "I think people get more out of the images the second or third time they see them."
Sharing the spotlight are the whimsically profound clay figures of Robert Giordano in his show, "Transformations."
Giordano does everything himself, from throwing the slabs and pinching the faces, to applying textures and layering glazes.
"I cannot duplicate my own works, though I have tried and other artists have tried. Usually, I don't even know how a piece will end up until I'm three-fourths done with it. Sometimes, a work can change directions five or six times before I'm done."
Sandman is garbed in a long yellow gown, two crescent moons perched on his shoulder. Next to him is a bag of dust, and, evidence that his job is done, eight faces sleep at his feet. In opposition stands The Harvester, a smiling figure hauling in a catch of sleeping, snoring, yawning human heads. The costume, an orange-accented blue top over a black garment dotted with white, reveals that the figure is none other than the dawn, rousing humanity from sleep.
Barbie @ the Beach is remarkably different from the other works. A young blond woman lies on a blanket in the sand. Her hair fans out about her, a book lies discarded by her head. Light glints off her sunglasses as she sleeps, covered with a green blanket with yellow polka dots. Clearly, she is no ordinary sunbather. Could this be the dream of a tired city-dweller who longs for the beach?
"I leave it up to other people to decide what my works represent," Giordano explains. "I know, though, that they are all from the human drama, derived from human experience."
"You Really Don't Know Jack" and "Transformations," through May 3 at Salt Creek Artworks, 1600 Fourth St. S, St. Petersburg. Free admission. Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call (727) 894-2653.