Art
Natural elements
By LENNIE BENNETT, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 24, 2003
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[Times photo: Bill Serne]
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Monica Naugle’s Carniceria was created from woven copper. In the background, on the right, is Spine Column, which Naugle created from vines, wire and stone.
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[Courtesy of Arts Center]
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Judith Dazzio, Boy with Red Ball, 2003, acrylic and stucco on canvas.
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[Times photo: Bill Serne]
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| Monica Naugle’s collection of woven objects includes Pillow, made from thorns. |
ST. PETERSBURG - The season of the members' show, that most democratic form of exhibitions, is upon us. It's usually a summertime rite at arts centers throughout the country, a filler between the professional displays of spring and fall, and serves the dual purpose of keeping the doors open during drag times and giving members - many amateurs and students in various classes at the center - an opportunity to show their work in a real gallery.
The annual affair at the Arts Center, now on view, is judged but not juried, so any member could submit work and be guaranteed a spot. The catch the Arts Center imposes every year is that submissions conform in some way to a theme. This year's is "Out of the Elements," so everything "contains an element of the natural world," an imposition that contained a world of interpretation. (Some year it would be fun to give members the theme but keep it otherwise a secret and then let people guess what the operating principle is. This one would have confounded me.)
Visual overload is expected in a show of about 300 disparate pieces, so the first commendation goes to Ken and Betsy Orbe Lester, whose installation rose to the challenge, with paintings stacked salon-style in a quirky hodgepodge.
The work of veteran professionals inevitably stands out from the crowded field - Leslie Neumann, Jack Breit, Mark Petty, Jack Barrett, Beth Reynolds, BASK, Marlys Lenz Cox, Cassandra Gordon-Harris, Rebecca Skelton, Judith Dazzio, Elizabeth Clement are some examples - but best of show went to Peggy Gallaher, a Pasco artist whose book of lino prints on handmade paper, Vanishing Species, is a lovely melding of theme and materials, form and function.
A fair share of talent graces the walls, but above all they're full of heart. Most of us never act on our creative impulses, and here you have a roomful of folks who have and are proud to let you know about it.
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Monica Naugle's one-woman show is in the small front gallery of the Arts Center, but save it for last. You might wonder how a monolith made of thorny branches or a "wall" of woven metal could be objects of serenity, but therein lies the beauty of many of these sculptures.
"Contradictions - isn't that what life's about?" Naugle asks, and she spins them into her humble domestic objects. Instead of lacing her Swedish loom with silk or cotton, she threads it with thick steel cables or more pliant copper strips to produce wall hangings or bends the wires by hand in fashioning handbags and clothing, a sort of dialogue between testosterone intensity and estrogen therapy.
Intractable and unforgiving, but also meditative rather than confrontational, difficult and challenging in good ways. A quilt of steel and pillow of thorns may make strange bedfellows, but they won't sure put you to sleep.
REVIEW: "Monica Naugle: Woven Identities" and "Out of the Elements: The Annual Members' Exhibition" are at the Arts Center, 719 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, through Aug. 22. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Admission is free. (727) 822-7872.
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