REVIEW
Paradise (Keys News)
September 13, 2000
Wednesday, September 13, 2000
Publication: Paradise (Keys News)
Art
Jacqueline Harrington's original motto for Womenfest was "Girls wanna have
fun."
This girl likes to have fun by going to shows by women, and we have four art
galleries presenting women's art this year !
Tuesday night saw two art openings in Key West's newest SoHo district around
White St. and Truman.
Three Legged Dog's "Femme Fatale" gives us a look at what women
artists around the U.S.A. and U. K. are doing, as well as a few local women
artists. Around the corner at the Wave, newest gallery of metal artist Barbara
Grob, is "Babes In Paradise," a show in celebration of the love of
women.
At Rick Worth's Three Legged Dog, Elizabeth Guenthner from Austin, TX creates
three-dimensional paintings with original painted tiles and matting and old
frames, each producing a variety of feelings. Catherine
Marche, from the United Kingdom, has an expressionist's other-world flair.
I enjoyed the folk art of Arizona's Kathleen Pearson, which is fun and
light-hearted. (Ricky Worth met her on the art car circuit.)
Barbara Grob has several painted steel nudes at "Femme Fatales" that
I liked and I was interested in meeting her. She's been here for several years
and opening her shop was the next development for herself as an artist. At the
gallery at 1205-D Truman, her animal sculptures in metals crawl on the floor
and up the walls. She works in all kinds of metals. There is a statue,
"The Lovers," made from antique copper porthole gaskets, as well as a
number of oil paintings on torch-cut steel and welded metals.
Woodenhead Gallery presented their third HERart exposition Wednesday night.
Much of it is what I call "Statement Art," with many women venting
frustration or an intense desire to create. I feel honored to live in an area
with so many talented women artists. Barbara Vogel, who is one of those women
I've watched grow in skill and confidence, said it best in a T-shirt printed
with one of her paintings on it. She's selling it as walking art: "I'm
Coming Out," its says, with one woman coming out of the body of another
woman. That theme can he interpreted a number of ways; clearly women are
becoming more confident in themselves as artists and as a group. Woodenhead
Gallery on Caroline Street is a must-see. It's also part of old Key West and
needs to stay with us!
The Custom House, another new/old gallery, has jumped into the thick of things
under the direction of Claudia Pennington, executive director of Key West Art
& Historical Society. Seventeen local female artists are exhibited on the
second floor of the newly renovated Custom House Building.
Friday night's champagne and dessert reception was well attended by locals and
visiting women. I was pleasantly surprised to see the representation of
long-time artists like Irma Quigley, Helen Harrison, Suzie DePoo, Roberta
Marks, and Judi Bradford, plus the newer (to me) Katherine Jill Johnson, Jane
Rohrschneider and Kim Northrop.
Ann Labriola, owner of the Nut House and a landscape artist has a wonderful
small piece called "The Blues," a hanging sculpture of saxophones,
sand and blue paint that appealed to my music connections. I hope she'll do
more.
A mixed-media piece by Roberta Marks called "Precious Times" caused a
discussion between artist Judi Bradford and me. Judi felt Roberta was
explaining how we could choose our moments, to be scattered or relaxing. I felt
Roberta was showing the difference between being here as a tourist, which can
be relaxing, sunny and very tropical, to living here as a working stiff, which
makes it dark, everything falling apart with electric wires making us come
unraveled. You need to see this one for yourself.
You owe it to yourself to take some time and see what other women are doing and
saying at these great selections of women's art.
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