 – Recently opened at the Canton Museum of Art are multiple Winter exhibitions: “Right Time: Paintings by Robert Coleman Jackson, Potion Park: The Kaleidoscopic Garden of Steve…){kind=link}
CANTON, OH (AAPNW) – Recently opened at the Canton Museum of Art are multiple Winter exhibitions: “Right Time: Paintings by Robert Coleman Jackson, Potion Park: The Kaleidoscopic Garden of Steve Ehret and Kat Francis are on view through Sunday, March 5, 2023 and “Color Wonder from the CMA Collection” will close on Sunday, April 9, 2023. Note: On Friday, December 2, 2022, from 5:00-7:00 pm, the Opening Reception these shows, including Thinking with Animals are free and open to the public. There will also be light bites and cookies to savor as well as a cash bar.
“Saying the last couple of years have had a draining effect on people is certainly as an understatement. Sometimes you find yourself sitting at the right place, at the right time,” writes Robert Coleman Jackson. “My art strives for hope, humor, and life (not to say there aren’t dark moments and passages). But as people step out from under their clouds and tentatively peek around, my desire is that the art I have been painting for years and years awaits them and offers a warm embrace.”
Born in 1964 in Kinston, N.C., Jackson has worked as an Electrical Engineer for Motorola and then as an Assistant Pastor before settling down to his full-time and fulfilling career as a contemporary still life artist. He incorporates in his artwork both comedy and drama through realism in bright colors and an amusing narrative. The subjects within his painting range from balloon dogs to food, toys, books, and other assorted props.
His work can be found at the Delaware Art Museum, Brandywine River Museum of Art, Evansville Museum of Art, History and Sciences, South Dakota Art Museum, New Britain Museum of American Arts, Seven Bridges Foundation, as well as in the homes of collectors worldwide and in various corporate collections. Additionally, artist Jackson authored, “Behind the Easel” which explores the unique voices of 20 contemporary representational painters.
Henry Adams, Ph.D., Ruth Coulter Heede Professor of Art History at Case Western Reserve University writes, “What’s startling about his work is the sense of mix: of sophisticated and naïve, of high modernist art and 19th century trompe l’oeil and folk art, of witty philosophical mind games and silly popular jokes. Notably, this is also the sort of strange mix of sensibilities one finds in the best American novelists, such as Mark Twain.”
Potion Park: The Kaleidoscopic Garden of Steve Ehret and Kat Francis is a collection of collaborative mixed media projects by this creative team whose works of art transforms the Milligan Gallery into a Kaleidoscopic Garden.
“After a heavy year and seclusion, we decided that in 2022, we want to journey into a place of beauty and wonder, appreciating all that is around us and going full on with stars in our eyes,” says the artistic duet. “Potion Park is a place to feel the comfort of earth and the wonder of nature all around you, while intertwined with color, dreamy landscapes, and an altered mind.”
Steve Ehret is a self-taught painter who is inspired by the natural world. He takes in his surroundings on year-round trail runs; makes careful observations of moss spreading over a fallen tree, or plants reaching towards the sun. The mental notes of these Darwinian scenes inspire the ghostlike settings of his paintings. His goal is not realism, but rather a sense of gravity, whether working in oils, with mixed media, or on a mural.
“We hope to bring you into the play place of our imagination, to live out the earthly magic of the subconscious mind,” adds the artistic duet. “A place for people to float, have fun, and most importantly get weird. Climb hills, roll down them, smell the flowers, star gaze, and pounce from earthy plateau to plateau.”
Kat Francis is an educator and contemporary mixed media artist who creates artworks by collage-like assemblage of realities, to portray memory, attitude on contemporary culture, personal experience and reflections on society. The trend of change, rebuild and community inspires her current themes in art.
Not only does she have a passion for drawing, but also a hungry fascination for her surroundings and social history. Often her work shows depictions of place, specifically the urban landscape along with real life experiences. In these drawings, she uses playful fragments of references that create obscure yet reminiscent narratives.
“Color Wonder from the CMA Collection” wants the viewers to immerse themselves in a color experience which evokes emotion, describes ideas, indicates status, conveys symbolism, and provides disguise. Additionally, goers can discover the role of color in art and the many ways it affects us in Color Wonder as well as see themselves just how powerful colors can be, including in this exhibit, viewers can learn to decode the messages that different colors send in art.
Artists invented the first pigments as early as 40,000 years ago, creating a basic palette of five colors: red, yellow, brown, black, and white. Since then, the history of color has been one of constant discovery of the universal associations that people make with colors and infinite ways to understand them. These meanings are often personal based on past experiences and traditions.
Color also has a direct impact on psychology and how we perceive emotions. We often infuse color into our language, are taught standard color associations that help relate color to our emotions such as, blue meaning sadness, green meaning envy and yellow meaning happiness.
We encounter color associations which subconsciously impact our daily choices and emotions. Artists use color not only to create mood, balance and harmony, but also to convey how they are feeling and how they would like the viewer to feel as well. Artists might use shades of blue or purples to convey sadness or serenity, shades of oranges and reds to convey energy and life, or they might use a combination of colors to convey chaos and disarray.