WSU Emeritus Faculty, Arthur Adelmann explores "Tree of Life"
Who: Universe City, 2556 Washington Boulevard in Ogden
What: Tree of Life: Recent work by Arthur Adelmann
When: November 5, 5:00-8:00 pm. opening night reception
November 20: 6:30 Art Talk
exhibit hours:
Fridays, Nov 5, 12, 19: 5:00-8:00 pm
Saturdays, Nov 6, 13, 20: 1:00-5:00 pm
Where: 2556 Washington Boulevard, Ogden
In conjunction with First Friday Art Stroll, Universe City opens "Tree of Life" recent watercolors by Arthur Adelmann, Friday, November 5 from 5:00-8:00 PM. The show continues until November 20th, Fridays: 5:00-8:00 pm and Saturdays: 1:00-6:00 pm or by appointment. For appointments, call Benjamin Jennings, 801 458-8959. The show will conclude with an art talk and reception on November 20th, 6:30-8:00 pm. Light refreshment are available opening and closing nights.
Adelmann will present his current series of watercolors, each a meditation on growth. His intricate and organic black line drawings are filled in with blending colors that reflect the sky, earth and plant life. The series explores the image of a tree or plant and also, in some instances, human bodies emerging from these growing forms.
After suffering a heart attack, Adelmann retired to Torrey, Utah almost a decade ago. For more than 30 years in the WSU Department of Visual Arts, he taught drawing, painting, two-dimensional design, color design and art history. In addition to these teaching duties, he also was an active inter-disciplinary collaborator, working with travel abroad, diversity, writing, theatre and dance projects. He also performed on stage in plays and in vocal recitals. He has exhibited his art work in Utah, the United States, Canada, France, and Europe.
His work fills the main lobby of the Val A. Browning Center for the Performing Arts and the Hetzel-Hoellein Room (Special Collections) in the Stewart Library. He is well known for his exploration of themes in series that have their own titles. "Tree of Life," is the latest of these series, as he has returned to an almost manic level of art production with renewed inspiration.
His statement about this show:
Following devastating loss, great depletion of energies plus a heart-attack, I moved to remote high desert red rock country – Capitol Reef. I came here to grieve alone, to explore the land and to re-invent myself.
Quiet, solitude, books, music, travel, friends and time conspired to affect a gradual recovery of body, mind and soul. And a new life, an unexpected chapter developed which would even finally include painting again. Not until this summer would I paint almost daily and with great joy, a heightened sense of urgency and conviction.
The motif which gradually came into focus proved to be global and archetypal – the tree of life, often identified as the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is often a symbol of psychic and ethical development, of transcendence beyond ego, to higher fulfillment of self and of one’s unique destiny.
Since childhood, I have felt a strong attraction to and a close kinship with trees, believing they have soul, wisdom and voice. They have offered me solace, have inspired profound thoughts and feelings and have often been the subject of my paintings. In my most lucid of dreams I was a tree, and can still feel the nourishing warmth of the sun on my evergreen boughs and the depth of my long, cool roots. This dream once convinced me to remain in Utah, a decision I have never regretted.
My tree of life series is not intended as an illustrated compendium of global, social, scientific, mythological and religious concepts associated with it. The motif is rich and varied, and is included in almost all major religions. I prefer to slowly and modestly pursue my own visual and philosophical inclinations; my own subconscious promptings building a personal cosmology.
The tree of life theme seems appropriate to my surroundings: a vast and magnificent land, sky and great profusion of rather squat juniper and pinion pine sinking deep roots into rocky red soil, indeed often into the rock itself. As I work, I bring my own meanings and symbols to the paintings. I hope that some of them will find resonance in viewers.
The great and ever-changing colorful skies are for me symbol of the great unseen motivating powers of the universe. Colors and their combinations suggest states of mind and soul. The spiraling and interlacing floriated forms symbolize the interconnectedness of all things and of psychic growth within that awareness. Trees with their upper-part disengaging or with their roots in the heavens suggest transcendence beyond the petty, the material, the ego-bound. I must ask myself what my trees might be telling me? They are, after all, drawn from my experience and imagination. Are they my soulscape? Am I collectively, these trees? Struggling to make sense of existence, and to give it greater depth of meaning and purpose.
Writers: For more information about Arthur, please contact him at 435-425-3894
For more information about Universe City, please contact Benjamin Jennings, 801-458-8959 or benjaminjennings@mac.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment