Buckman series pairing emerging artists, varied styles
Most people aren't flattered being equated with junk. Not so for Donna Blackard, the local artist who makes assemblage pieces from what others discard.
Lisa Williamson's ''Misguided Arrow'' shows the encaustic technique of mixing wax and paint that gives surfaces a shimmering glow.
Donna Blackard's found objects tie viewer to environs, art to the past.
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"The other day, a friend of mine called me, and he said, 'Donna, I thought about you -- I saw a big pile of trash,'" she said, noting that friends and family are always alerting her to where the next "hidden treasure" awaits.
"I find the oddest of things that turn into a new way of looking at them," she says.
Blackard, who is represented by T Clifton Art Gallery, shares a show, "Little Mysteries," with painter Lisa Williamson that runs through Oct. 30 at Buckman Arts Center, St. Mary's School, 60 Perkins Ext. A reception is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 2.
An exhibit of Blackard's paintings, "Details of My Environment," can also be seen through Nov. 18 at The Eclectic Eye, 242 S. Cooper. An opening reception is 6-8 p.m. tonight.
The Buckman exhibition is part of an ongoing series that aims to be a "stepping stone" for emerging local and regional artists, according to the center's director, Cindi Younker. "We really offer it to artists that are trying to get a leg up and something on their résumé," she says. "It's a good starting point."
Recently, the series has begun pairing artists and types of visual media, hence the juxtaposition of Blackard's raw found-object gestures with Williamson's refined surfaces. Yet the show holds together remarkably well with each artist using a layering process that conceals "little mysteries" of gesture and intent waiting to be found by the viewer.
For Memphis College of Art alum Williamson, the encaustic technique of mixing wax and paint gives her surfaces a beautiful shimmering glow that plays off motifs of dresses and flowers with beguiling titles such as "Pretty as a Picture," "She's a Great Catch" and "No Hippie Chicks." Yet the images are blanketed by the encaustic process into a hazy snapshot of something that hides more than is revealed, a subtle if potent feminist critique of conformity and identity issues for women who would still be molded by some into modern-day June Cleavers.
Augusta, Ga., native Blackard, on the other hand, brings to the surface what is normally cast aside, the utilitarian, rusted detritus of pot lids, drill bits, clippers and garlic presses that become "like a big jigsaw puzzle for me," she says.
Assembled into shrine-like constructions, such "memory cases" connect the artist to her childhood, the viewer to their surroundings (titles are given based on where items were found), and, ultimately, the art itself to the past, a salvaging of once-functional materials that reclaims what has been forgotten, object and life alike.
'Little Mysteries', art by Lisa Williamson and Donna Blackard
On display through Oct. 30 at Buckman Arts Center, St. Mary's School, 60 Perkins Ext. A reception is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Oct. 2. For more info, call 537-1483 or go to buckmanartscenter.com.
"Details of My Environment," art by Donna Blackard
On display through Nov. 18 at The Eclectic Eye, 242 S. Cooper. An opening reception is 6-8 p.m. tonight. For more information, call 276-3937 or go to eclectic-eye.com.
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