Two grand visual arts events have come to fruition at Kendal this spring. And thus, even as we have already been celebrating the arrival of several artists into our community and our consequent emergence as a Licking County art colony, we have also become the venue for some engaging encounters with the works of exciting artists, both present and past.
First, we'll consider the contemporary artists. Throughout April and May the resident-run gallery committee has arranged for an exhibition of the creations of four Columbus-based artists to be on display. All four artists are associated with the Goodwill Art Studio and Gallery. In aggregate, these works take the viewer through a variety of alternative worlds, envisioned through a variety of media. (At this point I must say: caveat lector. I am not an artist and can only be grateful that some people are gifted enough to be able to accomplish what these folks do. Also, I know of no vocabulary that allows one to convey the complex set of responses that a person – in this case, me – feels when one's sensibilities are touched by visual or aural art. But still, humankind can't help but talk about art's impact, and so, here we go!)
Deborah Griffing exhibits both dolls and paintings. I found that her dolls could somehow (and simultaneously) invite cuddling and portend danger, and that her paintings, with their animal forms and floating shapes, could nudge my psychic equilibrium a bit off center. Kate Gorman's contributions are a group of wall quilts that rock with color and achieve their effects through abstract forms and a readiness to violate apparent borders. Kristen Spickard displays a set of haunting miniatures that began their artifactual lives as photographs and have been transformed into evocative silver-gelatin prints. Cody Miller, whose paintings feature marvelous eyes, manages to impress me as the most internal of the artists, inviting the viewer's speculation about the thoughts that lie in the mind of the elusive figure on the canvas.
Second, we have launched our six-part program entitled "Adventures in Art at Kendal." This is a series of hour-long interactive encounters with docents and paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art and has been organized in part with a grant from the Granville Arts Commission. The advance interest in this program in art history was so great that Kendal was obliged to establish queues among both residents and prospective residents in an effort to be fair in accommodating the hopes of members of both groups.
The first session, held on April 30, focused on Impressionism, and since I was not lucky enough to make the cut for attending this session, I can only report on it second-hand. It turned out to be a learning experience, in both implications of that term. To begin with the awkward news: not everything went quite as smoothly on this maiden voyage as we might have wished. But we had expected glitches (that's what maiden voyages are for), and they are being addressed. And in any case – now comes the happy news – they did not affect the central features of the program: the opportunity to view Museum masterpieces, and the chance to engage a museum expert in conversations about them. After the session the attendees proceeded with their own discussion of impressionism and then enjoyed a fine Kendal meal at which – what else? – impressionism was still discussed. The buzz at these post-session events was very positive.
The email feedback which has been received has also been quite positive, and new requests to get into the queue have appeared. Meanwhile, in response to suggestions from several participants, we are now exploring the possibility of organizing a bus trip or two to the Cleveland Museum of Art later this year.
All of this is good news for the art-conscious community at Kendal.
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