by Bob Bahr, PV Arts Council member "Bella Asiatique Journee," acrylic, 48 x 48 in. It's possible to go to the finest art schools and ateliers in the world and emerge with incredible painting skills but have nothing to say. It's also possible to be a self-taught artist and paint fascinating, thought-provoking work bursting with a unique artistic vision. Exhibit A: Carol Kiefer Johnson. Johnson's work is part of a group show now view at the R. G. Endres Gallery, in the Prairie Village Municipal Offices, until May 4. Visitors there will note how Johnson combines lush textures and patterns, vibrant color, arresting figures who stare back at the viewer, and nods to art history to create paintings that don't so much tell a story but rather create a mood. That mood is often luxurious, leisurely, languid, and pretty. It all comes naturally to Johnson. "I don't really plan anything," she says. "I don't have a plan to use this pattern or that color. It just sort of happens as I go along. Checks and polka dots just make me happy, so I try to get them in. I don't give the paintings too much thought at the time. I look at it and think, I just want a flat space here or a color there, and I put it down." Her beginnings on paintings are equally spontaneous. "I start out thinking I'm going to do this painting very technically correct, but it's like your handwriting--it just sort of happens," says Johnson. "I decide that today I'm going to paint, and sometimes the dimensions or the shape of the canvas suggest something. I usually start with a face, and then that face suggests what this person is doing or thinking, and then I sort of go from there. I want people to like the paintings, but I also want them to get a kick out of them." "Cat Lover," acrylic, 40 x 30 in. Johnson is not formally trained, but her obvious love for art history and the work of past masters is apparent. She confirms the influence of at least a few select painters. "There are several artists that I admire a great deal, including Manet. Manet's paintings are always right up front. I've always loved that his figures are looking right at you; it makes you sort of one with the painting. You are in the painting. And Klimt has always been very much a favorite. I love his patterns and textures." Some artists have difficulty finding their artistic voice. Johnson seemingly couldn't ignore hers if she tried. She painted through the years but got serious about it when she retired and her children fledged the nest. Copying the masters helped her further her craft. It also revealed just how indomitable her artistic vision is. "I've done a lot of reproductions for family, friends, or for myself, but no matter how much effort I put into making a realistic reinterpretation, it always looked like mine when I was done painting it. I copied pieces by John Singer Sargent and François Boucher--several of his because a lot of my friends had French Country style in their homes. And while he's a little risqué at times, I really admire Egon Schiele quite a bit. I love the weird positions and configurations of bodies that he gets. It attracts me to have an unusual pose." Although influences such as Schiele are discernible in Johnson's work, it's important to remember that placing the human body in unusual positions while not making it disturbingly awkward to behold is a remarkably difficult task, one that takes personal taste. Johnson may operate under the influences of past masters--who doesn't?--but she comes to her own style quite honestly. Close inspection of her work shows numerous areas where she reworked passages to strengthen the composition or the effect. "I do change positions around a lot on my paintings because they just don't look right to me," Johnson says. "It may technically be a better drawing but it doesn't look right when I am painting it. When I am done, I have worked on it so long I can't stand it anymore," she says with a laugh. "Don't Look Now," acrylic, 36 x 24 in. What's next for the artist? "I would love to go bigger. The size of that peacock painting ("Bella Asiatique Journee," 48"-x-48") I love, and I'd like to go even bigger than that. But it gets harder and harder to schlep things around that are that big--I'm not getting younger."
What does Johnson want the viewer to feel, coming away from her paintings? "I'd like for them to look at the paintings and think about how they feel. What difference does it make how the artist feels? What do you, as the viewer, think about it? I find that what I feel and what the other person feels are two different things. What I feel is that life is a beautiful thing, and I want people to feel that." Johnson's work, on view at the municipal building on Mission Road, hangs alongside two other local artists--David Coss and Bryce Holt. The current show featuring these three artists will be on view at the R. G. Endres until May 5, but a choice selection of pieces from the three will stay on view at the Meadowbrook Park Clubhouse until July 6. Bob Bahr is a member of the Prairie Village Arts Council. He has written about visual art for several national magazines. He lives with his family in Prairie Village and paints a variety of subjects. He wishes there were a NYC-style bodega in the Shops. by Bob Bahr, PV Arts Council member The trio of artists now showing at the R. G. Endres Gallery, in the Prairie Village Municipal Offices, stimulate the mind in very different ways. It's highly unlikely that a visitor could see this show, on view until May 4, and not be pulled in by at least one of the approaches presented. Bryce Holt believes that artists are storytellers, and the majority of the pieces by him on display are inspired by books in the Old Testament. His straightforward, graphic approach leaves the viewer with the not-so-simple task of connecting the images with some knowledge of the scriptures. The sheer size of his acrylic paintings fills the eye with bold statements. From left: "Mama I'm Coming Home," by Bryce Holt, acrylic, 48 x 36 in.; "Dice Game," by Bryce Holt, acrylic, 48 x 36 in. David Coss makes three-dimensional pieces that utilize laser-cut wood to create intricate shapes of light and shadow. Some of the pieces feature wood stain or acrylic paint, but all feel like Steampunk machines from an era before metal contraptions. He speaks of blending old and new, technology and woodworking, but the balance between organic shapes and streamlined precision offers even more to ponder. What will you see in his work? "Hoot," by David Coss, wood and stain, 28 x 52 in. Carol Kiefer Johnson brings an obvious knowledge of art history to her acrylic paintings, with passages of thin paint application contrasting with rich and colorful patterns in cloth, wallpaper, or other pictorial elements. Klimt-like women lounge with both common and uncommon pets, with a sense of abundance creating a feeling of calm and comfortable luxury. "Open Window," by Carol Kiefer Johnson, acrylic, 36 x 36 in. Remember--it's easy to visit the exhibition. It's a mere stroll through the municipal building on Mission Road. The current show featuring these three artists will be on view at the R. G. Endres until May 5, but a choice selection of pieces from the three artists is on view and will stay on view at the Meadowbrook Park Clubhouse until July 6.
Bob Bahr is a member of the Prairie Village Arts Council. He has written about visual art for several national magazines. He lives with his family in Prairie Village and paints a variety of subjects. He wishes there were a NYC-style bodega in the Shops. by Bob Bahr, PV Arts Council member There are no humans in Janice Schoultz Mudd's paintings now on display at R. G. Endres Gallery, in the Prairie Village Municipal Offices, but human fingerprints are all over all the paintings. Her paintings of aerial views of coastlines show land and water but also harbors, street grids, and other signs of civilization. And that concept--civilization--seems to be the lens through which much of her artistic vision is projected. When a sailing ship is shown navigating waters near modern seaside developments, old and new collide. Additionally, Mudd depicts such scenes by utilizing images from Google Earth. Schooners and satellites have little in common except that they both represent achievements of civilization. "The Horse,"acrylic with collage, 24 x 24 in. Likewise, the image of the Uffington White Horse, a prehistoric earth sculpture in England, features prominently on another Mudd piece titled "Horse" that seems based on satellite imagery. And while "Red Light Camera" was inspired by an incident with a toll bridge in New York, the piece sits well beside her satellite imagery. The viewer might be tempted to read more into the bits of ephemera attached to the canvas in a dance of paint and collage, but sometimes a smashed bottlecap is just a smashed bottlecap. "I was crossing the Tappan Zee bridge and got caught by a red light camera," Mudd recalls. "I was thinking about something else and didn't exit to pay the toll, and all the lights went on in this big structure above me. So that painting is about the experience of it all--there's roadmap information, and that bottlecap, because you have drinks while driving, and all the trash, all the things you bring with you when you are on a road trip." "Red Light Camera," acrylic with collage, 36 x 48 in. A trio of paintings depicting planets and moons may seem devoid of a human touch, but the imagery was inspired by photos taken by the Hubble telescope, and one of the paintings features inscribed shapes of constellations. "I was just so amazed by all the images out there in space and how beautiful they were," Mudd says. "I was enamored with the colors from the filters they were using on the photos. Also, I was thinking about how we came to be. Did we get here by accident? I do believe that we were invented by God, but I really started thinking about that. in one that have all the constellations. How did those people of ancient civilizations, from South America to Egypt, navigate? How did they see all this stuff? When they looked at the sky, how did they differentiate all those stars?" When Mudd sees the world from different or unusual perspectives, she wonders how humans engaged in their environment. An aerial view may be Mudd's way to ponder how early inhabitants of Earth survived winters and found food. "A painter is a visual person," she says. "You see these things and you think about them. I'm more fascinated in the internal workings of the mind and the way that life experiences combine with the world that we live on, and how it all comes out in the wash. There's no big message. I take it from a factual point of view. This is what happened. This is how things changed. It's more historical and the way that people think and respond and live, largely due to circumstances." From left: "Searching for the Blue Moon," "Cadmium Night," and "Breakthrough," all three are acrylic with collage, 40 x 30 in. Part of the fun of taking in a Mudd painting is examining all the elements of her collages. As long as something is relatively two-dimensional and capable of being affixed to a canvas, it is fair game. "I have boxes of things," Mudd states. "I collect things all the time. I never know what I might want to use or what's important. People see me and they think I lost a contact. No, I'm just looking for interesting things on the ground, in a parking lot, interesting shapes or something that could be representative of something in a painting. It's somewhat indiscriminate." Or perhaps simply instinctive. Mudd doesn't seem interested in nailing down the meanings of her paintings too tightly, but to pretend that she isn't making an artistic statement would be a serious mistake. Even when the meaning of a passage in one of her paintings seems mysterious, it is succeeding, based just on that very fact. Artists make you think about the world and human experience. Mudd does that in ways both straightforward and oblique. Mudd's work is part of a group show on view in the municipal building on Mission Road until March 1. "Fissure,"diptych, acrylic with collage, 60 x 40 inches each Bob Bahr is a member of the Prairie Village Arts Council. He has written about visual art for several national magazines. He lives with his family in Prairie Village and paints a variety of subjects. He wishes there were a NYC-style bodega in the Shops.
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