(Above: Illusional Behavior, described as a “surreal escape from reality,” is part of a show by longtime artist Paula Goodbar, one of three artists whose work is featured at the Emerald Art Center from Aug. 4-27, 2021.)

By Randi Bjornstad

Perhaps the most surrealistic aspect of the opening of new art exhibits in area galleries is that they exist at all, following a year-and-a-half of isolation, wishful thinking, and self-entertainment that have gone along with the long (but apparently not over yet) efforts to live with and through the realities of the covid-19 pandemic.

Well, they do exist, and one place to find them in August is the Emerald Art Center, where director Guy Weese announces the opening of exhibits by three well-known members of the center.

Paula Goodbar

Herself a former director of the Emerald Art Center, Goodbar has spent the past 18 months using her art to achieve the “necessary art therapy needed from the chaos of the last 2 years,” buffeted by the reality of politics, climate change, and the pandemic.

Since her teens, Goodbar had been photographing her surroundings, but when the potential of digital photography arose, she viewed the medium as a new way to create art, starting with the reality of images and then expanding them to include a more surreal, sometimes spiritual, connection that incorporates dreams, psychology, literature, and current events.

Her objective, according to her artist’s statement, is “to create a bridge from the  day-to-day realities to a spiritual connection that will offer peace, empowerment, and inspiration.”

Her earlier explorations into surrealistic art found its reward in January 2020 — right before the pandemic erupted — when she was chosen to participate in a show in Sedona, Ariz., called 31 Women Artists that commemorated an original exhibit of work by 31 women surrealists in 1943.

Christopher Mackay and Merrilea Jones

Mackay and Jones are billed together at the Emerald Art Center because they are a married couple who are showing a collection of work under the title, His & Hers, even though their artistic expression is vastly different.

Artist Chris Mackay turned his lifelong affinity for assembling models into designing and building his own three-dimensional interpretations of movie and television characters, including this from The Phantom of the Opera

Mackay, whose life lifelong hobbies included assembling model kits, has turned his skill and imagination into creating artistic models that stem from science fiction, television, and classic horror movies. Some of his creations include figures based on The Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein, and War of the Worlds. One that is featured in the Emerald Art Center show is the “monster” from Phantom of the Opera.

In a very different medium Jones shows her work that takes its form from “acrylic pours,” literally pouring paint with an idea of what will happen and then waiting to see how it additionally takes on a shape, color, mood, and interpretation of its own. In addition to her own free-flow creations, she also works with pours that she designs as backdrops to accompany Mackay’s three-dimensional models.

Additional work on display

Besides the shows of the three featured member artists, the center also has displays during August of artwork from students who attended the Light’s Summer Art Camp at the Emerald Art Center, as well as new work from members of the center.

 

August shows at the Emerald Art Center

When: Aug. 4 through Aug. 27, 2021

Where: Emerald Art Center, 500 Main St., Springfield

Gallery Hours: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday

Special event: Open for resumption of the monthly Second Friday Art Walk in downtown Springfield, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Aug. 13

Information: 541-726-8595 or mkartcenter.org

 

One of Merrilea Jones’ abstract acrylic pours, titled Ebb-Flow