This is Sandy Brown Jensen,and you’re listening to Viz City, KLCC’s art review program.
I took an afternoon last weekend and gave myself the treat of an Artist’s Date.Me, myself and I went on a mini art crawl and saw two things we might otherwise have missed. First was an investigation of what’s up in the Springfield City Library slash City Hall Art Gallery.
This show by Karen Pidgeon is a perfect example of a hidden jewel in a pocket gallery. Karen Pidgeon is a wildlife artist with a highly realistic style. The wolf, the tiger, the macaws are all so realistic they seem to jump, prowl, or fly off the wall, so bright are their eyes, so tensed are their bodies.
Karen has a good organizational principle if you are an art nerd. Her concept is the progression of her materials as she evolved as an artist. Her first stage was pen and ink. The fine pen strokes allowed her to add the long guard hairs around a tiger’s head and in its ears. This is a somewhat melancholy and inward tiger, not the aggressive, growly kind. That’s unexpected, so it slows you down for a good, long look.
Karen has eight steps in all as she grows into colored pencils, chalk pastels, acrylic paint. One of my favorites that seems to include all her techniques is two adolescent snowy owls in owl clover waiting for Mom with looks of both anxiety and calm.
The other show I stopped in to see was the Whittaker Printmaker’s Show at Maude Kerns Art Center. All the prints are the size of a large postcard and are hung on a clothesline around the room.This is a very charming display and very fun to look at. Although for some reason there isn’t any signage under each print, I understand these are prints by artists from all over the world. I enjoyed so many—especially one representing The Fool from the Tarot deck—a child setting out on the high road to adventure with only a bindlestaff and a butterfly.
Lot’s of fun, and while you’re there, take in the Mayor's Teen Art Show in the main galleries. Take yourself on an Art Date sometime soon!
This is Sandy Brown Jensen for KLCC.
