Six Ways of Worldmaking The Mythopians Artist Group
Septemb er 8 – O ctob er 23 , 2 0 0 4
“Worldmaking as we know it always starts from worlds already on hand; the making is a remaking. ...(It) begins with one version and ends with another.”
—Nelson Goodman (1906-1998), American Philosopher
Six Ways of Worldmaking
Cobbled together from bits and pieces
Storytelling is integral to worldmaking.
The Mythopians are accomplished
“Six Ways of Worldmaking,” the
borrowed from the worlds of others,
It is the center from which we build.
artists and storytellers who move
Mythopians current exhibition at the
the worlds we remake as our own
It is also essential to the unique work
easily between ancient mythologies,
H.F. Johnson Art Gallery, Carthage
come from those old and new, distant
created by The Mythopians Artist
daily newspaper headlines and
College, Kenosha, takes its title from
and near, imperfect and ideal. We
Group, a coalition of six stylistically
fanciful invention. The worlds they
Nelson Goodman’s influential book,
embellish our versions freely and
distinct artists - Nancy Jean Carrigan,
create are beautiful, complex and
“Ways of Worldmaking”(1978). It
edit them judiciously. In doing so,
Robert Kameczura, Diane Levesque,
diverse. In them, we are as likely
is an engaging mix of varied and
each one becomes a rich, densely
James McNeill Mesple’, Christine
to encounter Eros dreaming of a
sometimes contradictory styles.
woven fabric of symbols with multiple
O’Connor and Steve Sherrell - who
love triangle, Penelope weaving her
Despite the affinities that have brought
intertwined meanings from which
exhibit their work collectively “out of a
tapestry, or satyrs playing their pipes,
these six artists together, they remain
we fashion stories that may impart
mutual love of figurative and narrative
as we are likely to meet Jack Kerouac
caretakers of their own dissimilar, yet
a moral, recount a history, or simply
art and a fondness for the Romantic
sipping a drink, Sigmund Freud sitting
intermingled worlds.
entertain.
tradition.”
in a swamp, or Victorian ladies in
distress. Theirs are extraordinary worlds where the logic of time, place, subject and action does not hold - worlds that have been remade wondrous and sublime.
NANCY JEAN CARRIGAN A playful and inventive line, fantastical shapes and deep vivid colors obtained by painting on sheets of layered acrylic film are the hallmarks of Nancy Jean Carrigan’s art. Her images, with their graceful sweeping curves, intricate spatial fills and other complex and delicate patterns, possess a bold graphic look. Carrigan’s painting, “Il Cigno e
Not so in “The Burden of the
La Sirena” (2003), depicts an intimate
Phoenix (9/11)” (2002), for which
embrace between a mermaid and a
the artist has chosen the legend of the
swan. In it, the same sensual curve
fabulous giant bird who is reborn from
used to delineate the contour of the
its own ashes, as her response to the
mermaid’s golden hair is repeated in the
destruction of the World Trade Center.
mermaid’s curled tail and arm, as well
Carrigan has given the Phoenix a
as in the neck of the swan, (which joins
stylish female face with almond-
the mermaid’s arm to complete a heart-
shaped eyes that cry blood-red tears,
like shape). Spiral forms comprising the
whose shape and color are restated
mermaid’s breast, her scales and the
in flames issuing from the Twin Towers
picture’s roiling nebulous background
tucked beneath the Phoenix’ brilliant
reinforce the picture’s curve motif.
mermaid, however, this explanation
red wings, wings which also enfold a
provides only vague associations.
child within its womb. Here there is no
any clues to assist in the interpretation
Carrigan, who enjoys the ambiguity
ambiguity as Carrigan deftly retools
of the image, the story of Zeus taking
of the image, invites the viewer to
the age-old myth of rebirth—of life
the form of a swan as Leda’s lover
fill in the blanks with any number of
from death—into a message of hope
comes to mind. Since Leda was not a
fascinating scenarios.
for today.
While Carrigan does not offer
ROBERT KAMECZURA There is an atmosphere of enchantment that permeates Robert Kameczura’s acrylic paintings, as if he opens windows into timeless worlds where the mundane assumes the aura of magic and theater. Like characters in a costume play, the men in his paintings have full beards and wear robes or tunics. The women are dressed in diaphanous gowns. His lighting, which exudes an otherworldly glow, is dramatic and stage-like, accentuated by a kind of broken color that is alternately warm and cool. Some of the worlds Kameczura
face, as if confronting her “false” and
creates are complete inventions.
“true” selves. Another woman primps
Others, such as“Pluto and Persephone
in a mirror even though her face is
in the Underworld” (2004), with
partially veiled. There is a couple
its phosphorescent glimpse into the
wearing sunglasses embracing before
domain of the dead, are drawn from
a fire, a woman carrying a torch and
classical literature and myth. The
a painter working on a picture.
painting “What We Are, What We
Every figure in Kameczura’s
Think We Are, What Other People
painting has a role to play. There are
Think We Are” (2004) comes by its title
artists, actors, dancers and lovers,
through a simplification of a phrase by
diptych, edge to edge—foreground
each representing a variation/degree
Voltaire. It is an ambitious discourse on
to background, with images and
of seeing, or being seen. Every
how people see themselves and others
events, leaving no empty space,
object—every action has a meaning
and how they are seen and perceived
or any place in the painting where
that enhances the believability of his
by others in turn.
something is not happening. Featured
strange and beautiful worlds.
among the many vignettes he stages
As in much of his work, Kameczura packs this imaginative
is a woman holding a mask up to her
DIANE LEVESQUE A great deal of psychological complexity is packed into the shallow, rather claustrophobic spaces of Diane Levesque’s provocative acrylic portrait paintings. Her subjects, whether of friends or strangers, are characterized as much by her faithful likenesses, as they are by the surreal-like accumulations of objects she brings into their orbit - objects which retain the residue of memory and which hold the clues to her subject’s identity and place in time. Levesque’s art is heady and
with playing spaces that wind around
evocative. It allows the artist to
the picture’s surface like Joyce’s stream-
transform Beat poet Jack Kerouac into
of-consciousness prose winds around
Oedipus of Thebes and herself into
the page of a book.
Oedipus’/Kerouac’s mother/wife in
In Levesque’s version the
“All Things Being Equal: Oedipus and
viewer encounters a profusion of
Jocasta” (2003), a cautionary tale of
images, including a doll in a jar,
incest. Her art is often inspired by a
a rooster pitcher filled with roses,
line of poetry or a phrase in a book,
a figure falling from a stone tower,
as is the painting “In the Country of
Greek sirens and a large button.
the Marvelous” (2003), whose title
Each encapsulates an emotion or
was gleaned from a book by Pierre
experience Joyce’s main character
Mabille. The canvas, which was
His Metaphysics” (2004), one in a
undergoes as he wanders through
begun the day after war with Iraq
series of portraits focusing on writers and
the city of Dublin. An extremely
began, is a poignant indictment of
painters whom she considers influential
articulate painter, Levesque imbues
religious extremism and the grasping
to her own work, Levesque ingeniously
the seeming chaos and irrationality
for political prizes.
recasts Joyce’s retelling of Homer’s epic
of Joyce’s art with her own arresting
poem “The Odyssey” into a board game
form and artistry.
In “James Joyce: He Domesticated
JAMES McNEILL MESPLE’ It is not hard to imagine the paintings of James McNeill Mesple’ adorning the walls of a first century Roman villa, even with their humorous quirks and allusions to contemporary culture. The figures he paints are almost exclusively those of Greek or Roman mythology and their names, if not their stories, are, for the most part, familiar to most everyone. But Mesple’s paintings, executed
magic to enter into the everyday.
in egg tempera and oil glazes made
Most of Mesple’s works are
from pigments he prepares himself
faithful, if somewhat tweaked versions
according to formulas rooted in the
of legend and myth, like that of
Middle Ages, are always a surprise.
Arachne who bests Athena in a
Marvelously inventive and seamless in
weaving contest and is changed into a
their melding of ancient and modern
spider. Yet some of his work is purely
imagery, the genuineness of the
lyrical, as is the hauntingly beautiful
worlds he creates is never in doubt.
“Rain Goddess” (2004). Here the
The disparate images in “Dune
ethereal face of a woman appears
Music” (2004), for instance, should
in gray storm clouds, the strands
not make sense, but in Mesple’s world
of her hair mingling with streaks of
they do. In it a pair of reed flutes is
rain falling on an iris flower that has
played by the slender green fingers
Indiana Dunes, Chicago’s skyline and a
blossomed in a rainbow of colors.
of an unseen musician, two classical
wooden ship sailing on Lake Michigan.
Mesple’s painting has the delicacy of
heads litter the ground and a couple of
It is a curious and improbable
a Renaissance botanical rendering
exotically dressed figures play alongside
idyll from Mesple’s unconventional
infused with poetry. His art is nothing
a pond. In the background are the
imagination that permits myth and
short of magical.
CHRISTINE O’CONNOR Christine O’Connor paints portraits of famous people from history and literature, like the astronomer Galileo Galilei and the missionaries Albert Schweitzer and Mother Teresa. She presents her portraits within the context of stories that illuminate the relationships between her subjects. Friendship and professional
a Venice canal shimmers. It is a quite,
rivalry, for instance, are the
penetrating picture whose bittersweet
topics in O’Connor’s portrayal of
air is heavy with memory and loss.
psychoanalysts Freud, Jung and Adler,
The past often blurs with reverie
whom she situates in a fecund swamp.
in O’Connor’s work and the images
Here Jung stands apart from the
in her paintings sometimes turn out
group, while Freud sits next to Adler,
Diptych, duality: woman/man” (2001)
quite differently from those that initially
a rifle resting across his lap aimed at
is a particularly exquisite work. In it
sparked her imagination. More
his companion’s book on aggression.
O’Connor tells the story of the great
important to O’Connor is that some
Through setting and gesture, the
adventurer and lover, Casanova and
type of experience and understanding
pointed painting speaks volumes
Henriette, the young French runaway
has taken place during the making
about the trio’s tangled relationship
with whom he had a brief love affair.
of the painting and the telling of the
and eventual estrangement. Each of O’Connor’s works is
Here Henriette and Casanova face one another in profile from
intricately detailed and richly colored.
opposite ends of the canvas. She is
Her painstaking technique imparts
dressed for a party. Pictured above
an exceptional transparency and
her is a pair of costume masks; one,
luminosity that resemble the tempera
of which, has painted tears on its
paint and oil glaze finishes of certain
cheek. He is seen against a stone wall
Old Master paintings. “Venetian
with a barred window through which
story. It invariably does.
STEVE SHERRELL Working with the same assuredness in a variety of different media, from computer art to painting to collage, Steve Sherrell moves with equal ease between a diverse range of styles, from the abstract and figurative to the visionary, as in “A Gift from Time” (2003), (graphite, acrylic collage on three canvases). A large (9’ x 7’) work representing a celestial meeting between Beauty, (a woman clad in snake-skin), and Pegasus, the winged horse, it is elegant in both its cool blue-green color scheme and concise decorative design. At the core of Sherrell’s work,
nervousness and spent sensitivity.
however, there is always a sense of
Running along the edges of the
the fantastic steeped in melancholy.
work are squares in which Sherrell
It is present in his wistful, at times
cubbyholes important dates, quotes
playfully perverse collages of Victorian
and events in the poet’s life. A bullet
women, and in fears of the Cold War
in each of the work’s four corners
that he revisits in “Rumors from the
represents shooting attempts on his
Rocket State” (nd), a work occasioned
life. Most curious is the extra pupil
by a Thomas Pynchon novel.
Sherrell has tucked inside each of
Such feelings are most prevalent,
Rimbaud’s “drunken” undulating
however, in “Rimbaud” (2004), a
eyelids, perhaps symbolic of the gift,
discerning homage to a quintessential
or curse of prescience. Sherrell’s work
Romantic artist. In this mixed-media
unkempt, as if he were a vagrant
is an incisive portrait of a man who
work (graphite, acrylic and collage on
posing for a police line up, rather
lived his life in the extreme and who
canvas), Sherrell envisions the French
than a prodigy who revolutionized
sacrificed himself readily to myth.
Symbolist poet, Arthur Rimbaud
poetry before the age of 17. His
(1854-91) as slightly rumpled and
scratchy penciled likeness conveys a
In “Ways of Worldmaking,” Nelson Goodman wrote “We start, on any occasion, with some old version or world that we have on hand and that we are stuck with until we have the determination and skill to remake it into a new one.” The six artists who comprise the Mythopians Artist Group have the determination and skill. Through their gifts of storytelling and art they create intriguing worlds from which each of us might borrow something for our own worldmaking. Garrett Holg, a former Chicago Sun-Times art critic, contributes to ARTnews magazine
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