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Diane Burko, "Langjokoll After Trip," 2005, oil on canvas
ART MATTERS, April 2006 (Philadelphia)
The Artistic Climate
Weather and creativity interact at Abington Art Center
By Linda Dormont
An exhibition about climate change, its politics and its metaphors, titled “Out of the Blue,” has changed the atmosphere of the Abington
Art Center since it was mounted in early March.
“We are honored to have the work of 22 top artists from all over the country and the world in our show,” said Abington Art Center curator
Amy Lipton. “And, thanks to the original conception of my co-curators, Joy Episalla and Joy Garnett, we have been able to represent
these artists in a wide variety of media with pieces that treat issues of weather and climatic conditions both literally and symbolically. We
also asked each artist to bring us a piece of ephemera – a book, a CD, a poster, an artifact – to include in our exhibition as a miniexhibit, in order to show the sources of their inspirations. The reason for this is that our theme concerns how weather influences the
work and the lives of artists, as well as being a subject of their art.” It would be impossible to generalize about the art that comprises
“Out of the Blue.” The range is so wide – from Carrie Yamaoka’s Mylar wall sculpture, “18 by 18 (blue #2)” to Stephen Andrews’
silkscreen-on-gut “365 Sunsets.” There is Diane Burko’s “Langjokoll After the Trip,” an oil on canvas of a seemingly melting glacier,and
there is Geoffrey Hendricks’s “Birdcage with Pulley,” a work in which the artist suspended his watercolor skyscapes from an antique
birdcage.
Perhaps most emblematic of the show’s intent is Dawn DeDeaux’s digital photograph of a hurricane-clothed tree, “Shrouded Tree #1,”
from her Katrina series (2005). “DeDeaux is a native of New Orleans,” said Lipton. “And after her home and studio were ravaged by the
storm, she became an evacuee and now lives in Alabama. So you can see, for some of these people, weather conditions have created
havoc with their lives but have also served as seeds for their creative expression.” Joy Garnett, an artist based in New York City, is
represented in the exhibition by two paintings, “Strange Weather (2)” and “Plume.” She said that her art is based on news photographs
and documentaries about actual events, which she transforms into dynamically colored swirls of paint indicating invisible natural forces.
“Plume,” for example, presents fiery orange and smoky brown masses to show the energy and direction of wind-driven fires that broke
out in New Orleans following Katrina. “Strange Weather” shows the force of the hurricane itself.
Philadelphia’s Emily Brown said that she is “deeply into nature.” This acclaimed landscape artist has two prints in the show, an aquatint
of sky and clouds (“The Shout Glory”), and an image of water’s surface (“For JSB”), which she painted after the events of Sep. 11, 2001
as a way to work out her personal solace.
“We are all natural beings,” said Brown, when asked about the concept of the show. “But we lose sight of our connection with the natural
world because we are so busy being in society. In my work I try to convey respect for the natural world, which we are all dependent
upon. People forget that we’re not the beginning of it all. We came later.” Diane Burko, another renowned Philadelphia artist – who will
have a one-person show at the James A. Michener Art Museum in June – said that her paintings are based upon her travels. “I seek out
extreme landscapes,” she explained. “In the last few years I have walked through and flown over Iceland and Vancouver in particular,
taking photographs as the basis for my work. But what you see are not realistic representations of the land, they are creative
interactions between what is there in nature and the way I see what is there.” Eileen Neff, a photographer and installation artist whose
work is represented by the Locks Gallery in Philadelphia, has two of her creatively-altered digital prints in the current Abington show.
“Stevens” (2004), part of a series which pays tribute to giants of literature, in this case the poet Wallace Stevens, shows an image of
blue paper on a flat surface from which quiet clouds ascend.
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Frank Moore, “Morphing Swallow,” 2002, oil on canvass on featherboard.
“This work is not about weather, per se,” said Neff in a recent interview. “However, the image fit a broad definition of weather, and Amy
Lipton had a nice wide scope in which to include many different media. In this work [“Stevens”], the reference is to an act of the
imagination – bringing the clouds inside – having that unexpected appearance.” “These artists are not trying to make a political
statement,” said Lipton, who has brought new strength and energy to Abington Art Center in her year on the job. “They are truly
responding to the weather and to their personal reactions to the weather. It is all tied in with creativity, because, as human beings, we
are all affected by the climate around us.” “Ideas, like hurricanes, seem to come out of the blue,” she added, “but they are produced by
complex, interacting forces and influences. Our ‘Out of the Blue’ exhibition explores weather as a metaphor for creativity and infers that
climate change is a process where nature, art, technology and the unknown intertwine in symbolic as well as realistic ways.”
Dawn DeDeaux, “Shrouded Tree #1,” Collaboration with Katrina Series 2005, digital photograph.
“Out of the Blue,” conceived by Joy Episalla and Joy Garnett and organized by AAC Curator Amy Lipton, continues at the Abington Art
Center, 515 Meetinghouse Rd., Jenkintown, through May 6, 2006 Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays to 7
p.m.; Saturdays 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free to the public. Donation requested. 215-887-4882.
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