WILDflowers is inspired by the wildflowers of Aspen, rimming lakes, dotting the sides of mountains in profusion. 12 artists explore the range and richness of this theme in painting, sculpture, ceramic, glass and photography, each vision unique, each artist working in a different material. Some of the pieces are “wild,” others are abstractions of blooms infused with the palette of summertime. The entirety of the presentation is a celebration of life in color and in black and white.
Nicolas Africano’s brand new sculpture in glass deals with the agony and Ecstasy of Saint Teresa. The Saint’s head tilts back in ecstasy as a rose conceals her mouth and the truth of her expression. The depth of her spiritual transformation is palpable.
Joan Bankemper’s gouaches grow straight out of her garden filled with a riot of flowers in every color. Her sculpture Following the Sun spans the pandemic, begun before and completed recently. Hundreds of hand-built flowers bedeck the vessel interspersed with garden birds and butterflies—all hand-cast and uniquely glazed. She tops her garden with Murano glass flowers and a watering can, a wild and joyous composition.
Carolyn Brady’s Garden Pink Violet Poppy, a watercolor of postcard size, is almost abstract as the flower droops its head in a field of grass and daisies. While Timothy Cummings whimsical small-scale paintings of young boys faces have zany invented flowers. In a round painting inspired by Wagner’s Ring Cycle wild roses bedeck a young boy’s head as a crown, or decorate the newspaper hat and lapel of a green-eyed lad as a full moon peeks over his shoulder.
Don Eddy’s two WAA small scale paintings are akin to contemporary icons, celebrations of nature as we emerge from the pandemic (let us hope). WAA stands for Wake and Arise. Tulips
flutter against a black background shaking off droplets of rain, a budding cherry blossom begins to open its petals as spring warms the surrounding branches.
Nathalia Edenmont’s Prima Donna is both WILD and flowers. The model in this portrait wears a dress composed of hundreds of flowers. Working with a team of ten people the artist spends up to twelve hours composing dresses for her models. The flowers are at their peak of openness before they begin to wilt. Some are wild, some are cultivated, all selected by Nathalia. In their abundance, the flowers remind us of the profusion that surrounds Aspen.
Judy Fox’s Eden Plant in terra cotta painted in casein is as wild as the imagination comes in three dimensions. The plant stem is a curving, snake like coil on top of which sits a bloom that looks remarkably like human lips, revealing the artist’s sense of humor and appreciation for outrage.
Lisea Lyons small black and white photos capture windswept wild blossoms in different parts of the world: in Iceland, in Italy, in New York, capturing the movement of the flowers as the breeze blows through petals and blades of grass. The colors in Nicole Phungrasamee Fein’s intimate abstract watercolors are inspired by the wildflowers in her garden. Their palette comes straight from springtime pastels, tender new growth.
For Hung Liu the dandelion is symbolic of migration and immigration. A wild “flower” that grows all over the world, it is the only flower she paints. As she says, the dandelion is so beautiful, and there are no two alike. She combines the dandelion with butterflies, bees, crickets, critters of the garden, and accompanies the flower with a circle, her signature, standing for the Chinese “Pi,” symbol of the universe and forever.
Joseph Raffael’s Ankner is, indeed, a wild flower, seeming to be in motion, quivering in the breeze as a bee approaches to drink its nectar. Appearing as if planted in a wild landscape, the flower and the bee hold the viewer in suspense. His single blooms set against a single color background, like the Eddy works, become icons of nature.
Bill Richards black and white graphite drawings of ground cover incorporate flowers that he has found in his long-distance bike travels. Not meant to be planted in these terrains, the insertion of these blossoms by the artist brings the wild weaving of grasses, reeds and ferns into full sunlight.
