If the world should end in 2012 as some prognosticators have forecast, at least it will go out with a splash of vibrant color and panache.
Two new art shows are scheduled to ring in the new year in Calvert and St. Mary’s counties and you never need to worry about being bereft of color again, whether Armaggedon occurs or not.
For St. Mary’s County sisters Rose Beitzell and Mary Ida Rolape, both who have done considerable work in woodburning and tile respectively, their new showing at CalvART Gallery in Prince Frederick Jan. 4 through 29 takes both women in a completely different direction. They call their new medium “mixed media assemblage” and both freely admit that they never know what’s going to come out when they start a project. In fact, the end result is often an unexpected and complete surprise.
“It’s paper, plaster, ceramic tiles really colorful stuff,” Beitzell said.
“What I do,” she added, “is start with plaster. I put it on burlap and wrap it up and put colors on. And each time I unwrap it, I’m looking for whatever comes out of it. I don’t always have something in mind. In fact, I like it when I don’t know what is going to emerge. I like that element of surprise. But sometimes, realistic things come out. One came out looking like a dragon, so I just went with that. I have one thing that I think looks like a rabbit, but everyone says it looks like something else. Sometimes someone needs to tell me when to stop. Sometimes you go too far and end up with a mess.”
When Beitzell’s sister, Mary Ida Rolape, was asked how long she’d been doing art, she responded glibly, “since forever.”
“I sold my first piece when I was 16 years old. I’ve been doing art seriously full time since 1999,” Rolape said.
“I’ve done everything,” she admitted. “I’m at a point where I like doing multiple mediums. For this show, Rose and I decided to do what we call ‘mixed media assemblage,’ working with welding, ceramics and collage, and we’ve come out with some fun new things.
“Except for a few people, this new work is totally unseen by the public. This is something no one has ever seen. It’s quite different from work we’ve done before. We’re busting out of the mold. Rose has largely done detailed etches in wood and she loves doing it, but when people think of Rose they think of her bird etchings. This work is totally different. It’s fun. All artists have a feeling that art should be something that lifts you up. Ours is intended to create joy.”
Rolape admitted that the pieces in the CalvART Gallery show are not small.
“I like sculpture and I like to do sculpture, but I don’t have space in my house for sculpture,” she said, adding with a laugh, “but I do have a big yard.”
So she designed her new pieces specifically for yard art.
“Most of it can go outside,” she said. “And the pieces are not small. One is 7-foot tall. The other is 6 feet. We’re anxious to see the response once people look at it fresh. It’s a real departure from our previous stuff and something of an artistic risk, but people who like fun, beautiful things will enjoy the show.”
CalvART Gallery is at 110 Solomons Island Road in Prince Frederick. An opening reception will be hosted on from 5 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 7.
For St. Mary’s County artist Candy Cummings, art is something sacred. She feels so strongly about it, in fact, that when she moved back to St. Mary’s County in 2000 to be close to her aging parents, she approached members of the Lexington Park Library about establishing an art gallery within the facility. She has been curator of the Lexington Park Library Art Gallery for nearly 10 years.
“I feel that all libraries should have art galleries,” she said.
“I have very strict attitudes about art,” Cummings said. “The energy it emits and the energy it holds forever are important to all of us. The destruction of art is very bad karma. I’ve been the victim of that. A former acquaintance of mine, when I left the relationship, he painted over nine of my best paintings with white enamel paint. He essentially ruined them. And then he died.
“I believe art is a sacred thing and I feel the same way about writing and music it’s the higher nature of mankind.”
Cummings has work on display at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore that came about in the most unorthodox of ways.
“The museum director said my portfolio spoke to her out of a pile of unsolicited material and said when she opened it up she was blown away,” Cummings said.
“Ironically, the day I got the phone call was also the day my doctor informed me that I had stage three lung cancer.”
While chemo treatments continue, the American Visionary Art Museum director, Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, told the artist she was drawn to the incredible stash of electronic parts from old television sets and refridgerator parts, which is now part of “ALL THINGS ROUND: Galaxies, Eyeballs & Karma,” which runs through September 2012.
“That museum was the one that fit me,” Cummings explained.
Cummings works in “found objects,” which seem to “fall in my lap.” When her father closed his Electronic Service Co. in Lexington
Park in 1995, she scoured the dilapidated building for television tubes, wiring and whatever else she could scrounge from the structure before the county demolished it. Thus began her delving into whatever she could find to make art with. She discovered two discarded mannequins behind Southern Tire in Lexington Park and immediately saw potential for art in them.
“They sold almost immediately,” she said, after she covered the dummies with cast-off puzzle pieces to create art. She found almost 300 jigsaw puzzles a woman was throwing away which ended up being part of 25 sculptures.
“Everything in my house is extremely whimsical,” she admitted. “No matter what I am working on, I always have a little humor in it. People know I work in objects, so they’re always bringing me things. About the only thing I spend money on is glue.”
Although there is this variety of styles, mediums and dimensions in her work, within the “Collections” there is a common thumbprint of the artist. The symmetry, the colors, the details and the audacity are a strain running through all of the works. This freedom of expression revealed itself by Cummings’ moving back to her roots.
“This is no coincidence,” she stated.
Cummings’ show at Lexington Park Library runs through Jan. 31. The library hours are Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. through 8 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information call 301-863-8188.
jnorris@somdnews.com