RON SCHIRA
Artwork by Ron Schira, Independent Critic, curator and artist.
Sunday, December 8, 2019
Monday, September 16, 2019
Elaine Soltis
Yocum Institute for Arts
Education
Over
the course of her lifelong career as an artist Elaine Soltis has
consistently implemented a systematic practice of applying fluid
paint poured freely over a canvas or board. This method, combined
with gemstones found on the beach of Lake Erie, loose strings, beads, mirrors and other ephemera, works to create a tactile and
sparkling surface brimming with vibrant marbleized color.
Balancing
her artistic activities between family in Ohio and her home in
Reading PA, she spends her private time at the huge lake and at her
GoggleWorks Center for the Arts' studio. Esoteric and spiritually
minded, she invests each of her works with personal value intended
not only for her own edification but that of her viewers, hoping to
create an exchange of experience while developing a friendship
through art.
The
three dozen pieces currently showing at the Yocum Institute for Arts
Education in Sinking Spring PA, aside from the abstract method, are
mostly landscapes, beaches and a few trees, each infused with poetic
metaphor. A title like “Tangerine Dream” implies a state of
consciousness or meditative thought while others, like “On the
Beach” or “Pink Sand” refer directly to a singularly
identifying trait.
Notwithstanding,
where these works really shine is in their skillful handling as the
paint slides and congeals in her patently controlled mixing and
manipulation of complimentary color. Her technique involves little
actual brushwork in the terms or manner of traditional process. She
tilts and angles the liquid acrylics, ala Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, in
multiple wet-on-wet layers to manifest areas of swirled, stippled
pigments that emboss the painting and give the compositions a
physical presence. Brushes or other tools are used merely to direct
the flow of color.
The
clouds represented in “Shallow,” for instance, raise an eighth
inch above the flat white sky, the various warm grays jelling into a
thick coagulated stream. Some of the pieces contain collage items or
a free-hanging string that suggest a divisional or spacial line to
further bring the compositions into three dimension.
A
common element in many of the paintings, the solid white sky operates
as a space of purity for these amorphous phenomena to exist, no
matter what they represent or attempt to represent, and place the
viewer at a safe and contemplative vantage point. She remarks in her
statement about “trusting in what you cannot see” and “lovely
energy, random(ly) coming out of nowhere” as a way of intuiting and
evolving the work's organic facture.
As
a final point of departure and acknowledgment toward traditional
Chinese painting, she signs her paintings lower right with an
ordinary zinc washer, using it like an I Ching coin, or a chop, while
angling her signature straight up.
Soltis
is a singular voice and creative influence for the area and is
heartily active within the local artworld. She has at times been a
stage and voice-over actor, a model, a promotional trainer/colorist
for French Designer Beauté,
an interview host for a cable TV show on Berks Community Television,
a 20 year member of the Screen Actors Guild in Seattle WA as well as
a 25 year Reiki Master.
“Elaine
Soltis” is on view
from September 14 through October 19 at the Yocum Institute for Arts
Education, 3000 Penn Avenue, Sinking Spring PA -
www.institute-of-art.org
for more information.
Ron
Schira September 16, 2019.
Thursday, May 5, 2016
Recent paintings and drawings - all untitled - 2015/2016
Untitled Acrylic/canvas - 14x11" 2016
Untitled Acrylic/canvas - 14x11" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on Khadi 12x12" 2016
Ink/WC on Khadi 12x12" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Untitled Acrylics/canvas - 14x11" ea. 2016
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 16x12" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Untitled Acrylic/canvas - 14x11" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 9x7" 2016
Ink/WC on Khadi 12x12" 2016
Ink/WC on Khadi 12x12" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Untitled Acrylics/canvas - 14x11" ea. 2016
Ink/Watercolor on Fabriano paper 16x12" ea. 2016
Untitled Acrylics/canvas - 14x11" ea. 2016
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 16x12" 2016
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
Ink/WC on paper 12x9" 2015
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