With limericks or poetry dashed on top of a painting to a glowing red onomatopoeia or a portrait bordered by the story of its subject all seen on a stroll through the Bainbridge Arts and Crafts’ current exhibit — it seems letters and words are almost like extra colors on an artist’s figurative palate.
Beyond the elemental art of the actual font — letters, text and symbols can have a deep influence or harmonic confluence within art. The Gallery at BAC explores the connection with this month’s show “Arts and Letters.” It will be on display until Sept. 25.
This show’s title might be more precise as “Arts and Symbols” when looking at its face piece — Laurie Lewis’ and Joan Peter’s illuminated neon thought bubble which literally thinks “pound sign / swirl / exclamation point / asterisk.”
In a big way, that’s the role that words and letters can play — getting to the point amidst subjective chaos of artistic obscurity.
“I think things can be very ambiguous at times,” said Portland artist Diane Jacobs, one of those featured at BAC this month. “When you use text in a way, it can just crystalize the message.”
Jacobs is a 40-year-old professional book artist and mother of two, schooled in the tedious art of letterpress.
At first glance “Rep-Hair-Ration,” her sole piece in the exhibit stands out — first of all because of its size taking up an entire wall of the BAC’s back room and also in its initial non-artsiness.
It’s a square hanging collection of 15 separate 15-by-20-inch sheets, five across three rows. Four are adorned with heavy red words “SEE,” “FEEL,” “OPEN” and “ACT,” four display images or the absence of images and others feature lengthy smaller text like a spiraling poem from a friend, a kid-written copy of the International Bill of Rights of a Child of Incarcerated Parents and the 8th Amendment of the Constitution — which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment of prisoners.
In bolder text on top of the constitutional amendment, Jacobs lists shocking facts like the amount of money spent in 15 years on corrections as opposed to that on higher education and the number of African Americans incarcerated in the United States as compared to other ethnicities.
On second, third and fourth glance Jacobs’ work is actually quite artful in the statement it makes with regard to some of the ugly things which persist in American society. But only if one takes the time to read it.
“I want people to work, I want you to see it and want to take the time,” Jacobs said. “To appeal to your intellect but your heart, too, hopefully engaging enough to get you interested.”
The danger with including typography in the realm of image-driven artwork is the possibility of over-indulging and dragging the piece down in boredom.
But the right combination of words and images can be most poignant.
Much like one of Suzy Kueckelman’s pieces in the show, a drab, shades of white-dominated collage work emboldened by the solitary phrase “Stand Together” scribbled in black.
In some instances such as that and Lewis and Peter’s neon work, symbols are the focal point. While in other cases letters are just another layer in the overall experience of a piece.
“This was new for me,” said Manchester-based painter Megan (pronounced Mee-gan) Drew. “I’ve been wanting and reading and looking for some other way to add some more texture to these works.”
The call for work in the BAC’s “Arts and Letters” show opened up that possibility, making text another layer in Drew’s mixed media collage portraits.
It was one of those answers that was sitting disguised right in front of her. She describes her studio as having two separate areas, one open space with an easel and paints and another with a couch and plenty of pen and ink for writing.
“It’s really like the two different sides of my brain,” she said.
Her works in this show combined the elements for the first time. Each piece is backed by an oil-on-canvas portrait created from a picture of a distant relative. Layers of fabric and paper collage the piece while the text — etched in by fingernail and a thin paintbrush — gives a description of the of the person along the border of the portrait.
“It’s really another layer in there without being too literal,” Drew said. “It’s almost a surprise, you didn’t know it was there at first, and when you see it, it adds a little bit of information to what you’ve been feeling from the painting.”
But spoken like a true painter, Drew feels she could’ve told the same stories without the text.
