Debra Rubino's etchings of birds' nests and stones at Galerie Francoise are so realistic and detailed, down to the tiniest twig or bit of leaf, that one could easily mistake them for photographs. And in fact, they come from photographs.
To create the etching, Rubino photographs the object, makes a transparency of the photograph, exposes it to a plate into which the image is etched by means of light, then inks and prints the plate.
The resulting images possess sensuous tonal richness, depth of texture and subtlety of gradation from object to shadow to background.
In one sense, they look more true to the object than a photograph, because they achieve richness of texture without sacrificing clarity or detail. In fact, they may be less true to the object. The darker colors of a bird's nest probably don't look as velvety, its highlights probably don't have such a silvery sheen, as they do in a Rubino etching. But strict accuracy isn't the point here, beauty is, and Rubino has brought out the possibilities of beauty in these humble products of nature.
In some cases, she has used the same photograph to make etchings of a different size or on different papers, in order to produce more variations. The image of a nest on yellowish, parchment-like handmade paper looks older and more fragile than one on white paper. Printing the picture of a stone larger allows for more gradations of tone, slight differences in shadow.
I'm not sure Rubino could keep repeating the subject matter here and sustain interest indefinitely, but she does so in this show.
Galerie Francoise et ses freres, at Green Spring Station, Falls and Joppa roads, is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. The exhibit continues through Dec. 31. For information, call 410-337-2787.
Paint and words
From time to time, one encounters art that's less good than the idea it came from. Curiously enough, this flaw lies at the heart of the work of all four artists now showing at School 33 Art Center -- Ed Istwan and Gale Jamieson, who share the main gallery downstairs; Jennifer Blazina, who has a solo show in Gallery II upstairs; and David Crandall, in the installation space.
Istwan's works combine paint and words. The largest, "Talkshow," consists of 48 pairs of 9-inch-square panels arranged in 6 rows along one gallery wall. Each pair consists of one panel painted a single color -- blue, yellow, brown, etc. -- and the other panel painted black except for a two-word phrase superimposed in the color of the other panel. The phrases are extremely familiar, including: go away, hot gossip, loving you, wait up, why not, very good.
Istwan may want to make a statement about either the banality or the significance of everyday words and phrases. Or he may want to create a purely aesthetic experience in which the words act as visual components rather than communicative language. Or he may be making the point that that's impossible; words always render meaning, even when they're not intended to. But while it's well made, this work, like Istwan's others here, has too little impact.
Jamieson's works spring from three bombing episodes of last August: the terrorist attacks on American embassies in Africa, the American retaliation bombing of sites in Afghanistan, and the bombing in the Northern Ireland town of Omagh, which took place while Jamieson was visiting there.
Jamieson's mixed-media works assume a variety of forms, including cut newspapers hanging on the wall; vessel forms made of sticks, canvas and other material; images employing tea as a coloring agent; whole and broken teacups and saucers combined with paper and a poem. Jamieson says that her work is "not social or political comment, but a record of my experience and personal process."
Fair enough, and the world needs art that addresses the effort to come to terms emotionally and intellectually with violence so pervasive that people have become numb to it. Such art might approach Greek drama in its cathartic effect, but Jamieson's works here are mostly too inscrutable to communicate.
Similarly, Blazina's desire to convey the experience of searching for ethnic identity, in this case that of an Italian-American, is one with which virtually all Americans could identify if she rendered it in meaningful terms. And while reminiscence and self-questioning are common to all, David Crandall's installation addressing these subjects is as confused as his statement about it.
School 33 Art Center, at 1427 Light St., is open 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. The exhibits run through Jan. 15. For information, call 410-396-4641.
Artists' residences
The Fells Point Creative Alliance has announced a call for letters from artists interested in applying for residency at the Patterson Cultural Center. The center will be housed in the former Patterson Movie Theater at Eastern and East avenues in Highlandtown, currently undergoing renovation and expected to open in February 2000. The center will include a 3,500-square-foot exhibition space, a theater, a sidewalk cafe and studio residences for 11 artists.
The residences will be offered for three-year lease periods with rents of $550 to $650 per month. The 750-square-foot spaces will include kitchens, sleeping lofts, storage spaces, oversized doors and separate residents' entrance. Interested artists should send short letter, including name, address and telephone number, to the Fells Point Creative Alliance, 909 Fell St., Baltimore, Md. 21231, by Feb. 15.
Pub Date: 12/22/98