WHAT: ART DISPLAY TITLE “AFFAIRS WITH HEROINES AND SERPENTS” FEATURING THE WORK OF BARBARA MELNIK CARSON, BIRGIT HUTTEMAN-HOLZ AND PATRICIA IZZO.
WHEN:
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WHERE:
RIVER’S EDGE GALLERY 3024 BIDDLE ST. DOWNTOWN WYANDOTTECONTACT:
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Three Female Artists Create Meaningful Messages Without Trying
Whether art is meant to send a message or not is of no importance to 3 female artists participating in a new show at River’s Edge Gallery in downtown Wyandotte. Meaningful art is the only way they know to do it. “I placed these well established artists on the same stage because of that,“ explained Jeremy Hansen, the gallery director.
Barbara Melnik Carson, Birgit Huttemann-Holz and Patricia Izzo only knew each other from their work and each was so impressed with the others art that they quickly accepted Hansen’s invitation to show together. They named their effort Affairs with HeroInes and Serpents. They knew they couldn’t help but give a female bent to their work but did not want this show to be just about feminism but about their life’s work.
Birgit, who was raised and educated in Germany, pointed out that words are made non gender in Europe by adding a capital “I” and then “nes”. Thus the word “HeroInes”. They pointed out that their histories (as all of mankind) has been made up of both HeroInes and Serpents…the light and the dark…the good and the evil. All three artists stated that this has become a basic motivation in much of their art.
All three are also masters of their own medium although quite different from each other. Barbara Melnik Carson uses clay and found objects to create 3 dimensional images that tell a story. Titles give away some meaning but the viewer knows there is more. Titles such as “Sacred words” and “Cures and Conversations” give some information but the rest is up to the artist to spill the beans or the viewer to fill in their own thoughts.
Brigit Huttemann-Holz uses an encaustics technique, a very difficult medium that Holz has mastered. She begins with bees wax, mixes in tints to make her own colors and applies it to a wood base with a torch. She moves the wax around by melting it and basically paints with fire. Figuratives, she says, “are the most difficult. You can ruin it in the last stroke, the last pass of fire.” Her selection is all figurative with such meaningful titles as “Dialogue with Eve” and “Lilith’s Odyssey”.
Patricia Izzo not only is a trained painter but also a world renown photographer. You see both mediums used in her selection. Besides traditional black and white photographer (she has let the digital age pass her by and only shoots with film) she also hand paints many of her images, some so much so that it would be difficult to differentiate them from a painting. She chooses unusual substrates to print her art on using everything from metal to canvas to watercolor paper. Her titles, such as an Emily Dickinson quote “Tomorrows are made up of Nows” and “Little Saint of Broken Dolls” also give you hint of what the artist was seeing but leaves plenty of room for the viewer to ponder.
The show runs until January 31st. Artist’s will be available for a meet and greet on Wyandotte's Third Friday on December 16th at 6:00 pm . Anyone interested should check the website at
