Dylan Haviland – General Assignment Reporter
The two different artist’s work flowed beautifully together. Though they varied in appearance, both of the art pieces harmoniously captured peaceful scenes.
On the wall hung Frank Bruckmann’s “Shrimp Bisque,” an impressionistic oil painting showing an intimate and serene dinner scene with close ones. The brushstrokes are prominent in the painting, giving the piece a peaceful atmosphere. As if peering into a photograph, the painting captures three friends enjoying food and wine together.
Across, Marjorie Gillette Wolfe’s panoramic photograph, “Pier” provided a breathtakingly wide view of a pier leading into the vast waters. Though Wolfe’s photograph is displayed in a large scale, the calming colors and crisp detail captures every moment of the scene. Her series of panoramas makes one feel at peace with the surrounding.
Side by side the two works provided a thought provoking idea of people and their places.
The pieces were from the artist’s series: Bruckmann’s “Breaking Bread” and Wolfe’s “The Whole Wide World” exhibited in the Kehler Liddell Gallery in New Haven.
According to Bruckmann’s artist statement on “Breaking Bread” he was inspired by the Urban Dictionary definition of the term breaking bread, which described, “to affirm trust, confidence, and comfort with an individual or group of people.”
Working from photographs taken of subjects eating various dinners, his work is a close examination of how food and the company of people can be an enlightening experience.
The artist statement described his process towards the project, “I enjoy utilizing the imagery, by focusing on the relationship of one individual to another, the conversations, the food, wine and the candlelight.”
Bruckmann describes in his artist statement the intense work and effort put into the oil paintings, “the painting is complete when I have created something that might appeal to me if I had come across it in an exhibition; a painting that would have me return to search out subtleties that I might have missed.”
Other works of his in the gallery show a low candlelit dinner and a group of adults finishing dinner, their wine glasses full and enjoying the company of each other’s voices. Bruckmann’s work captures the experience sharing food with family, friends and strangers ultimately bringing them all together.
Wolfe’s archival pigment photograph series , “The Whole Wide World” exposes the beauty of nature. Using a computer to digitally combine several photographs into a wide panorama, Wolfe’s photos visually paint a landscape.
Her piece, “Historic District” is a 87 x 16.5 inch black and white panorama capturing a brick wall adorned with tablets. The crisp detail captures the age and memories of the place, with worn down bricks and the colors of the building ranging from white a burned out black. The tablets are chipped and battered but still maintain a sense of immortality in its history. The immense work of art makes the audience captivated by the photograph.
Wolfe’s “Buzzuto” captures a tall house situated in an empty and snow covered field. The photograph’s large scope lends to the long history of the old building. The 33.5 x 16.5 tells the story of place, changing the way people see everyday objects.
“In that blur is more than what our eyes let us see, but that we know is there,” said Wolfe in her artist statement. “This is way of reading the world that I’ve explored for the past two years.”
Photo Credit: Dylan Haviland
i had buy a painiting in Kehler Liddell Gallery, it’s very nice.