I attended a reception at the Roberson Museum in Binghamton back around 1985, when I was helping lead an evaluation of the city school system, but didn’t get to see much. When we moved to the Southern Tier in 1995, we said we had to go there. And now, more than 30 years after that original brief visit, we finally made it!
*What got us off the dime was an art exhibition of work by David Higgins. We know Dave slightly. Our kids knew him from when they were students at Corning Community College, where he’s a popular teacher. I exhibited a few of his pieces, as part of larger shows, when I was at Curtiss Museum, and he also sometimes shows at Dormann Library, where my wife works.
*But we decided to double our money, and scheduled the trip for when the gathering of a hundred Christmas trees was also available, and the three of us set off on the third Saturday in November for the hundred-mile trip to Binghamton.
*Dave’s exhibit serenely occupies a spacious second-floor gallery (Sears Harkness Hall). Each artwork has enough space to be appreciated on its own, and patrons can circulate freely, but there’s no feeling of emptiness or of excessive space.
*I have been enjoying Dave’s work in various venues for over twenty years, but I hadn’t realized what large canvases he sometimes works in. This gave the first one I encountered, a huge painting of a high-tension pylon, even more impact.
*High-tension pylon? Is this art? David freely states that architecture is a frequent theme in his paintings. If you know Corning, Elmira, or Binghamton, or certain parishes in Louisiana, you may recognize some of the scenes.
*It’s interesting to see how each locale has its own look and personality: Binghamton with its working-class ethnic neighborhoods; smaller Corning; Elmira with its rail arteries; and rural Louisiana, with its cows in the levee, its ancient shacks, and its vivid skies.
*There are also some shadow boxes or dioramas, and numerous much smaller paintings, about 4” by 5”. In some cases a dozen or more are gathered into a single frame, with titles such as June or December. Each painting is a little jewel reflecting the title theme.
*Dave frequently adds something incongruous to a painting… a fantasy character, or a chair that recurs often (and is actually in the show). Sometimes artists do this just whimsically, for the fun of it. Other times they want to introduce an element of incongruity, or destabilization, in order to challenge the viewer.
*Well, as a P.T.S.D. person I provide my own destabilization – expertly! (Practice, practice, practice.) I enjoy the paintings with the oddities, but I like even more the ones that stay rooted in reality. Painting realistically is challenging in the age of photography. David manages to paint realistically, but to do so in a way that moves beyond what a photograph would show. When an artist manages that… as Dave so often does… the framed canvas becomes a door opened into another world of emotion and experience. I especially loved the night scene in Binghamton; the yellow house in snow; and the larger version of Cows on the Levee.
*As for the Christmas trees – yeah! A hundred trees or so, many of them in the 1904 mansion. One space near Sears Harkness Hall is an “international forest,” representing the many ethnic groups that have made their home in the Binghamton area.
*And then – the model trains! Already famed for its layout, Roberson (mainly through its volunteers) recently spent two years TRIPLING the layout’s size. It captures something of Binghamton and its neighbors in the 1950s, and those who know the area will recognize much, from the IBM buildings to individual local stores. There’s even a drive-in movie theater, showing clips from “High Noon,” “Godzilla,” and other ‘fifties fare.
*There was more we could have seen, but we contented ourselves with a good start to our Christmas season and headed home, taking in a late lunch at the Blue Dolphin. A good November day.