*A few weeks ago in this space we took a trip to Dansville ArtWorks, and today we’re stepping up to the Yates County Arts Center, in Penn Yan.
*We went in particular because our friend Jean Hubsch is exhibiting fine needlework along with Nancy LeVant (quilting) and Raphaela McCormack (3D paper and fiber art), in a show entitled “Stay in the Loop.”
*Well, I know a thing or two about art, but I also know what I like. And I LIKE Nancy LeVant’s “Snowy Egret” quilt, with the huge gold circle of the sun (moon?) backgrounding the almost life-size bird. It arrests you and delights you all at once.
*Her “Alaska” quilt is large enough to befit the state, with designs suggestive of Native designs, and blocks depicting the eagle, orca, bear, and moose – not to mention the salmon, the loon, and a landscape.
*“Autumn Leaves” builds very nicely on the classic maple leaf pattern, but my favorite quilt was actually graphic and geometric, rather than pictorial – “Feathered Star,” with a multipointed star inlaid within a larger star. The shading is what caught my attention, and made it my favorite. I’m not sure I can explain why but, as I said, I know what I like.
*Sticking with the bird theme (egret-eagle-loon), I was struly struck by two oversize color photos from Nancy Ridenour. “Great Egrets Mating Behavior at Rookery” captures three of the large white birds, one of them displaying with wings and throat, and no doubt vocalizing. (One of them is peeking in from the shrubbery, perhaps waiting for his chance to move in.) “Great Blue Heron Flying into Rookery” captures the majestic bird in flight, with wings wide, primaries spread, and legs trailing. It also brings out the bird’s many colors, which we usually miss in the field.
*On the painting side, Kathy Armstrong’s “Goose Parade” makes a funny barnyard scene. On the other hand in “Pines at Dawn” Karleen VanDeusen has captured with surprisingly few strokes the eerie beauty of first light in a pine forest, with wide-winged birds soaring above.
*As far as Jean’s embroidery is concerned, it’s always excellent work, which explains why she’s so highly regarded among needlework artists. The Hardanger-technique “Christmas House” has multiple levels. We view the house itself on a second surface, through a cutout in the first surface. And we view the interior of the house, including Christmas tree, through a window in the second surface.
*Brambles and Berries” (3D counted thread technique) pushes past traditional embroidery, with the brambles actually breaking free from the surface, casting shadows beneath.
*But perhaps the one I liked best is a quiet piece in stumpwork technique, with a plant aspiring high, carrying along its leaves and blossoms.
*I sometimes exhibited Hannelore Woolcott-Bailey’s work when I was director of Curtiss Museum, and I was delighted by her painting “Milkweed,” with seeds exploding from the pods, and monarchs beholding the swelling scene. It’s small, and it’s glorious.
*Hannelore also painted the more whimsical “Grandview, Keuka,” a wraparound view of the lake and the Bluff, speckled with sailboats, gulls, hayrolls, and a tractor.
*And, of course, the Art Center’s in an old bank (at 127 Main Street), and the door to the vault is a breathtaking example of industrial art all by itself. Really, take some time to grok its artistic and mechanical intricacies.
*”Stay in the Loop” is up until June 8. But there’s always stuff worth seeing, no matter what the date.