By Zachary Lewis
When Caroline Jasper looks outside, she can't help but think her eyes are deceiving her. She knows humans rarely perceive anything in full definition. As an artist, Jasper finds this biological truth fascinating and has exerted a great deal of effort trying to represent on canvas what and how humans really see.
"Our eyes can only focus on one thing at a time, and so they literally jump back a forth all the time." she said. "We don't see edges as they really are, and our brains might make something far away look clear, even though we know it's not."
From a distance, Jasper's contributions to the "Five Artist Exhibition," which opened last weekend at the Art Association of Harrisburg, appear to be studies in near photographic realism. Upon closer examination, however, her works break down into myriad component parts and reveal a much stronger connection to Impressionism.
"People who have trouble drawing what they see are really looking at what they think they're seeing," Jasper said. "By working quickly, you realize, 'Hey, that works.' That's how you really see things."
Most pieces presented here, like "Surface Rigging," "Amber Dawn" and "Platted Path," utilize simple - even hackneyed - settings. Certainly there's nothing new about nautical or forest scenes. But these standard locations provide the backdrop for some very nonstandard exploration of fundamental principles of light, shadow and color.
"When I paint, I try to convey what attracted me to a certain place and made me want to stop and take it in," Jasper said. "And usually, its what's going on with light that attracts me. If the light isn't right, forget it."
Jasper, who lives and teaches in the Baltimore, Maryland area, is fond of using small flecks of solid color, which together merge into a coherent image. The effect is often stunning - such as the way light shimmers off rippled water or the shiny deck of a small boat.
Every aspect of the final product is carefully controlled, difficult as it is to depend on Mother Nature for the perfect conditions.
"I sometimes get anxious deciding which parts to put together. Every detail becomes important to me," she said. "That's what drives me nuts about working outside. But when I see something I like, I want to paint it."
Besides the great Impressionists, Jasper said she considers fellow contemporary artist Chuck Close a heavy influence on her technical, composite approach. Close paints huge portraits but works in sections, painting each block with minute care. The final product, like Jasper's works, are meant to be enjoyed from a distance.
"His art is all about technique," Jasper said of Close. "Every color lesson I know is embodied somehow in his paintings."
Fundamental as issues of light are to Jasper's work, so are they to three of the other four artists in the Art Association's exhibition - some with greater success than others.
Acrylic paintings by Chris Osborne of Brooklyn, NY, also rely on delicate shadings of light for effect. Osborne, too, opts for uncomplicated subjects - such as lily pond or a screened-in porch - and recreates them with vivid intensity in luminous color.
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"Shadow Pattern", oil on canvas by Caroline Jasper
A particularly interesting feature of Osborne's work is the degree to which subjects out of view maintain an almost palpable presence. In "Lily Pond in Autumn" and "Winter Sunrise," for example, it is not hard to feel the sun or locate its position off canvas.
John Keech, a mixed-media artist from State University, AK, gets the prize for sheer novelty, though it's difficult to divine just what he is after. Light is essential to his work as well, as many of his pieces either contain their own electric light source or are meant to be hung in window. "Venum" and "X-Ray Illuminator Gangliformis" are technical but in a literally scientific sense. The images he produces appear eerily like specimens of some otherworldly creatures preserved under glass. But they are intriguing, especially the piercing "Eye of God."
Photos by Neal Grahm of South Burlington, VT, succeed in little besides freeze-framing life's lazy, relaxed moments. He has captured scenes of families and children enjoying days at the beach or poolside afternoons with unforgiving honesty.
The photographs, while in a sense charming, are somewhat low on interest and substance. The fact that he is careful to mention specific locations is of scant relevance in most cases.
The only other artist here for whom light is not paramount is Jonanne Landis of Troxelville. Landis' significant contrubution to the exhibition consists of large oil paintings. These make it evident that she is far more concerned with how an individual fits into his or her surroundings.
Her work tends to fucus on a single subject, often obscuring other characters or reducing them to mere outlines. Pieces such as "Learning to Dance" and "Escape from Olympus: convey an impression of motion just completed or inn progress and the emotion involved in the movement. Her broad strokes manage a sense of direction.
Others, such as "Facing East" and "Woman in a Blue Dress," are more reflective - even quasireligious - in nature. Landis' narrative style offers a pleasing contrast in this "Five-Artist Exhibition" because most pieces do not aspire to such extra-visual content.
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