Andrea Broyles’ subconscious; toys at Muse

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

By Kate Balog

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-In Jackson, three weeks will pass with minimal activity in the art world and then the first Friday of the month arrives and it’s suddenly party time. This Friday is no exception, with artist reception parties scheduled at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary and Muse Gallery.

“I have a memory. Not really a memory, but a memory of a memory that I fell into a well when I was little and almost drowned. My parents denied this ever happened, of course. But I remember the silence and falling into the green water.” One would think this statement came from a 21-year-old yoga practitioner listening to the Thievery Corporation, but, in fact, its speaker was a slender, tanned, blonde Jackson mother of three, clad in faded jeans and expensive boots. Artist Andrea Broyles used this scene from her subconscious to inspire her painting “The Well,” a composition of three faceless, undulating figures swirled in green ribbons.

Broyles’ appearance, statements, and artwork are slightly incongruous. She is private and reserved, but also funny and dark. Her 2006 diagnosis with thyroid cancer may have contributed to her fascination with mortality.  She worked on a series of bullets using mixed media on paper after hearing the cure for her type of cancer was said to be “like a silver bullet.” 

“Common themes I explore are loneliness, relationships, gravity, aging and small shapes found in nature. … The idea of falling or of being disconnected from earth has always captivated me,” Broyles said. She is also captivated by the figure and is inspired by Renaissance artists and 20th century figurative artists, Manuel Neri and Larry Rivers. Broyles tends to experiment with different materials as she does with themes.

She has used all type of media - sculpture (resin, clay, plaster and bronze), oil paints, and mixed media with found objects. She recently explored the concept of shadows in charcoal and white gesso but found “the shadow started to look like a grave or coffin. I didn’t want it to be so depressing and dark, so I stopped and started another one playing with perspective and a ghostly figure. I wanted to convey a feeling of aloneness and simplicity,” she explained.

Sometimes Broyles paints faces and sometimes not, depending on the kind of emotion she wants her work to portray. Faces directly reflect emotion and occasionally she prefers a vague sense of emotion to emit from the figure and the bodily expression.
“I Ask for a Word” features an elongated, faceless man with mini drawers containing found objects constructed at the bottom of the painting. “Self Portrait,” on the other hand, has a distinct, haunting, green face with no neck and a figure swaddled in a red coat. Broyles’ work also has a playful side. For example, her wood painting/sculpture of a plump woman whose body and head are wrapped in towels is an amusing rendition of the Venus Di Milo.

Trained in sculpture at University of Texas, Broyles later found herself attracted to the simplicity of materials in painting. “I didn’t have the resources to set up a studio for sculpture,” she explains.  She recently worked on a study in small scale combining a wood panel background and layers of wax, oil paint and sculptural elements such as upholstery finishing nails.

Broyles has always been a professional artist, but took time off after having kids. She and her husband, screenwriter and author William Broyles, have lived in Jackson on and off for 10 years, but this show is actually her first one-woman show in Jackson. Broyles acknowledges in her new book, “The Gathering,” that she hasn’t followed the rules of being an artist. Instead, she got married, had children, never pursued an MFA, and moved to Jackson instead of a major art center. Nevertheless, she finds satisfaction in her creative journey, professional recognition, and even struggle in her work.
Her book will be available on Friday for purchase. Broyles will attend for book signings, and DJ Howler will spin. The artist’s reception runs 5:30 to 7 pm on Friday at Lyndsay McCandless Contemporary, 130 South Jackson Street.

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Muse Gallery presents the photographs of Jenny Gummersall and Kristina Loggia in a two-woman show in the month of February. Jenny Gummersall is a fine art photographer working in traditional and digital photography and mixed media.
 Gummersall resides near Durango, Colo., a town in which she often has solo exhibitions. The magazine “Cowboys & Indians” featured a nine page spread on Gummersall in 2005 and will revisit her work again this March.    

Gummersall captures the American West through her “Horse Dreams” series and use of an Appaloosa toy horse. The horse represents the Western ideas of wide open spaces, adventure, pursuing one’s own destiny and creativity and is also an object of cultural myth. The Appaloosa is the American Indian pony and is a potent talisman that represents power, freedom and grace. This lucky toy pony has been to Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and the Pacific coastline modeling in Gummersall’s shots. 

Another subject she frequently uses is the Barbie doll, the iconic image of the ideal woman years ago. Her work sometimes combines both the toy horse and a Barbie accessory with the intention of reminding adults to reclaim the joy experienced in their childhood dreams.

Photographer Kristina Loggia was born and raised in New York City, graduated from bohemian Sarah Lawrence College, studied acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory in New York City and in Los Angeles. In 1988, while at the Adler Conservatory she heard Ed Asner lecture about the war in El Salvador. She left acting and traveled to El Salvador as a photographer with the Witness to Peace Program. Since then Loggia has continued to work as a photographer. Her work has appeared in many magazines including Time, Spin, Detour, and Fortune. Her primary love of documentary photography has lead to studies of children, rodeo and American life.

Over the past three years, Loggia has worked on the “Apron Chronicles: A Patchwork of American Recollections” in which she photographed numerous people for this project while writer Ellyn Anne Geisel has collected the writings of the contributors. Forty-three of the images from this collaboration are presently a large scale exhibition traveling throughout the United States. She has also been a photographer to the stars and has captured everyone from Martin Scorsese to Julianne Moore. Her current show, “Trees,” is much different than her usual work and is the first time she has departed from environmental portraiture. It is essential to go to the show to get a true understanding of her study.

The artists’ reception for “Horse Dreams” and “Trees” takes place from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday at Muse Gallery, 62 South Glenwood. Call 733-0555. The show hangs through Feb 27.

Courtesy
“Date Night” by Andrea Broyles, oil on wood, 30 x 42.

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Andrea Broyles’ subconscious; toys at Muse | Planet JH News Article: Arts Beat

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