TWISTED, AGONIZED FACES PROMOTE PEACE : ARTIST SCULPTS STARK IMAGES OF WAR

For most of her career, artist Elenor Greenberg painted serene landscapes and low-key abstracts, pleasant, placid works that have garnered several awards, including a medal from the National Assn. of Women Artists.

Two years ago, however, Greenberg’s involvement in the peace movement took her work in a dramatic new direction. The 73-year-old artist began molding ceramic sculptures of twisted and agonized faces, mask-like visages made from torn slabs of clay.

Collectively entitled “Ravages of War,” the stark works went on display Thursday for the first time in a new group showing at the Irvine Fine Arts Center. A gallery reception will be held tonight for the artists exhibited in the show, “New Juice in Orange County II.”

“Ravages of War” is a direct reflection of Greenberg’s growing interest in the peace movement, which began with her membership in the Concerned Citizens for Peace group at the Laguna Hills retirement community of Leisure World, where she lives with her husband, Jack. Her new activism hit a peak last year when she and her husband took part in the much-publicized Great Peace March.

Greenberg described her ceramic works (individually called “Warheads”) as “the way I imagine the psyche of a man who has seen killing, or has killed. . . . There’s pain, a lot of pain, and terror and pathos in my mind for these people.”

Created over the course of a year, the “Ravages of War” series became an obsession for Greenberg. “I was working feverishly,” she recalled. “Once I started making them, they really started pouring out, one after another. . . . I can’t describe how I was taken over by this work. Its just like I was possessed.”

She finally ended the series with a symbol of peace, an exorcism of the images that she had carried with her for a year. “I was so filled with these things, I had to make an angel,” she said, pointing to a ceramic figure that hangs from the ceiling of her dining room.

Although she has finished the “Ravages of War” series, Greenberg has not abandoned social issues. She has embarked on a series of pieces that symbolize what she considers the mistreatment of the elderly and the pain and rejection felt by many of her contemporaries.

Greenberg’s art career began after she was graduated from the Pratt Institute in New York City and started working as a textile designer.

Her artistic endeavors slowed after she married and started raising a family, but she resumed painting as her children grew up. The scenery around her waterfront home in Connecticut was a favorite subject; later she moved into more abstract styles.

Although she never made her painting a full-time career, Greenberg exhibited regularly in East Coast galleries before she and her husband settled in Leisure World eight years ago. It was there that she discovered ceramics at the community’s studio, and set out to make a fountain for herself.

“The facilities are so good, and I always get excited about a new medium anyway,” she said.

Her work has been almost exclusively in ceramics since then. The Greenbergs’ bright, airy home, with a sweeping view of Santiago Peak, is filled with her creations: lamps, fountains, a bench and a table, along with paintings from earlier in her career.

The more recent works on war and aging also are displayed. Greenberg said visitors have generally responded well to them. Just a few have found them too depressing, an opinion she dismissed, saying, “They want happy-happy.”

Jack Greenberg, who said he has been his wife’s “most severe critic through the years,” called the “Ravages of War” series “the best thing she’s ever done.”

She began the war series before she took part in the Great Peace March, but her experiences on stretches of the coast-to-coast walk “confirmed what I was already doing.” She said she hopes her works spark interest in an anti-war group exhibit in Orange County.

After reading newspaper accounts of the Great Peace March, especially its financial troubles, the Greenbergs decided to see for themselves. They visited the marchers for two days on the California-Nevada border, and on the drive home, Jack Greenberg announced he wanted to take part.

The couple joined the march in Colorado in May, 1986, and stayed for a month. Jack, now 74 years old, often walked 20-25 miles in a single day, while Elenor drove alongside because she was unable to walk long distances.

“I don’t remember feeling better in my life, physically, spiritually or emotionally,” said Jack, who described the camaraderie and sense of purpose he felt as inspiring. He rejoined the march in Delaware for the final push to Washington.

Jack Greenberg said he believes that there is a connection between the spirit of the peace movement and his wife’s work.

“We find that people all over the world are yearning for peace,” he said. “There has to be a new direction, where people can express their feelings about it. This is Elenor’s way of doing it.”

An opening reception for “New Juice in Orange County II” will be held from 7 to 9 tonight cq at the Irvine Fine Arts Center, 4601 Walnut Ave. The center is open daily except Sunday. In addition to Greenberg, the exhibit features the work of Angie Bray, Darlene Campbell, Barbara Dorris, Sharon Lynn Ivicevic, Lynn LaBate, Dan Manns, Duncan Simcoe, Jillian Stewart, Charles Sutorius and Bert Yarborough.