Trappings of a Theme

Artist Jennie Snyder likes to put things in cages, gilded and otherwise.

From a safe distance, or seen with a diffusing squint, they appear harmless, even decorative. Gazing in a broad way at her assemblage work, now showing in the second-floor gallery of Natalie’s Fine Threads, the eye is tickled by bejeweled surfaces, glittery adornments and a generally pleasant demeanor.

But wait, are those little spikes and nails next to the tiny gold-colored roses? Are those real dog ashes in the piece called “Sam’s Ashes?” The closer you look at Snyder’s work, the clearer the realization that there are dark subplots going on.

Snyder cagily (pardon the pun) creates art in containers, cages and shrine-like structures that convey both the qualities of proudly showcasing the objects within and incarcerating them. It’s art about containment, and that’s not always a happy attribute. The work is not always subtle, but it begs to be looked at and thought about.

The big, fancy bird cage in “Hummingbird Funeral” is draped in a lavish red velvet “curtain.” The door is open, but its occupant, a tiny stuffed hummingbird, ain’t goin’ nowhere. It’s dead. Stuffed. A living thing rendered into artifact. The cage’s floor is lined with broken eggshells painted in glimmering gold paint, another allusion to animal life romanticized to death.

A similar theme of stilled life force, whether on a metaphorical or actual level, comes through in “This Caged Bird Don’t Sing,” with a headless bird wired into its harness in an otherwise nicely designed object that might go well with the furniture.

With “In the Woods, Where Wild Women Grow,” she shows more of a feminist perspective. She trains her focus on the fetishization of the female form in culture--in fine art as much as in mass culture. In the back of this box-like tableau, a painting of a Pre-Raphaelite-like nude wriggles sensually amid leaves and bird feathers, a wild woman whose abandon has presumably been unleashed by male fantasy.

All is not lined with dark feelings: “For My Girl” is an ode to another pooch, with a tiny bowl of kibble in the middle, a token of warm regards for the dog seen in a small photo in the back of the box. But nearby, the angst is delivered without garnish or trickery in the plainly titled “Fear.” Here, an Edvard Munch-ish drawing of a woman curling up in a ball of anguish is seen behind a mesh of rusty wire, with tiny charms dangling from the bottom of the frame.

Snyder covers a lot of ground, from a sincere memorial to a deceased dog to more ambiguous themes, where paradoxes and indignation rule. And she pulls it off with an apparent glee for the crafty business of mixing media, without losing sight of the importance of having something to say.

Also currently showing in the gallery are works on paper by Ginger Moore-Maxwell, whose imagery in oil and pencil leans toward floral subjects and interwoven designs that suggest endless loops. Some pieces are torn into telling shapes, emphasizing the fragility and flexibility of paper.

The intertwining lines of her “Double Infinity” play off the endless looping of the double helix, given visual dazzle with the glint of gold paint. “Charming Luck” combines another carefully wrought pattern, twisted into a bow, attached to shapes evoking white flower petals. Nature and the human quest for order meet.

Like her gallery mate’s work, Moore-Maxwell’s pieces have a deceptively casual air, as she explores the connection between nature, geometry and the will to find symbolic life in carefully wrought patterns. Ironically, they have a complementary relationship with their environment. Directly overhead in this vintage building, the carved floral motifs in the wood rafters seem to speak to the shapes in her art.

DETAILS

Ginger Moore-Maxwell and Jennie Snyder, through July 17 at Natalie’s Fine Threads, 596 E. Main St., in Ventura. Hours: 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saurday; 643-8854.

Josef Woodard, who writes about art and music, can be reached by e-mail at joeinfo@aol.com.