Inspiring, therapeutic

The Burbank Art Assn.’s Spring Art Exhibition is unpretentious. The range of talent is vast, making it un-intimidating.

There is truly room for all. Creating art serves everyone differently. The finished product, the act of creating, or the total experience can be inspiring, therapeutic, or career building. Art is not necessarily full of success or failure, just experience.

The spring exhibition is an eclectic collection of competitors, presenting their artistic efforts, having exercised a wide variety of techniques, media and artistic genres. Collage, acrylic, pencil, watercolor and mixed media have been worked into abstract Expressionism, portraiture, landscapes, seascapes and still-lifes.

Hosted by Vincent Carnegie and Geosystems Inc. in Glendale, the annual show and contest is an opportunity for members of the Burbank Art Assn. to share their work with the local public and receive feedback from experts and colleagues.

The association has been serving the community since 1950 and provides a forum for anyone to learn or teach in various workshops scheduled throughout the year. Beginners, teachers and professionals are represented in the spring show.

The association categorized this event into the Open and the Honors divisions. Each division awarded a Best in Show, first, second, third places, and an honorable mention.

The Best in Show in the Open Division was awarded to Rick Karp for his work titled “A Piece of the Past.” The mixed-media piece consists of a large wooden peace sign (play on words in the title) painted red, white and blue, filled with imagery from the hippie movement. Beatles, Haight-Ashbury and drug references are layered in a collage that is energetic and interesting to visually dissect.

The art show juror selected “Vista del Mar,” a rocky seascape by artist Arline Helm as Best in Show for the Honors Division. Helm masterfully controls the watercolor medium using a rough cold press paper as her ground, which adds an interesting organic texture. I would love to see this piece framed in something equally organic as an extension of the image.

A wonderful example of extending a work of art beyond its ground is my personal Best in Show “Silence,” an abstract work by Armineh Teimourian. The background canvas is an acrylic wash of brown, orange and red, with a tree-root-like protuberance bursting vertically out of the canvas.

It is a visual tease. It is mounted on an ancient easel of distressed wood held together by antique hardware and screws. The painting appears to be intimately related to the easel. It looks quite rich and natural. I would own this piece.

Another artist worth mentioning is Antonio Palayo for his drawing La Villa. He was awarded first place in the Genre/Life category of the Open Division for this micro-detailed, graphite figurative rendering.

An apparent multi-generational grouping of people is expertly delineated, which connects hauntingly to the viewer. The heads and faces are complete, while portions of their bodies are left void in outline.

One’s imagination wants to either finish the image or conjure up meaning behind the voids.

The figures are miraculously grounded considering that there is no background, resulting in a feat of perspective.