By Laura Graves

In a time where the future remains uncertain, the past shines through with the glow of familiarity and stability. Featured from May 29 to August 22 in the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University Barry Masteller’s, Boulevards takes on a new luminosity as prospects in our community take on darker hues. Barry Masteller’s subtle transitions from light to dark, using a technique called sfumato, apply not only to his transition of color but also to his exploration of emotion. Such skill remains effective in a society that has witnessed a rapid, nearly imperceptible change of its own— between a favorable and unfavorable economic status. Originally used by Leonardo Da Vinci for fine details, Barry Masteller revitalizes sfumato to great effect to apply not only to the transition between the lights and darks of his palette but also in the fine, untold emotions these colors explore. Just as these cityscapes are familiar and at the same time foreign so too do they resonate with each individual viewer and yet remain mysterious.

What could be timelier than an exhibit revisiting memory in an unstable world? Barry Masteller explains that, “My images are not of real places but of the imagined, felt or memorized places of the mind.” The viewer is asked not just to explore Barry Masteller’s individual streets, but also the roads of his or her own memory. As the artist works with the autumn colors so characteristic of the Monterey Peninsula Tonalists, one may discover one’s own autumn tinted moments if they are out there. Can we know what makes memory so appealing? While in the paint itself Masteller has created something concrete he has captured moments that are ephemeral. These moments vary from viewer to viewer as we too; wander our own hidden boulevards seeking hope in the horizon— or in the light over a steel railroad bridge.

It is true that Barry Masteller’s exhibit, Boulevards, has a dark, unsettling, and at the same time, candescent quality. Perhaps the answer to this balance lies in Masteller’s statement, “I believe painting is like language and paintings like words, each making up a kind-of vocabulary whose meaning becomes clearer or at least more complete with each subsequent work.” There is an emotional quality explored behind the chiaroscuro technique but conceivably it’s unsettling because the colors are like language. The tints of colors become words and the shading becomes sentences, which one may or may not comprehend. Are the cityscapes filled with tension because of their autumn tones or because they are trying to speak to us? Just as Barry Masteller used layers of paint to create the works most recently on exhibit at the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, so too did he layer recognizable symbols such as street lights with colors that disturb certain sets of emotions, perhaps untouched, within an individual. The exploration of community and isolation are well supported by the failure and success of painting as vernacular.

Current Exhibit at Eleanor D. Wilson Museum

Reunion 2009: Exhibition of Recent Work by Mary Page Evans ‘59, Landscape Artist
May 28 – September 5, 2009

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University is proud to feature a solo exhibition by nationally known artist Mary Page Evans. In the exhibition From Nature, Evans will present paintings and works on paper focusing on the elements of nature with a significant emphasis on the Roanoke Valley. Working directly in nature (en plein air), Evans relates her work to music-each element working in harmony to create masterful works of art. Since the early 1970s, Mary Page Evans’ work has been the focus of numerous solo and group exhibitions in galleries, art museums and universities as well as in United States Embassies around the world. Her work is in the collections of several public and corporate collections such as the DuPont Company, MBNA, and National Museum of Women in the Arts, State Museum of Pennsylvania, University of Delaware, Delaware Art Museum, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Evans is a graduate of Hollins University (formerly Hollins College) and will return to campus for the opening of the exhibition, which will take place during Hollins’ Reunion Weekend. Evans will give a gallery talk to her class (1959), and other returning alumni as part of the festivities.

Upcoming Exhibit at Eleanor D. Wilson Museum

BETTY BRANCH, Through The Crow’s Eye: A Retrospective
September 17 – November 22, 2009
Opening reception and artist lecture: September 17, 2009, 6 p.m.

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum is pleased to curate and present the first major retrospective of internationally recognized Roanoke artist Betty Branch. Through the Crow’s Eye honors one of the most respected sculptors in the southeast region. Her work has been exhibited worldwide and is presented in an exhibition showcasing decades of artistic experimentation.

Gallery Hours:
Tues-Fri: 10 am to 4 pm; Sat: 1-5 pm

Gallery Information:
(540) 362-6532