"An Architecture of Spirit," paintings by Lainard Bush will be on display from Dec. 10 to Jan. 7 at the Crary Gallery, 511 Market St., Warren. An opening reception is planned for 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10, at the gallery. Exhibition hours will be 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Evening hours are from 7 to 9 p.m. each Thursday, and the gallery will be closed Dec. 24-26 and Dec. 31-Jan. 1.
Bush - a resident of local Spring Creek - said he is grateful to have the opportunity to "exhibit my paintings at the Crary Gallery in Warren," he said. "Usually my work is exhibited in other regions around the country. I am glad to have my work shown locally and in such a beautiful, contemporary space. I think it is the perfect setting for my paintings."
Bush's paintings "share a kinship with the primal art of tribal cultures and the sacred geometries of spiritual traditions, according to his Website, and his most recent work includes many engaging, dynamic movement, Bush explained. "I am pleased with high energy .... in the paintings I created this past year. I am particularly excited about 'Chance to Dance,' which I managed to complete in time for the exhibit."
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Chromagems
His work reflects the circuitries of the modern Cyber Age, and while current trends and art theories are of intellectual interest to me, when it comes to my own art and the process of its creation my primary inspiration and motivation to paint originates from deep within, he explained.
I usually begin painting with little forethought, Bush continued. There is little planning other than the marking off of a simple grid which serves as an anchor and skeletal framework. What follows is an organic process of rapidly building up and removing layers of color. Guided by the grid, the gestural application of paint alternates with repeated maskings. As I become deeply immersed in this process, fully engaged, and sharply focused, my awareness of time and self vanishes. Gradually the grid evolves into intricate patterns, which demarcate smaller worlds within the macrocosm of the canvas. I continue refining until the painting arrives at completion in a state of dynamic balance.
My painting can be viewed as embodiments of an aesthetic paradise, both in idea and experience. The word "paradise" originally meant "walled garden". Like a beautiful and complex garden, each completed canvas self-contained universe that invites one to take a visual journey of playful exploration. The painting's intricate patterns, in a rhythmic, serial fashion, urge the eye forward across the luminous and textured surface and into the depths which contain lushly colored, highly detailed , and precisely composed passages. Should that journey include a glimmer of paradise, then it has been a journey of revelation as well.
Bush, who will celebrate his 59th birthday on Dec. 15, earned a master of fine arts degree in 1981 from the San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, Calif.; a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1976, graduating magna cum laude from Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. His solo exhibits have included: 2010: "Dynamic Balance," Charapko Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; 2007: "Sudden Illumination," Charapko Gallery, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.; 2006: "Matrix," LaFond Gallery, Pittsburgh: 2002: University of the Pacific, San Francisco, Calif.; 1996: Carlynn Gallery, Delray Beach, Fla.; 1995: Coplan Gallery, Gallery Center, Boca Raton, Fla.; 1994: Joel Kessler Fine Art, Miami Beach, Fla.; 1992: Gallery Camino Real, Gallery Center, Boca Raton, Fla.; and 1989: Claudia Chapline Gallery, Stinson Beach, Calif.
He has had work selected in exhibitions in Miami and Naples, Fla.; Pittsburgh; Santa Fe; Clevelend; Los Angeles; Aspen, Colo., and more, and has had museum exhibitions at the "77th Annual Spring Show," Erie Art Museum, and the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. His work is in selected collections throughout the U.S.