CAC offers free artist panel discussion

The two current exhibitions that are on view at the Art Center will be the focus of a panel discussion with the artists tomorrow afternoon. It’s a unique opportunity to hear the artists discuss their influences and working methods.

Gordon McConnell’s show, entitled “West of Everything,” features a range of new and selected paintings drawn from images of classic black-and-white Western films.

These images focus on McConnell’s fascination with action scenes drawn from classic films from the 1930s through the 1950s. As the artist says, “Flying teams of horses, stagecoaches, smothered in sun-stuck dust, desperate bandits on the run, cowboys, cavalry troopers and fearless Indians—wild riders all—are the main subjects of my work.”

In addition to the movie references, other works in the exhibition reference the stop motion sequences of moving horses done by the nineteenth century photographer Eadweard Muybridge. Collectively, the works open up new perspectives on one of our most popular and enduring genres, film portrayals of the settling of the American West.

Jane Waggoner Deschner’s show, “It Must Be True,” consists of a wide range of works all dealing with her use and manipulation of found photographs. Deschner gleans photos from a variety of sources from thrift shops to eBay.

Her work is both homage to the process of largely anonymous photographers “snapshooting” — taking photographs to commemorate moments large and small in their daily lives — and a reinvention, and re-visualizing of the remnants of this process.

Forging new compositions from myriad sources—by cropping, enlarging, re-arranging and juxtaposing the vernacular images—Deschner’s work can be seen as an exploration of our shard humanity. She also hand embroiders selected quotes from a variety of authors from Thoreau to Sartre, Freud and Nietzsche—directly on the photographic images, to create pointed, and frequently humorous, “samplers” of distinct originality.

Joining the artists for the discussion will be Marci Rae McDade, who is the editor of the contemporary textile arts quarterly, “Surface Design Journal,” and author of a catalog essay on Deschner’s work. The panel discussion will begin at 4 p.m. in the Art Center’s galleries and will be followed by a reception for the artists from 5 to 7 p.m. Both the panel and reception are free and open to the public. For information, call Churchill Arts at 775-423-1440.

There are still a few tickets available for the Ana Popovic concert on Feb. 1, although they are selling fast. If you’ve any interest in seeing this phenomenal guitarist and vocalist, get your tickets before they sell out. Tickets are $17 for CAC members, $20 for nonmembers and can be picked up at Jeff’s Copy Express, ITT @ NAS Fallon or by calling CAC at 775-423-1440.

Kirk Robertson writes about the arts scene.