Through the eyes of an artist (9/13/04)

One of the things art does for us is allow us to see the world through someone else’s eyes.

It can provide context and perspective and can shatter the presumptuous assumption that our own take on the world is the only or best take.

That’s particularly true when an artists’ eyes are directed on the familiar landscape we deal with every day. Most of us glide along the surface; art can bring us new insights we tend to overlook.

Those thoughts came to mind after Friday’s opening of an exhibit of Indiana and Ohio landscapes at Arts Place in Portland.

The exhibit features work by two Delaware County artists — David Dale, who specializes in pastels, and Jim Faulkner, a watercolorist. The two have been working for several months on a project that involves attempting to document the length of the Wabash River — from its most humble headwaters at a drainage tile in Darke County, Ohio, to the Ohio River — in artwork.

The project may take another year, and there weren’t enough of the Wabash River pieces to fill the gallery space at Arts Place, so the artists supplemented the exhibit with other Midwestern landscapes.

What’s especially fun about this current exhibit is that it allows people to see local scenes through the eyes of artists from outside the community.

Among the works, you’ll find scenes from New Corydon, Jay City, and Trinity in Jay County, Geneva in Adams County, and Fort Recovery, Ohio.

In short, you’ll find chunks of the landscape you drive through and walk through and work in every day but may not really see.

Take a look. We think you’ll come away with a new appreciation of a world we too often take for granted. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]