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January 19, 2007
Of Body, Land and Mind

By Josef Woodard

SANTA BARBARA NEWS-PRESS
Traditional measures of critical appraisal only barely apply when viewing “Friend & Family Show,” the group show currently in the Harris and Fredda Meisel Gallery of Art in the Rehabilitation Institute of Santa Barbara.

In part, the wide diversity of artistic quality and levels of seriousness relate to the very nature of the show’s participants, both amateur and professional, who are all former patients, employees of friends of the institute.

Environmental context also plays a role in the character of art appreciation in this gallery setting. In this and many other shows presented here, the palpable atmosphere and goal of healing, and the sense of transformative transition can’t help but color the experience of seeing art on the walls.

No particular theme binds the artists gathered here – other than their various connections to the institute itself. But the general default subject of landscape inevitably finds its way into the show and from different artistic angles.

Kathleen Elsey is a member of the group known as the American Impressionist Society, and she brings her own impressionistic stamp to outdoorsy work. But there’s a range of expressive values entailed in that asserted sense of personalized style.

In “Old Mission, Early Morning,” she doesn’t skimp on the vivid palette or on the thickly dabbed tactile paint surface. Subtler means prevail in “Old Barn, Sedgwick,” with its smart composition and softer harmonic color scheme.

Contrasts are also embraced in the landscape paintings of Susanne Leasure, from the romantic natural showcase of “Puddles on the Path–Montana de Oro” to the more atmospherically sensitive “Tide Pools at Dawn.”

Among the other artists tucked into the exhibition are painters Palyl Leasure, Glee Morse and ceramicist George Marlow. Mary Freerick’s “Afternoon” is a pleasingly spare watercolor landscape study with plenty of white space for visual and mental breathing room. Also in the mix are Jamie O’Toole’s friendly portraits of big cats and Cynthia De Vine’s giddy and crafty assemblages, including ‘Undersea Fantasy,” an over-sized oceanic dream.

Just when you think that frothy pieces like DeVine’s tug at the border between art and craft, a reality check sneaks in. You might find yourself reflecting on the physical rehab and repair of body and mind, which takes place in the large room just behind this wall, giving the art a weightier perspective than it might have anywhere else in town.