,
VVhat:Pa •
by
Nancy Thompson
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11
VVhen: Through
VVhere: Hudson River Gallery,
538
Gilbert St.,
Iowa City
VVhat: Paintings by Drew Starenko . VVhen: Ongoing
Master
VVhere: Salon,
119 East VVashington St., Iowa City
,
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5
New York and currently works as a cardiac nurse in the Quad Cities. The romantic style of his work takes cues from the vivid light ing techniques of the 19th-century Hudson River School painters who sought to convey spirituality and emotion through contrasts of light and dark.
Roots Stem and Branches
Westfall
for
Clean Livin'
My Heart is in the Shape of Your Face
is dominated by shadowy clouds over a minimal landscape. A luminous break in the clouds is reminiscent of a full moon veiled by a storm or the visionary work of Albert Pinkham Ryder (1847- �917). Starenko's pal ette is dark, but with a radiance that is more mystical than melanchoty. In For Beth At the End of the Day, Starenko perfectly captures that timeless serenity as the late afternoon light rakes across the stubbly growth of a nondescript field under a dusky sky. It is a dreamlike space tinged at the edges with a poetic nostalgia. An elusive sense of place is present in all of these works. While fixed in the Midwest flat foregrounds, overgrown fields, dominant sky Starenko's land scapes are enigmatic and iconic. As part of his method, he takes photographs of his surroundings but then puts these away before he begins to paint. The purpose of this exercise is to focus his attention, not to provide visual reference material. Starenko's paintings do not document place but instead work as a composite of imagination and memory. Working from observation and personal interpretation to the romantic sublime, Thompson and Starenko are part of a long continuum of landscape painters. Far more than a portrayal of natural (or modified) scenery, landscape paintings communicate something essential about the artist, culture and 'contemporary attitudes about nature. These artists share their own perceptions and offer us new ways to see the terrain that is everywhere around us. LV
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24
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SSDP Benefit The Absurd I Euforia
Liberty Plaza, lIury, 965
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North Liberty
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Poetry Slam
"I' open daily 509 s.
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city
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