Facing The Universe: The Cosmos Within.

FACING THE UNIVERSE: THE COSMOS WITHIN.

FACING THE UNIVERSE: THE COSMOS WITHIN. Curated by David Anthony Hummer and Didi Menendez Inspired by Bob Hicok Wausau Museum of Contemporary Art February 25 – April 24, 2021 Online Exclusive at Artsy

Nietzsche’s philosophy contemplates the meaning of values and their significance to human existence. Given that no absolute values exist, in Nietzsche’s worldview, the evolution of values on earth must be measured by some other means. This exhibition explores those values within each artist. What motivates, inhibits, elates, exacerbates, and ultimately pushes them to find a way to visually express their inner being.

WAUSAU MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART

Yunior Hurtado Torres CIVILIZATION, 2020 Oil on canvas 71 × 71 in

Where are we again?

by Bob Hicok New Year’s Day. The forecast: seventy-three and sunny, with a ninety percent chance the ice caps will melt in my lifetime.

I just microwaved a dried-out molasses cookie and enjoyed its soft flavor as I watched a mountain wake up.

Of course I'm happy to have eaten the cookie. That the sun has found me again.

That I'll walk around today in a t-shirt and smile at wagging people and dogs.

That I don't have to shovel or shiver. To have a full fridge and a computer under my fingers, another downstairs and a third at work. That cars and chickens grow on trees. That I can reach out to Amazon for any everything I want and the genie of FedEx will presto it to my door.

That wealth and ease convince me I am safe and immortal, that no lion or flood will do me in.

But I'm also thinking of a number between one and iron oxide, of a philosophy between falling down drunk and shooting myself in the head, of all the good that thinking has done us: none. Not really.

Not from the green and blue world's bruised perspective.

Every day, the odds increase that consciousness, tool-making, opposable thumbs, figurative language, belly dancing, spelunking, space travel, jet, downhill, cross-country, and water skiing, football and the other football, plastic surgery, superconducting super colliding, square and dodecahedron dancing, the mélange of accomplishments and attributes we brag to each other about, are the biggest evolutionary oops

of all time. For just as deer in the rain get wet and live with it; cats kill birds and frogs and maybe eat them, often don't; vultures gyre and invite each other with this geometry to make the most of a dead rabbit in the road, we are stuck in the hump of our natures, junkies of comfort and pleasure who can't say no to salt and fat and porn, to whatever is soft, easy, warm.

The good news: twenty thousand years after the last human has died, the Earth will have forgotten us.

Eternity, it turns out, has a short attention span.

Of course I'm happy with summer-in-winter, this uni-season we're inventing, that I've saved enough to retire and visit London, Lahore and Lisbon, that the Audi I drool over comes in sky-blue this year, that the sky is still here, to be a Capricorn born in a time of cornucopia, to live as if id is the boss of me, as if capitalism is the best idea nature ever had.

Why say yes to less when I know I'll be dead way longer than I'll live.

I think absinthe is preferable to abstinence, therefore I am human.

But sure, by all means, let us change.

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1 New Year’s day. The forecast: seventy three and sunny, with a ninety percent chance the ice caps will melt in my lifetime.

I just microwaved a dried out molasses cookie and enjoyed its soft flavor as I watched a mountain wake up. Of course I’m happy to have eaten the cookie. That the sun has found me again. That I’ll walk around today in a t-shirt and smile at wagging people and dogs. That I don’t have to shovel or shiver. To have a full fridge and a computer under my fingers, another downstairs and a third at work. That cars and chickens grow on trees. That I can reach out to Amazon for any everything I want and the genie of FedEx will presto it to my door. That wealth and ease convince me I am safe and immortal, that no lion or flood will do me in. But I’m also remembering that I’ve owned one car for twenty five years, have stopped buying or receiving purchased presents for Christmas, that I don’t eat chicken anymore. A drop in the bucket still makes the bucket wet. By all means, let us change in whatever small ways we can while the sky as we know it is still here.

‘A Life Within Her’, a portrait of the artists daughter, mirroring her grounding connection to nature in an ever changing world.

Kate Van Doren

Kate Van Doren A Life Within Her, 2020 Charcoal, pastel on paper 15 × 12 in

Sergio Gomez Luminance, 2020 Acrylic on Paper 72 × 42 in

Georgia O’Keeffe, an iconic woman and artist was spiritually connected to the southwest landscape and specifically to the animal bones that she painted. “To me they are as beautiful as anything I know.” She said. My painting is depicting that connection to her even in the afterlife as a ghost. O’keefes painting of bones have even been described as “portals linking heaven and earth.

JuliAnne Jonker

JuliAnne Jonker Vision at Ghost Ranch, 2020 Oil and wax on wood panel 24 × 13 in Collaboration with Didi Menendez

In ‘Honey Due’ I wanted to create a physical world where the warm empathy between mother, father, and unborn child could be experienced by people outside of their situation.

Adam Holzrichter

Adam Holzrichter Honey Due, 2021 Oil on linen on panel 24 × 18 in

After decades of figurative painting focusing on portraiture, my new work shifts back to my roots as a painter dealing with more narrative imagery. The work has an archetype of man versus man, with an emphasis on our mortality and introspective soul-searching. I’ve chosen this subject as a result of the unexpected passing of my father when I was only 11 years old. This event had a profound effect on me as a child and is something I’ve dealt with my entire life to present.

At this point the paintings are addressing the innocence and naiveté of a child’s inability or unawareness of their mortality and the inevitable process of aging and ultimately, death. Nothing lasts. I’m enjoying composing my work with rich symbolism in an effort to visually communicate my ideas about these issues.

The work bares my soul as it lays out my fears, rationalizations, and failure to accept the universe I was born into.” David Anthony Hummer

David Anthony Hummer THREE, 2020 Oil on canvas 36 × 48 in

‘Beef Tuff Sisters’ was inspired by two sisters preparing on their wedding days. Their excited, fun, and colorful personalities aided in the explosive uses of color and juxtaposed forms within the work. The sisters also have small, matching tattoos which, along with the story of their origin, became the inspiration for the title.

Kara Lasiewicz

Kara Lasiewicz Beef Tuff Sisters, 2019 Oil on canvas 48 × 30 in

‘Brave New Worker’ is a portrait of working from home during the pandemic lockdown of 2020.

It is about finding and embracing the positives that the imposed change brought amongst difficult circumstances.

Narelle Zeller

Narelle Zeller Brave New Worker, 2020 Oil on aluminum panel 47 × 28 in

‘A Year Later’ explores the inner universe of unwitnessed emotions lived throughout the past year.

Laura Spector

Laura Spector A Year Later, 2021 Oil on panel 24 × 18 in

‘Imagination Bloom’ reflects how I have been coping during this pandemic isolation. I am at heart an optimist. Using my imagination, I have turned inward and created my own positive world. June Stratton

June Stratton Imagination Bloom, 2021 Oil, Linen, Fresco Secco, Modeling Paste, Gold and Moon Gold Leaf mounted on Panel 17 1/4 × 16 × 2 3/4 in

Nicole Finger Freedom, 2020 Oil on Canvas 30 × 36 × 1 1/2 in

“Life is a spark in the dark and dumb ocean of Eternity, this is the only moment that belongs to us.” Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, Russian writer

Viktoria Savenkova Oceans, 2021 Oil on wood 15 2/5 × 21 7/10 in

‘Dissonance’ asks us to consider the role social and digital media plays in our lives and its influence on our mental health and the wellbeing of society as a whole. Brianna Lee

Brianna Lee Dissonance, 2020 Oil on panel 20 × 16 in

My universe is a passageway between dimensions.

Steve Ohlrich

Steve Ohlrich The Passage, 2021 Oil on linen 20 × 16 in

Daire Lynch The Baring of Shadows, 2021 Oil on panel 16 1/2 × 12 in

‘Minstrel’ to me represents generational creativity that lives within a family line. If encouraged it can flourish in all artistic and expressive ways throughout the seasons of a changing life and family.

Kimberly Dow

Kimberly Dow Minstrel, 2021 Oil on panel 30 × 19 in