For the Love of Art Rodney Wood opens the door for the viewer to explore the world of art, self, dreams, fantasies and secrets. By Kathleen Donnelly Twelve years ago, Rodney Wood stepped through a symbolic blue door into the rest of his life. A man of energy and many talents, Wood had been a non-profit art administrator, gallery owner, curator, art teacher (from elementary school through college level), a corporate trainer, an inspirational teacher/motivator, and even a fencing and pentathalon coach and trainer for the US Olympic Training Center. Wood had served on numerous boards, received many awards, curated and juried scores of exhibits. His most meaningful passion, however, was to create art. He worked in a variety of media: he was a sculptor, a jeweler, a photographer, a print-maker. He created three-dimensional installation art. And then, twelve years ago began his obsession with oil painting. He is self-taught. For the past seven years, he has concentrated almost exclusively on his painting, and he describes it as “what I do… I would live under a bridge to do art,” he says. His goal is to “create work that reaches far beyond technique and intellect and compels the viewer to develop an emotive relationship with the pieces, like dreams take us deep into mysterious places in our psyche.” The genre of Wood’s work is considered Magic Realism, which is described as an artistic style in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realistic setting. His paintings depict architectural detail and elegant period furniture. He uses rich, sensuous and bright colors juxtaposed with black to focus on archetypal, mythical, esoteric and allegorical elements. Lightness and darkness.
present in others: fire, the symbol of destruction, or the flame that is the source of warmth and light, or fire that cleanses and purifies, or fire, the symbol of the eternal flame of love. I see life and hope amidst destruction in “Aviary” in which a naked woman serenely stands on a pockmarked ground, surrounded by blue birds while a tornado spins in a foreboding sky in the background. In “Secrets” Wood’s model is a woman with an enigmatic smile worthy of the Mona Lisa, whom he met through the mysterious movement of fate. In “Pas de Deux” a woman in a red dress in a ballet pose dances atop a rhinoceros. Harmony, balance and grace on top an immovable, armored object. In “Nest” a blue swan partially covers a woman in a kneeling fetal position and seven eggs lie on the ground around her. These paintings speak to your emotions and your imagination to tell a story with symbolism and myth as they explore and reveal the thin line between art and life. In the summer of 2010, Wood and his partner, Susan Palmer, (a quilt artist and massage therapist), took a 120 day road trip, “looking for artists, visionaries, and quirky museums,” he said. At the end of the road trip he and Susan decided that they really did not want to live in a big city anymore. He was familiar with the mythical, magical, allegorical, wonderful aspects of Trinidad from some people from his previous” lives”, including former Trinidad residents Neil Sexton and Audrey Forcier. And so Rodney’s and Susan’s paths led to Trinidad where they opened a studio/gallery called Galerie Vivante at 214 East Main Street and where they are enjoying the thin line between life and art. “To make art that is at once beautiful, haunting, disconcerting, sensuous ad inspiring is a lofty quest. The paintings of Rodney Wood are the visual voice of a man obsessively devoted to the exploration of the windfalls of human emotion and spirit.” To see more of Rodney Wood’s work or for more information go to www.rodneywood.com or contact the artist at rodnewood51@msn.com or call 719-334-0087. 1. “Ex Trado Animus....” , 2. “Gazardiel”, 3. “Asylum”, 4. “Coronation”
His “Humanimal” series is a playful and magical world in which Wood has incorporated the overtly fantastic elements of animals in human roles. A giraffe gazes vainly into an ornate oval mirror in “The Aesthete”; a lean, lithe cheetah stands behind an antique camera on a tripod, (perhaps photographing wild animals in the Serengeti) in “The Fauve”. In “Joie de Vivre” a tiger stops to smell a large pot of yellow flowers; and in “The Maestro” a lion with a conductor’s wild mane sits atop a grand piano. There are fifteen paintings in this series. They have been recreated in the form of high quality giclee limited edition prints that are available on Wood’s website. On another note, Wood’s series of twenty “vignettes” include such images as skeletons and skulls, birds, butterflies, angels, the moon and dawn, which could be disturbing or compelling, depending upon the viewer’s interpretation. To me, these pieces represent confronting death, impermanence, transition. They mean the death of ego and the end of attachment to this body and life as well as re-birth and the comforting cycle of life. That Wood has created a large body of allegorical paintings should not be surprising in view of his calling as a teacher. By definition, these are pictures that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning or are the representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms. Several depict worship or supplication to the Divine. Symbolic fire is
Art and Music
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