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| 3rd Annual McAllen Arts Council Fine Art Exhibition in Conjunction with Festiva |
The McAllen Arts Council recently held its 3rd Annual Fine Art Exhibition. The organizers invited secondary school teachers teaching in Hidalgo County to showcase their artistic talent.
Jessica Monroe, who teaches at Med High, explores scenes from a very close range, creating a somewhat abstract effect. Surface patterning in each scene, such as the street in her painting Rank, is emphasized, and geometric grids are also integrated into the surface. The surfaces values on the grid are modulated in such a way that they recede and advance over the entire picture plane to great effect. The geometric grids counterbalance the fluidity of curvilinear shapes within the scene. Although you can understand the concept of the artwork by its title, the picture tells the story. The high ranking bird is established by its placement in the composition, and the contrasting values that allow it to stand out as the primary focal point. All of the other elements are subordinate to this focal point, and have a corresponding visual weight. A reduced color palette allows value relationships to stand out. Monroe is a clear stand-out, because she successfully integrates concept, technique and aesthetic in her artwork.
Several other artists exhibit effective technical skills. Isai Mireles sets up an interesting visual tension through the subtle use of complementary colors in his painting of a pair of shoes. This tension creates an optical effect that appears to animate the shoes--as if they are about to set off walking or dancing. Isabel Link’s Tres Peras is a textbook example of how to use line, shape, value, texture and color that is aesthetically pleasing. Lisa D. Saldivar tames spiraling shapes and a psychedelic color scheme by corralling them within larger shapes in varying sizes, and by allowing areas of rest within the picture frame. Geographic coordinates stand in for perspective lines in Sol, Llios, Naytheet Ah Kin, Qurax, Grian, Surje by Marco Antonio Sanchez. Oddly juxtaposed imagery of Nordic skiers and ancient icons populate a surreal landscape seemingly inspired by a 70’s rock song.
The ability to successfully integrate the three fundamental aspects of a work of fine art, concept, technique, and aesthetic, is what makes a “fine” artist. Artwork that falls short of this can be categorized as a sample, sketch, or study. Work that is simply decorative, moves it into the realm of commercial art rather than fine art. Much of the work in this exhibition falls short of a fully realized “fine art exhibition.” Perhaps MAC should remove the word “fine” from its title.