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Art Exhibit

“Environments Real and Imagined” presents both extroverted and introspective views by featured artists Verona Barrett and Aaron Kalinay from March 7-28, 2010 at Manayunk Art Center Gallery, 419 Green Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19128. These artists are Philadelphians whose work appears representational but includes a psychological sophistication and depth. Barrett celebrates the physical world of cityscapes and shore scenes, whereas Kalinay begins with realism but often wanders off into his dreams and feelings.

Verona Barrett exhibited a knack for art at a young child. Her German grandfather was a painter, and her father encouraged Barrett to consider a career as an artist.  Although she studied art and took painting classes at the Manayunk Art Center in the 1960’s, Barrett pursued a career in nursing instead. A resident of Roxborough, Barrett worked as a nurse and then healthcare case manager while she raised two daughters as a single parent. 

 


Artist: Verona K. Barrett
Title: Art Museum and Water Works
Medium: watercolor


“I like to help people. I like to give,” Barrett said, explaining the 40 year she took hiatus from her art. She says that with work, she really did not have the time to paint. 


However, since retirement from Independence Blue Cross in 2003, Barrett has returned to her art with a passion. Barrett loves the city of Philadelphia, she’s fascinated by history, and she gathers inspiration from the city, the Jersey shore, and the Chesapeake. “It’s great to have an outlet for my creative side,” exclaims Barrett, who also has a new outlet for her “nurturing side” as co-leader with Jeff Podraza of the anti-hunger committe of Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.

Barrett has studied with painter Dolores Campbell from 2003 to 2006, and then with watercolorist Howard Watson at the Woodmere Art Museum until the present day.  Her art is exhibited regularly at the Manayunk Art Center and the Spring Mill Presbyterian Village. The subjects of her watercolors in “Environments Real and Imagined” include the Art Museum and Water Works, Boat House Row, the Manayunk Canal in winter, the Stagecrafters theatre in Chestnut Hill (in pastel), and shore scenes and ships at sea from Cape May and the Chesapeake.

Barrett favors the Impressionists and Andrew Wyeth whose influences are quite apparent in her painting. Her mastery of color along with her joyous interpretations suggest a love of life and a natural born painter. She understands the need for discipline with her artwork, but there is an ease and flair in her style which adds an inviting element to the subjects she paints.

“I think that the process of color and how you look at the sky can make you an artistic person. You think about the colors that are around you. I love color. I love the sky. I’m focused on the city and the shore,” Barrett says of her work. She paints every day and feels a sense of accomplishment about her artwork. 

Philadelphia resident Aaron Kalinay’s acrylic paintings demonstrate the acute sensitivity to color and composition that mark a continuity in his personal vision. Some of his representational works might – at a glance – seem like conventional landscapes, but closer examination reveals Kalinay’s talent for conveying emotional complexity. He will exhibit approximately twenty-five paintings in “Environments Real & Imagined”.

 


Artist: Aaron Kalinay
Title: "Mindscape"



The foreground of “Home Journey” is dominated by an asphalt roadway that extends past an angular, white house and ends at a cluster of houses, nestled under a foliage-laden hillock. The narrowing road seems to serve as both a conduit to nostalgia and an intrusion on it. “Glow” depicts a forest setting where filtered light conveys tranquility while elongated trees, singly and in pairs, are tilted just enough to be somewhat less than concerting. The artist has positioned the trees to suggest a path that trails off into an obscured background, and wisps of hanging moss or vines depend from the their leafy tops, which converge in competition for sunlight.


Kalinay, who joined the Manayunk Artists’ Co-Op last July, has been interested in art since his childhood and attended elective art classes in high school. He recalls that a college Art History course broadened his appreciation for, “the variety of styles, content, context and purpose,” that exist in art. A studio course clinched his decision to declare Art as his major subject and he graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Art Education in 2007.  

Born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, Kalinay lived most of his life in the northeastern part of the state. He fondly remembers, “a wonderful, hillside neighborhood called Honey Pot in the city of Nanticoke,” a part of which appears in “Home Journey”. After college he chose to remain in Philadelphia, where he teaches elementary school Art, and now calls the East Falls neighborhood his home. 

Kalinay credits his young students’, “free flow of creativity,” with inspiring him to be, “less constricted and analytical in my art making and to be more impulsive.” This is demonstrated in paintings like ”Mindscape” and “Heavenly Ocean”. While abstract, they suggest a night sky and an underwater scene. Although these paintings present color contrasts of light and dark, the predominant feeling that emerges is one of dreamlike darkness and the blending of fascination and urgency that the subconscious mind presents. 

Wassily Kandinsky, Georgia O’Keefe, Joan Miró, and Camille Pissaro are among the artists Kalinay admires, reflecting the broad range of influences on his own artwork. His affection for the Impressionists is evident in pictures like “Glow”, and particularly in his painting, “Morning” – a landscape of trees and foothills that captures the gentleness and grandeur of a day’s first light. 

Of his creative process, the artist notes, “Often I will begin with the intention of depicting a real place and I wander into other territory along the way and create more dreamlike or abstract images. Whatever the image is, I am inspired by a strong emotion felt at the time of creation or in recalling an emotional reaction or memory in my life.” Kalinay’s thoughtfully conceived and deftly rendered paintings prove his words. 

For more information, call 215-482-3363 or go to www.manayunkartcenter.org. 

 

Humanities / Poetry

CONTACT: PETER KROK  
Humanities Director of the Manayunk Art Center, at 215-482-3363

To register for the Poetry Workshops, click here

 

 The Manayunk Art Center (MAC) at 419 Green Lane (rear) presents “Two Compelling Poets - Deborah Burnham and Kathleen Sheeder Bonanno: The Human Spirit and the Heart” on Sunday, March 7 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Donation and refreshments available.  The program will be followed by an Open Reading.    For information, call the MAC at 215-482-3363.

 

Katheleen Sheeder Bonanno is an award-winning author and poet who received the Beatrice Hawley Award for her book of poetry, Slamming Open the Door, published by Alice James Books in April, 2009 and is the #9 best-seller for contemporary poetry in 2009. Slamming Open the Door is a collection of poems recounting the true story of the murder of her daughter, Leidy Bonanno, in 2003.

 

Bonanno's heartrending collection inspires both compassion for and awe of the human spirit. Of all the losses we may be asked to bear, the murder of one’s child must be the most terrible. These poems evoke that keenly, seeking justice but transcending judgment as they grieve loss, celebrate love, and find healing.

 

Bonanno's heartrending collection inspires both compassion for and awe of the human spirit. Of all the losses one may be asked to bear, the murder of one’s child must be the most terrible.   These poems evoke that keenly, seeking justice but transcending judgment as they grieve loss, celebrate love, and find healing.

 

Deborah Burnham has worked at the University of Pennsylvania mostly doing advising and teaching in the English department. For over 25 years, she taught poetry at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts. She lives in a more or less un-gentrified neighborhood in Philadelphia where she has created several gardens. Her book Anna and the Steel Mill won the First Book Award from the Texas Tech University Pres. Her most recent publication is a chapbook, Still.

 

 At the MAC on Sunday, March7 from noon to 3 PM, there is also an art show opening entitiled: “Environments Real & Imagined” featuring Verona Barrett and Aaron Kolinay

 

Peter Krok, the Humanities Director of the MAC, started his literary afternoon series at the MAC in the fall of 1990.  There is a $4 donation and, of course, refreshments are provided. For information about the program, call the MAC at 215-482-3363.