Forty Years

John McCuistion retrospective at the University of Puget Sound

published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 25, 2008
pictured: "X Marks the Spot," ceramic sculpture by John McCuistion


The title of John McCuistion’s show at Kittridge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, is Forty. It is billed as a 40-year retrospective, but the earliest work I saw was dated 1995 — significantly short of 40 years. OK, I’ll admit that I didn’t read every label. Not that any of that matters. What matters is that it is a really good show.

McCuistion is ceramic sculptor. The show includes about a dozen standing figures on sculpture stands in the middle of the gallery; another dozen or more platters decorated with images of plant life, sea life and insects; many masks; and a few other standing sculptures.

Many of them represent frightening figures; many more are humorous. Some are derived from ancient myths and legends or spiritual beliefs, and others relate to modern life as we know it.

There are a couple of strange bird sculptures that look like they are made of black marble encrusted with jewels of many colors. These are rough, organic-shaped creatures barely recognizable as birds, and they’re not really marble and jewels but ceramic clay glazed with many colors.

One of the strangest and most ominous looking sculptures is a piece called "Life Without Mother." It is a large pink heart with splatters of red and blue — something of a cross between a Valentine’s heart and the actual blood-pumping organ with bristling, wiry hairs extending outward from all over. A very disturbing image.

The standing figures in the middle of the gallery are of amazingly nuanced variety despite some obvious similarities. In most of them, the only details are in the heads. The bodies are shapeless shrouds or robes that hang from neck to toe. Some stand proudly; some lean forward in a sort of dejected pose, and at least one kind of squats. Some have masks for faces or skeleton heads, or their faces are recognizable as men or women, and at least one, called "Burke," has no face at all. ("Burke" is a mummy-like figure, and I suspect the name may refer to the Burke Museum, which houses some such figures. But that’s just a guess on my part.)

Two of the figures are military men shot through with bullet holes. They are titled "X Marks the Spot" and "POW."

The squatting figure is called "Pre-Columbian Ritual Figure" and is modeled on ancient fertility goddesses with their massive breasts and bellies. Her body is greenish black and very roughly carved, such as a primitive wood carving, and her face is a mask.

Other standing figures include one with a kitten’s face, and another that is a devil, and one called "Working Mom" that has a monkey face with big, skeletal teeth. There is a lot of macabre humor at work here.

While much prettier and more decorative than the standing sculptures, McCuistion’s platters are particularly interesting in their graphic technique. According to the artist’s Web site (www.johnmccuistion.com), he uses a silkscreen technique coupled with layering, heating and washing the underglaze surfaces. The resulting graphic glazes look like a combination of loose ink drawings and rub-on transfer images of the type Robert Rauschenberg used in many of his collage images. The images include skeletons, fish, plants, and insects, and the surfaces are high-gloss (I personally do not like the shiny surfaces).

Sometimes there’s a clear distinction between works of art and craft objects, and sometimes not. McCuistion’s craft objects are art.

Showing in the smaller back gallery is Play Time, colorful constructions in tin by Bill Herberholz. As the show title implies, they are playful works employing commercial images and a look associated with sideshows and shooting galleries.

[Kittredge Gallery, Forty Years, Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday noon to 5 p.m., through Oct. 8, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma, 253.879.3701]

Back at work

It's Monday morning and like all good workers I'm back on the job. We enjoyed our brief vacation. We spent a few days with Gabi's sister at Pacific Shores Resort on Nanoose Bay on Vancouver Island, right across the water from Vancouver. Now I'm back at work, and I've just posted my latest art and theater reviews, which were published while we were gone. Scroll down to see them.

Circle of Friends

Grand Impromptu Gallery shows invited friends

Published in the Weekly Volcano, Sept. 18, 2008
pictured (top) Rib Fiser's mixed media sculpture "AmeriKa" (bottom) untitled photo by Mary Holste

Rob Fiser’s AmeriKa: The Fourth Reich is the centerpiece of a large and varied group show called Circle of Friends at Grand Impromptu Gallery. AmeriKa consists of life-size game pieces in the form of clothespin portraits of members of the Bush regime.

“This is the first game sanctioned by the Ministry of Propaganda and designed to teach you and your entire family the time tested techniques used to gain profit and control over the masses,” Fiser writes in explanatory notes accompanying his “game.”

Each piece is a separate figure which can be moved around, stood up, laid down, grouped and re-grouped. At Grand Impromptu they stand and lie in a large circle in the center of the gallery. The portrait faces are realistically rendered and easily recognized, even though figures such as Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft are quickly receding from public memory (the mind tends to block out unbearable memories).

As if further identification were necessary, each figure wears a name tag, but the name tags are all nicknames: Shrub, Rummy, Condi, and so forth. And they all wear clothes that associate them with their connections to the military-industrial complex, Big Oil in particular. “Shrub,” for those who may have forgotten, is what Molly Ivins called President G.W. Bush. The Shrub game piece has a Hitler-style mustache.

AmeriKa: The Fourth Reich is funny, inventive and well crafted.

The rest of the show is uneven in quality. There’s nothing bad, but there are a number of works that are not particularly remarkable. There are also some excellent pieces on display, most notably John McCuistion’s ceramic figures, Mary Holste’s photographs, and some new works by Janet Marcavage that take some of the imagery she showed last year at AOC Gallery in a slightly new direction.

McCuiston, who is also currently featured in a 40-year retrospective exhibition at Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound, is a ceramic sculptor of skill and vision. Here he shows a group of three female figures that are fun, funky and somewhat ominous.

It is hard to describe Marcavage’s work. She’s showing three paper cut silkscreens with perforations and stitching. They are simple, emblematic figures such as might be seen in a child’s room, and they have an early Americana feel. I think there’s much more to these than meets the eye.

Holste’s photographs are colorful and dramatic, and they also depict Americana, but a different Americana. Whereas Marcavage’s Americana is of home and hearth, Holste’s is of the ‘50s-style commercialism that dotted America’s highways before the interstate system homogenized the country. Giant high heel shoes and skeleton heads and teapots combined with huge signs and random letters — the ghosts and skeletons of old tourist attractions. I love them.

The idea of the show, Circle of Friends, is that each artist-member of the co-op gallery invites one or more friends to show with them. The members are: Bill Colby, Becky Frehse, Bea Geller, Trinda Love, Dorothy McCuistion, Betty Ragan, LeeAnn Seaburg Perry and Peter Serko. The invited friends are: Fiser, (John) McCuistion, Marcavage, Holste, Deborah Greenwood, Joan Joachims, Jane Kelsey-Mapel, Fumiko Kimura, Nola Tresslar, Austin Smith and Elizabeth C. Otto.

Overall, I think the friends’ work outshines that of the members. Therefore, it would be really nice if some of these friends joined the gallery.

One other invited friend not highlighted above but whose work stands out is Greenwood, who is showing handmade artist’s books made of cut-up and re-arranged postcards in tin boxes and Lucite frames. The one other member artist whose work stands out in this show is Bea Geller, who is showing a group of photographs from this summer’s Tall Ships extravaganza. All but one of her photos are close-ups of reflections in water.

[Grand Impromptu Gallery, Thursday and Friday 4-9 p.m., Saturday 2-9 p.m., Sunday, 2-6 p.m. and by appointment, through Sept. 27, 608 South Fawcett, Tacoma, 253.572.9232, http://grandimpromptugallery.com/]

Published in The News Tribune, September 19, 2008
pictured Mark Peterson and Jennifer Marley, photo by Dan Lapin

Tacoma Little Theatre opens its 90th season with the Shakespeare comedy “Much Ado About Nothing.”

It’s not as well known or as popular as some of Shakespeare’s other comedies, and it’s not as outrageously funny. In fact, large portions of Act II are intensely dramatic. Characters we have grown to know and love in Act I are soundly abused by lies and scandals, but all the bad stuff is eventually exposed as both false and meaningless, and there is a happy ending. The lovers come together in joy and the bad guy gets what’s coming to him.

What should also make the audience happy is that this is one of the easier to understand of Shakespeare’s plays. With his dense language, love of mistaken identities and complex plot structures, Shakespeare’s plays are often hard to follow, and simply keeping track of who’s who in many of his plays is a daunting task. But this one is easy.

Leonato, the governor of Messina (Michael Griswold) would like to find husbands for his daughter, Hero (Chelsea A. Lechelt) and his niece, Beatrice (Jennifer Marley). Enter Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon (Mark Peterson), Count Claudio of Florence (Joseph Espinoza) and Signior Benedict of Padua (Bryan K. Bender).

Claudio falls in love with Hero at first glance, and Pedro intercedes on his behalf to arrange a marriage between them. So far, so good. The arrangements go exactly as planned; the lovers are to be wed, and everyone is happy. But not for long.

Back to Claudio and Hero in a moment. But first for the other lovers in this story: Beatrice and Benedict. They are both intelligent, witty, independent and cynical. They do not trust in love and marriage but manage to fall in love with each other despite it all and with the help of deviously plotting friends who whisper secrets meant to be overheard – planting in each of these reluctant lovers’ minds the thought that the other is in love with them.

By far the funniest scenes in the play are first when Benedict sneaks around and hides behind garden trees to eavesdrop on Pedro and Claudio, who are talking about him (with full knowledge that he is eavesdropping but pretending they don’t know he’s there) and then an almost identical scene with Beatrice eavesdropping when her cousin and her handmaiden are talking about her. Their attempts to hide are absurdly funny, and both Bender and Marley display an amazingly funny range of visual expressions and physicality that verged on mime.

All of this hilarity and comic intrigue turns sour when Don Pedro’s bastard brother, Don John (James T. Patrick) plots with his lackeys, Borachio (Joseph Fries) and Conrade (John C. Finch) to make it appear to Claudio that his beloved Hero has had affairs with other men, and thus is no virgin. Their method is to dupe Hero’s gentlewoman, Margaret (Maren Ham) to pretend to be Hero and set it up so that Claudio sees her in her window and overhears her talking to her illicit lover. Margaret is innocent in all this. She doesn’t know she is being set up.

The major actors are terrific, especially Bender and Marley. Griswold is absolutely believable and natural as Leonato, as is Ham as the very likeable Margaret. Lechelt and Peterson do not particularly stand out, due to the nature of their characters, but certainly do a good job as Hero and Don Pedro. Other characters not yet mentioned who are great fun to watch are Blake R. York as the comical constable Dogberry and his bumbling deputy, Verges (Kerry Bringman) and Michael Dresdner, who is lovable as Leonato’s brother, Antonio. Not so terrific, unfortunately, are Patrick as Don John, who dropped a few lines on the night I saw the play, and Fries, who overacted and seems to be posing too much as Borachio.

The set is simple but effective, and if you are put off by the fake-looking trees, which do not seem to fit stylistically with the rest of the set, be patient; you will discover there’s a good reason for that.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sundays through October 5
WHERE: Tacoma Little Theatre, 210 N. I St., Tacoma
TICKETS: $16-$20
INFORMATION: 253-272-2281, www.tacomalittletheatre.com.

Theater hiatus

I'm going to take a small vacation. My regular community theater column in The News Tribune will not be printed the week of Sept. 26. My Sept. 19 column will appear as scheduled this Friday, but I will not be able to post it on this blog. My review for this Friday will be on Tacoma Little Theatre's "Much Ado About Nothing." You can pick up a print copy or find it online at http://www.thenewstribune.com/

I reviewed an art exhibit ahead of time for the Weekly Volcano, so my Visual Edge column should appear as regularly scheduled, although I may or may not have time to post it on this blog. This week's art review will be on the "Circle of Friends" exhibition at Grand Impromptu Gallery. You can find it online at http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/

Next week I'll review John McCuistion's show at Kittredge Gallery, University of Puget Sound. If all goes as planned it should appear in the Weekly Volcano and on this blog as scheduled.

It’s not serious theater, but it sure is a lot of fun

Published in The News Tribune, Sept. 12, 2008
Pictured, top: opening number; bottom: Vince Wingerter and Leischen Moore, photos by Dean Lapin

Lakewood Playhouse opens its season with “Lucky Stiff,” a bizarre little comedy billed as a musical murder mystery. This was the first play written by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, the team that brought us “Seussical,” “Ragtime” and “Once Upon this Island.”

This comic romp does not represent the team’s finest hour, but it certainly has its moments. On the other hand, if you’re in the mood for offbeat humor, director Micheal O’Hara and his crew offer a concoction of insanity that is sure to delight.

One of the strangest things about this play is that, despite all the singing, it doesn’t seem like a musical at all. Lines that were sung could have been spoken and nothing would have been lost. The best things are the nonmusical parts, in particular O’Hara’s direction, the complex movement throughout (which must be credited to both O’Hara and choreographer Heather Malroy) and the over-the-top acting by the supporting cast.

Note that I specified the supporting cast. That’s because there is a marked difference between them and the leading man (Vince Wingerter as Harry Witherspoon) and his leading lady (Leischen Moore as Annabel Glick).

Wingerter and Moore play their characters as the boy and girl next door. Their acting is underplayed, their characters have no real conspicuous quirks, and their singing is pleasant but not outstanding.

The supporting actors, in strong contrast, are outlandishly exaggerated characters. There’s a dead guy (played quite deadpan by George McClure); the blind Brooklyn Jewish adulterer and murderess, Rita (Kae Blum); her nerdy, bumbling optometrist brother, Vinnie (Lucas Blum in a comically masterful role reminiscent of Peter Sellers); the sexpot chanteuse, Dominique (Heather Malroy); and an assortment of nurses, Southern belles, drunks, blowhard Texans and other weird characters played by, in no particular order, Chris Serface, Carol Richmond, Sharry O’Hara and Kody Bringman, all of whom play multiple roles.

The staging of all these characters entering and exiting in various costumes designed by Frances Rankos is amazing. A playful set (by O’Hara) and lighting effects by Scott C. Brown go a long way toward making all these little cameos work.

The most outstanding lighting effect, however, is defeated by a too-visible audience. It’s a dream sequence under black lights. Cast members wearing white hats and gloves dance around a sleeping Wingerter, their bodies invisible and their hats and gloves glowing under the black lights.

It’s a wonderfully creative touch and probably would have worked well on a traditional stage, but when done in the round, all the light-colored clothing in the audience glows in the dark too, which becomes terribly distracting.

So far I haven’t even mentioned the plot. It’s a silly plot. Harry Witherspoon is stuck in a dead-end job as a shoe salesman. His uncle is murdered, and Harry is supposed to inherit $6 million. But there’s a catch. In order to get his inheritance he must take his dead uncle, who has been stuffed by a taxidermist, on a weeklong vacation to Monte Carlo and do all the things the uncle wanted to do there, from gambling to sky diving to scuba diving. If he fails to do any of the stipulated things, the money goes to a home for stray dogs. Hot on the trail of Harry and Uncle Tony are Annabelle Glick from the dog shelter and Rita and Vinnie, who think Harry and Uncle Tony has a box full of stolen diamonds.

The supporting actors do a great job of parodying stereotypes. With her low-cut red dress and hula-dancer hips, Malroy does a hilarious takeoff on a stereotypical sexpot. Serface uses his great talent for voices to play many roles, most notably a sleazy nightclub emcee. Richmond staggers stupidly as the drunken maid. Bringman does a good job of bell hopping, and Sharry O’Hara is equally charming as a British landlady, a Southern belle and a French maid.

This is not great theater. At best, it was kind of practice for Ahrens and Flaherty, who later developed into great writers. But it’s a lot of fun, and O’Hara and company do it well.

WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 5
WHERE: Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., Lakewood
TICKETS: $24 general admission, $21 senior and military discount, $18 under 25, $16 under 15
INFORMATION: 253-588-0042, www.lakewoodplayhouse.org

Thoughts about criticism

I bumped into the actor Scott C. Brown and his fiancée, director, stage manager, costumer and all-around backstage magician Naarah McDonald, in the lobby of the Lakewood Playhouse. I’d never met either of them but had reviewed their work — sometimes in glowing reviews and sometimes in not-so-flattering commentary. The gratifying thing about our brief conversation was that they expressed thanks for both my kind words and my critical commentary. I, of course, am not surprised when actors and directors express appreciation when I praise their work. But what really boosts my ego is when they agree with my criticism.

A critic is supposed to expressed his or her opinion — ideally an informed and reasoned opinion. When I feel like I have to point out flaws in a performance, I try to do it as a good and compassionate teacher would so as to be helpful and not mean spirited.

As well as I can remember, I have twice picked Brown as Best Actor in a Drama for my Critic’s Choice award column: first for his role as Salieri in “Amadeus” and then as R.P. McMurphy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” But I was less than flattering for his performance in “Holes,” and I was did not give that play a good review. I said “These fine actors are wasted in these roles,” referring to Brown and co-star Christie Flynn.

When I met Brown and McDonald, I did not remember that she had directed “Holes.” He reminded me, and she laughingly apologized for that play, which she acknowledged was not, shall we say, the best thing she has ever done. What is the best of her works that I have reviewed was “The Diary of Anne Frank,” which she directed. She’s also done the costumes for a whole slew of plays I’ve reviewed.
I do not get a lot of feedback from my reviews, so it is always nice to hear from people like Brown and McDonald.

By-the-way, I was at the theater to see “Lucky Stiff.” My review of it will be published in The News Tribune tomorrow (Friday, Sept. 12). Brown was there because he designed the lighting — and did a fine job of it, I might add (with one caveat, which you will find in my review).