Pursuing art down country lanes

A review of the Wayne County Arts Alliance’s Artists’ Open Studio Tour 4

By TOM KANE

WAYNE COUNTY, PA — Art lovers in Wayne County have an advantage over art lovers in New York City. They get to meet the artists in their studios and immerse themselves in beautiful countryside while they’re doing it.

The fourth annual Wayne County Arts Alliance (WCAA) art tour was held on August 25, 26 and 27 and drew more people than ever before. I was one of them, and as someone who has undertaken similar journeys in New York City, I can say that the art on this tour was as good as, perhaps even better than, much of the art I saw in my art travels in the city.

For many years I was married to an artist. We lived in a section of Soho which is now called Tribeca. I assisted my ex-wife by promoting her work to art galleries both in New York and other parts of the country. To keep up with the developing art scene in the city, I rode the grimy subways, explored numerous gallery buildings from floor to floor and climbed up many a rickety staircase getting to artists’ studios. (Few of the buildings had elevators.)

Coming from this background, it was a delight to follow the WCAA art tour route. The signs were very clear and easy to follow, and I drove down country roads I had never explored before, taking in vistas I didn’t know existed in Wayne County and ducking into old country outbuildings to get entrance into the studios.

For example, the work you’ll find in Nancy Wells’ studio dazzles not only one’s eye but one’s imagination, with a wide profusion of media, including painting, print-making, doll-making, mask building and photography, all used to create effects that are mysterious and provocative.

The circus paintings and series of self-portraits of painter Gabrielle Feldman, as well as her other oils, play with light and color in fascinating ways.

Ray Rocklin’s sculptures, using every conceivable medium you can think of—plaster, clay, iron, bronze, steel—make you distrust your eye, look at the work again and discover it anew.

Trix Render, a native of South Africa, paints primitive, detailed, haunting images of flowers and animals that one discovers suddenly, hidden in the color.

Hana Gorman, whose studio is set in a beautiful house on a lovely, lonely road outside of Bethany, makes striking puppets that seem so real they can scare you. You expect them to speak up at any moment and make some wonderfully strange remark.

In Honesdale, not on a lonely road, but on busy Ninth Street, up one flight, you’ll walk into the state-of-the-art, 21st century animation studio of Floyd Bishop, whose work has appeared in numerous movies, television productions and video games. Bishop, who is a native of the area, has returned after following a long career road that has taken him to New York City, Los Angeles and other parts of the country.

The trail took me down roads like Butternut Flats, Chicopee Road, Swamp Brook Road, and to places like Tyler Hill, Galilee, Milanville, White Mills, Honesdale, Bethany, Damascus and Beach Lake. In all of these places are first-class artists who are hidden away in quiet studios and are working, for the most part, for the love of art. I only regret that I was unable to visit all 25 participating artists.

But, there’s always next year.