.............Photo courtesy
of Warren Criswell
Aristeas I is based on Greek mythology. It was painted in 1996,
and is the basis for an animation Criswell created. |
Art by artist Warren Criswell, music by Bob Boury.
(Video by Warren Criswell) |
ARTBEAT
Criswell exhibit
hails 'Still Crazy'
By Ellis Widner
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
August 5, 2012
LITTLE ROCK |
.....
Most of us fear death.
..... Warren
Criswell fears going sane.
......"For
an artist, the trick is to preserve one's insanity," he
writes in the artist's statement that accompanies his show at
Cantrell Gallery in Little Rock.
.......So,
based on the mix of paintings, prints, sculptures and watercolors
in "Still Crazy," is Criswell crazy?
......The
answer - in this show of past, present and what he calls future
works - is a resounding yes.
......Criswell
addresses many kinds of fear, in theform of death, in this show.
Physical death. Death of ego. Death of creativity. And so on.
......Through
this thoughtful, well curated (by the gallery's Clarke Huisman)
mix of retrospective and current works, Criswell's muse hasn't
abandoned him ... although the prospect, the experience of it,
or fear of it clearly is on his mind.
|
... .No more so than in two
striking images: the 2012 bronze sculpture Simone Jumps, where
the muse is literally leaping out the window. It is presented
on the wall at eye level for a deserved maximum impact. In the
2005 oil Departure of the Muse, the artist is asleep as the muse
heads out the window.
......These
two works also illustrate a fascinating aspect of this show -
common themes in different mediums. For example, the 2008 oil
Die gluckliche Hand becomes a monotype with pastel in 2011's
Roadkill, a linocut and a sculpture.
......But
Criswell's fascination with Greek mythology also commands attention,
particularly on the striking Aristeas I, a 1996 oil and wax on
board showing a crow emerging from a man's mouth as he lies on
the beach. It too has seen continuance, including a recent animated
form. Aristeas was a seventh century B.C. poet who,after he died,
purportedly appeared 240 years later in Italy. He wanted a statue
of himself and a new altar to the god Apollo. Aristeas said that
he had been traveling with Apollo since his death in the form
of a sacred raven.
......Other
works worth contemplating: A Dryad in the Headlights, a 2012
charcoal and chalk on paper of a dryad (a Greek tree nymph) looking
especially wonderful next to its predecessor, In the Forest of
the Dryads; the oil and wax St. George and the Dragon finds the
artist (as St. George) slaying a dragon in the form of a winged
humanoid, perhaps the devil? A movie marquee touts the artist
and, at the left, a woman talks away on a pay phone. The 2008
oil Icarus with its exploration of falling to the earth is as
beautiful as it is unsettling.
......The
watercolor Conjunction, painted this year, is a night landscape
with the sky charged with heavenly bodies and possibilities.
Peaceful? Look again.
......But
whether you dive into his themes or not, Criswell is a very skillful
artist who taps his psyche (and no telling who else's) to produce
inspired work in a fascinating array of media.
......So
don't worry about Criswell's craziness. As the late country music
singer Waylon Jennings points out in his 1978 hit "I've
Always Been Crazy," being crazy has "kept me from going
insane." |