At SPARK Gallery until May 19th

IS A TRI-PARTITE SHOW WELL worth taking in, featuring works by yarn artist LAUREL McMECHAN–her section titled “The Woven Now” expressing all themes of interwoven emotional and historical narratives in perception–SPARK gallery owner MIKE HERBURGER–his “LAND SEA LIGHT” radiating a blend of light shadow and vision with photographic precision–and ROBERT HYATT–whose “Escapades” is a dizzying manifestation of zigzags and circles and screens and shapes that would seem to bring the greatest expression of the shared combinatory theme, blending impulse with accident and spirit..

McMechan’s hometown is Denver. She is a graduate of Massachusetts College of art and DSesign. She says, “Our lives are tapestries of experiences, altered and repaired over time. This work is inspired by the warp and weft of memory and the present. Paint squeezed through woven netting is a metaphor for the way memory and experiences fuse together. The combination of fabric, ribbon, plastic and paint creates a patchwork of pattern, texture and personal symbolism.”

I missed the reception, which I’m told was well attended, due to weather, and was glad to check in for a few minutes yesterday afternoon and snap a few bad shots that don’t do justice to the show. Well, some came out better than others, but catch this show before it’s gone.

Herburger’s photography is best perceived in person, not only because of my inexpert cellphone photography with distracting added shadows but for its inherent symphonic quality,

as of musical images conducted from the ether. Says he, “Using a lensless pinhole camera, I am able to record incidental visual elements—coalescing light, movement, forms, and colors. The resulting dreamlike landscapes and cityscapes compel the viewer to interpret the images through the lens of their own memory and experience.”

and are only complimented by Hyatt’s less disciplined, more extravagant approach, as seen in the following images:

An incidental detail worth pointing out is that Robert Hyatt is the most recently discovered illegitimate offspring of Beat icon Neal Cassady, as chronicled in his book, Beat Bastard, which is available from Amazon. “Hyatt’s countercultural spirit has evolved —from a teen with anti-authority, sometimes self-destructive tendencies, to that of a quiet, intellectually-oriented senior with a stated purpose to create abstract visual art…Always a visual artist, winning awards in high school and college. He had his first “one man show” while still a student at the University of Colorado. During his varied career, Hyatt also worked as a therapist and counselor helping children and adults experiencing the adversity of mental health illness and addiction. However, producing quality visual art has always been his passion. Over the length of his fine arts career, Hyatt has sold his work through 15 art galleries, has obtained two sculpture commissions and a portrait commission, has appeared in various Colorado publications (including one national arts magazine) highlighting his artistic achievements, and showed his work for two consecutive years in the 1980s at the Denver Art Museum.”