Evolution of Art: Sky Study by Michelle Sanzi Kermes... We've Hung the Show

From left to right:
bold red line over fuzzy yellow; bold red line; thin broken blue line below yellow;  sky study (d)

Today was a good day at Beanetics Coffee Roasters.
We hung a new show, Sky Study, by my good friend, Michelle Sanzi Kermes.

Sanzi is an amazingly diverse artist... multi-talented, multi-faceted.
She works in series, carrying a theme or concept throughout a body of work.

For many years, her work focused on the horizon, and there was always a blue or red line in her pieces as a "horizon" reference. It was intriguing to see how far she could take this concept, and play with it. As an artist, I am fascinated by what Sanzi does. It is not just that Sanzi finds ways to expand a basic concept. It is also that she experiments with materials, and is inspired by what she finds laying about. For instance, these pieces are done in chalk pastel on fabric she found in her attic. She liked the texture, and as you examine the pieces up close, you can see where the texture would lend itself to art studying something as vast, and yet, somewhat texturally specific, as the sky. As if that's not enough. It is important to note that Sanzi makes her own frames and does her own framing.

Sanzi also has a unique sense of composition, where the matting and framing is as much a part of the art, as the art, itself. In this exhibit, many of the pieces are small, 3"x3" squares of color and texture, mounted and then floated them in the middle of a matted frame. The effect is a sense that even though you're only looking at a small swatch of sky, you get the sense that it is endless and infinite... as the sky is. This is what intrigues me about Sanzi's art... the way she can make something small and finite feel infinite.

From left to right:
sky study (b); sky study (c); sky study (a)

The series in this exhibition takes the concept of horizon and broadens it out to the whole sky. When she was living in England with her husband and daughter, she began to study the English sky over the moors... the wet, drippy sky so often noted in British novels by Austen or Trollop.

When you see the current show, you will understand. Many of the pieces still have the red or blue "horizon" line, but the work is very colorfully and texturally "cloudy sky" indeed.

Sky Study will be on display through April 1, 2011.

An artist reception will be held on Sunday, March 20th from 2-4pm.
Come by and meet Sanzi and talk with her about her art. I am sure you will find her as interesting and intriguing as I do.

Beanetics Coffee Roasters is located at 7028 Columbia Pike in Annandale, Virginia 22003.