BACKSTAGE GALLERY

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				"Deertrees has made a sincere effort to reach beyond the commonplace of scenic tourist landscapes to cultivate a more diverse and perhaps more cosmopolitan perspective in the visual arts which they choose to exhibit here." Ken Westhaver, from his review of the CAC exhibit, June 2002			The BackStage Gallery at Deertrees
The backstage area of an old theatre is a magical and mystical place. There are lights and curtains and props and theatrical things, usually with names totally unfamiliar to most of us. There is, and it is not just a cliché, the lingering smell of the grease paint and the echoes of the roar of the crowd. And there is the size of the space itself - massively tall, unbelievably open and yet cluttered at the same time; an intimate artisan's workshop with cathedral-like dimensions. When you suddenly fill this place with paintings and sculptures created by some of America's finest artists you have more than a back-stage, you have a significant contribution to the arts.

				The mission of The Backstage Art Gallery is more than to simply enhance the theatergoing experience of Deertrees patrons; it is to present paintings and sculptures that one does not ordinarily see in the local art galleries. Here are exhibited works by outstanding and adventurous artists who have a different way of seeing our surroundings and who have the ability to transpose that vision into fine art. The BackStage Gallery at Deertrees is open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am until 5 pm, one hour before all performances, at intermission, and by appointment through the Box Office.

		2007 Exhibition Schedule

Andrea Sawyer curator			Debra Yoo					August 16 - September 2 Opening Reception with the artist on Thursday, August 16 at 6:00 pm
In my work I acknowledge directly the powerful influences in my visual life: the great artists from whom I continue to learn so much, among them Matisse, Hopper, Porter, and the Group of Seven; an attachment to textiles and decorative patterns that comes from my Hungarian background; and a fascination with the angular forms and shallow pictorial space of Russian icons.			My paintings are painterly, direct, and sensuous, and though I am drawn to intense color and the tension that strong diagonals create in a composition, the end result is often contemplative. I seek out visual situations that at first appear chaotic to me (often deliberately). Gradually order emerges. What engages and fascinates me the most are compositional relationships that develop as I am painting and are only fully apparent to me when it is finished. visit Debra Yoo's website				In my work I acknowledge directly the powerful influences in my visual life: the great artists from whom I continue to learn so much, among them Matisse, Hopper, Porter, and the Group of Seven; an attachment to textiles and decorative patterns that comes from my Hungarian background; and a fascination with the angular forms and shallow pictorial space of Russian icons.



David Stengelsen			Lush and Elegant					June 20 - July 24 Artist's Reception on Friday, July 6 at 6:00 pm

View of Capri from Cannon Point Oil on Canvas (66x96)				"My art making is guided by a few basics which I hope are evident in all my work. They are good draftsmanship, strong color and a (hopefully) interesting variety of subject matter. I do lots of portraits. The human face fascinates me and I do paintings of my dear friends, as well as, those of famous people – usually writers, actors, musicians, etc. I like landscapes too. Big ones. And flowers. I love flowers. Their almost infinite variety of colors and shapes are a constant inspiration and source of wonder and beauty to me." David Stengelsen			Entry Hall with Flowers Oil on Canvas (60x78)
William L. Janelle
				I am a sculptor and furniture maker who works in wood, stone and bronze. Each piece is one of a kind. My preferences of wood are apple, cherry, butternut and walnut. These are hardwoods with very distinctive grains and colors. Stone - marble, soapstone and alabaster. My style is a fusion of realism and neo-classicalism. This enables the viewer to recognize the subject matter and at the same time allows me the freedom of self-expression. The basic goal in each piece is to show motion in the subject matter. Whether it be a puffin standing on a rock, with it's head turned ninety degrees inquisitively looking at something that just startled it or a falcon a half second from flight. The sculpture's emotion allows the viewer to recognize a bit of humanity in wildlife portrayed. William Janelle



Dan Lake curator			Jill K. Gregory Jon Friedman Ken Orton Charles Ramsburg					July 26 - August 15 Opening Reception with the artists on Thursday, July 26th at 6:30 pm

visit Jill Gregory's website		As a child growing up in Pittsburgh, Jill Gregory learned the easy way that she was born with unusual talent for drawing – everyone told her so. At the same time, biology, particularly how the human body processes even the simplest movement fascinated her. From the decision to, say, move a finger, a neurological process sets off in the brain, triggering electrical activity in the central nervous system, and down the hand, activating muscles, nerves, tendons, bones, even blood flows almost instantly and, to the individual moving his or her finger, invisibly and insensibly. Jill, however, needed to visualize all that process, to lay it out in color and form. In human anatomy Jill sees exquisite beauty in the harmonious order of the parts. She quotes French 19^th century mathematician, philosopher and physicist Henri Poincaré: “The scientist does not study nature because it is useful. He studies it because he loves it and he loves it because it is beautiful. Were nature not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.”

			For Jon Friedman, reconnecting to the natural world felt like a homecoming and the fulfillment of a long-suppressed yearning. He didn’t abandon the abstract and formal ideas that had inspired his earlier work. He took them along on this journey and the visual energy generated by the interplay of formal architecture and first-hand observation is what runs his landscape paintings. Portrait painting was not a practice that Friedman initially intended to pursue. He fell into it a few years ago more or less by chance. But having done so, he found that it presents himself with technical and intellectual challenges that are difficult to resist.			visit Jon Friedman's website

visit Ken Orton's website				Born in Birmingham, England in 1951, Ken Orton paints in a classic oil painting technique onto a prepared canvas surface. In recent years his landscape and still-life work has focused on the disused and redundant, using dilapidated motels, rusting old cars and mothballed aircraft as his themes. In his travels within the United States, from Alcatraz to Block Island, he has used his skills as a draftsman and colorist to produce a body of sensitive images, an Englishman's touching vision of the lost toys of the American Dream.

			Everywhere Charles Ramsburg has gone in his peripatetic life his mind and his art have wandered into mysterious places generally reserved for philosophers and theologians. He studies ancient texts and the meanings of words from original to modern usages. Intense curiosity about ideas informs Ramsburg’s paintings and sculpture as he weaves back and forth between the edges of different disciplines. visit Charles Ramsburg's website


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