THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 24, 1994 TAG: 9407230026
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: TERESA ANNAS
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
GODDESSES, like angels, are big.
Scores of women are poring through books on goddesses, striving to find the goddess within. Are they Diana, the goddess of the moon and the hunt? Persephone, goddess of the underworld?
Since Joseph Campbell's ``The Power of Myth'' series aired on public television in the 1980s, an enthusiasm for mythology has burgeoned.
``Geeks and Goddesses,'' a group exhibit at the d'Art Center, capitalizes on this special interest. To add a little comic push-pull to the concept, they've thrown in geeks.
According to the d'Art Center folks, a geek is not a guy. So there's nothing sexist going on here. For their purposes, a geek is simply the opposite of a goddess.
Except for the gender part. Because a goddess is necessarily feminine.
It is probably a little-known fact that a geek is a circus performer who bites the heads off of chickens. As a young man, science-fiction writer Harlan Ellison had a job looking out for a carnival geek - a lame-brained guy the carnies kept locked up at night. And yeah, the geek's job was to munch on live hens.
It would seem that the d'Art Center artists missed the boat.
There is not a single image of a chicken's head being bitten off. All in all, there's nothing too terribly deep on display at the d'Art Center. Fun and fascinating are the operative adjectives, from soft-sculpture nerds to painted plaster ``Cro-Magnon Rockettes.''
This is intended as a light summer show, after all. On display are about 60 works by about 45 artists. Most of the artists are local, and a majority are women.
It's an uneven show, with amateurish work mixed in with more ambitious pieces.
Irmaly Brackin's ``Be the Cool Water'' alone is worth a visit. Brackin has painted a delightful spoof of Gauguin's 1890-'91 ``The Loss of Virginity,'' an important work in the permanent collection of The Chrysler Museum.
In Gauguin's work, a nude young woman lies on the grass by a stream, caressing a dog. She holds a blossom in her right hand - the flowering of her womanhood, one presumes. Townsfolk are approaching, as if her virginity is their business.
In Brackin's takeoff, titled ``Be the Cool Water,'' the virgin is having a high old time. She's laid back in a palm tree paradise, floating in blue waters with her golden pup pal. Instead of a flower, she holds a rubber ducky.
Brackin works in the classic fresco style - painting on wet plaster. The images are unusually luminous.
On the humorous side, Lynne Sward's ``Household Goddess - Ima Kleener'' transforms a common hand broom into a kitsch-laden fetish of domesticity.
Joy Ingram's ``Cro-Magnon Rockettes'' is a chorus line of big-breasted female fertility figures. Her work echoes Deborah Small's fiber wall piece, ``Standing in Unity,'' which features arm-linked figures.
Another intriguing lineup is Beverly Furman's lushly painted caryatids - a row of supporting columns in the form of draped female figures. Furman titled the work ``You Can Always Count on the Girls, II.''
Furman's ``Evermore'' may be the most unforgettable work in the show, though it scarcely evokes the show's theme. Furman has taken a dead crow and draped it like a Victorian headdress around a woman's gray face mask; the effect is eerie.
Ray Hershberger crafted an effective socio-political statement in the form of an allegory. The oil painting, ``The American Goddess, Liberty, Ambushed by the Evil Forces of Geekdom,'' shows a native American woman fleeing for her life in a contemporary garden. She is running from a Klansman, a Western gunslinger and a videographer.
Jenny Windsor's charcoal figure drawings are sensitive in their portrayal of Venus and Persephone as palpable women with real bodies and feelings.
Whatever the setting, Vicki Bruner's always showing geeks and geeky goddesses. Bruner, who brainstormed the exhibit with d'Art director Susan Bernard, contributed three works, among them ``Ernie Geekovitz,'' which won the people's choice award at the opening reception.
Bruner is as adept at characterization as any comic novelist. Whether working in soft sculpture or mixed media drawing, it's all in the details - the turn of a mouth, the slump of a sock.
The d'Art Center, 125 College Place in downtown Norfolk, is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free. Call 625-4211. The exhibit continues through Sept. 18.
In addition to the galleries, visitors are encouraged to peruse the center, where 30 artists maintain working studios. BUTTON UP
Be prepared to ``button up'' next time you visit The Chrysler Museum. Like so many museums, including New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Chrysler now has visitors clip on a tiny round metal button at the entrance.
Earlier this month, the museum also began posting staff members at the front and side entrances. Where there used to be only security guards, now there will be friendly hostesses.
Besides giving directions and information, these hospitable folks will gently urge non-members to make a voluntary contribution - $3 for adults, $2 for children. Museum members will be asked to show their membership cards.
In recent years, a sign at the museum's entrance has suggested donations. But the accompanying cash box never exactly overflowed.
With the new system, ``I would say maybe half the people who come in make a donation,'' said a hostess last week. ``And most of those give the suggested amount.''
The emphasis is on voluntary, because admission is still free, stressed Donna Sawyer, the museum's publicist.
``It's really not a change in policy at all,'' Sawyer said. ``We're just being a little bit more up front about our need to have the public help us support the operation of the museum.''
In a year's time, the donations could really add up: From July 1993 through July 1994, 240,000 adults and students visited the museum.
The museum will promote memberships today at an open house during gallery hours, 1 to 5 p.m. Memberships start at $25 (students and seniors) and $35 for individuals. For today only, if you sign up, you get a free museum T-shirt. Otherwise, shirts will sell for $18, $15 members.
It's the first time the Chrysler has produced a T-shirt, Sawyer said. The shirt sports a reproduction of one of its most popular paintings - Renoir's ``The Daughters of Durand-Ruel,'' featuring his dealer's children seated in a garden.
Docent-led tours will take place every half hour today, and a living history interpreter will visit some galleries. At 3:30 p.m., a Young Audiences musical ensemble will perform.
Call 622-ARTS for more information. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Lynne Sward's ``Household Goddess'' transforms a broom into a
kitchen-ladder fetish of domesticity.
by CNB