THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 22, 1995 TAG: 9512200162
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ERIC FEBER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 85 lines
It's contemporary abstract art, and yet it looks as if it were unearthed during a archaeological dig in the Holy Land.
It's the original work of Chesapeake artist Joseph H. Dillabough, on display at a one-man show currently on exhibit at the Art Works G2CPART22 Dillabough
Gallery in downtown Norfolk.
The show, ``Ancient Remnants,'' features 14 major works by the upstate New York native. The paintings feature a variety of colors and paint textures. They are abstract in nature but connect with an ancient and primitive world of priests, rituals, magic, mysticism and the sacred.
``I was a born and raised a Catholic,'' the Riverwalk resident said. ``And in Catholicism there's so much ritual, ceremony and pageantry in the Mass. As a child, I was always fascinated by the robes the priests wore. I was fascinated by the many textures, fabrics, colors and the tassels. They conveyed so much power to my young mind.''
Dillabough, 41, said he later started looking at African weaves and the ceremonial robes of the Native American tribes that lived near his hometown. He connected those designs and textures with the priestly robes that colored his vivid imagination when he was growing up in the small town of Messena, N.Y., about 45 minutes from Montreal, Quebec.
``I began to look at how robes, fabric designs and textures played a large role in religious ceremonies around the world,'' said Dillabough, who works as an art director at CBN. ``There was a power to those robes. And that's what I want to bring out in my paintings.''
Beth Benson, who runs the gallery where Dillabough's show is currently being exhibited, said his works ``carry the imagination into the spiritual world of past civilizations as if pressing together and preserving remnants of man's rich cultural and spiritual identity.''
Take for example the painting called ``Unknown Origins I.''
On first notice, the 18- by 22-inch painting resembles a contemporary abstract art design of shapes and negative space. But upon closer examination one sees what appears to be gold chain mail and gold textured fabric that might have been worn by an ancient priest or been used to wrap a mummy buried in the Negev Desert several thousand years ago.
Dillabough said he achieves this effect by manipulating and bullying his paint. He uses copper, bronze, silver and jewel-hued poured acrylic on canvas.
``I don't treat paint with a whole lot of respect,'' he said. ``I like the physicalness of painting. I used to be a carpenter, and I extend the physical nature of that to my painting.''
He said after he pours the paint onto his canvas he waits for it to get tacky. Then he strips, rips, digs, carves and claws his way through piled-on acrylics, pressing burlap and other coarse fabrics directly onto the paint creating a fabric effect.
``I like to get my hands on it and tear into it,'' he said. ``I'll experiment with just about anything. I start with a thumbnail sketch of my design and idea and see where it takes me. I also like to overlap paint. There's a lot going on below the surface of my canvases. Like in life, there's as much going on underneath the surface as there is above.''
Dillabough won a first-place award in June for his paintings at the Mid-Atlantic Art Show. This is his first one-man show.
He said it took him many years to perfect his craft.
After dabbling as a business major at the State University of New York at Canton, Dillabough dropped out. He said he hitchhiked to Virginia Beach with a friend, where he found work as a carpenter, helping build condominiums.
After that he attended one semester at the Columbia Bible College in Columbia, S.C. But the school's rigid rules and dogma soon wore thin.
He eventually went over to the University of South Carolina, where he showed slides of his early works to art professor Nancy Albertson. She liked what she saw and helped Dillabough enroll. He earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1980.
``I always had a desire to paint,'' he said.
``This show is a new step,'' he said. ``This is a beginning for me. My dream is to be able to paint full time and exhibit my works in Richmond, Washington and New York.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Unknown Origins I, by Joseph J. Dillabough.
Photo
Dillabough
by CNB