Familiar Images

I always find it intriguing when artists take on plants and animals as their subject matter. Such imagery may seem benign initially, but on so many levels they are chock full of history and symbolism.

Do all artists think of the Garden of Eden or fertility when they paint a scene of flowers? Does a depiction a horse or bear always call to mind the countless cultures that have painted them for thousands of years? Probably not. But for me, these histories become part of the subjects’ contexts.

This month, two separate shows in two different galleries take on these themes.

Olbrich Botanical Gardens presents paintings featuring flowers and other botanical imagery in Five Painters in the Gardens. The five local artists—C.K. Chang, Bonnie Johnson, Donna Miller, David Scheifel and Mary Diman—all have a penchant for color and nature, as well as painting in the realist tradition. They met up more than two decades ago and have exhibited together for the past six years. Yet each shares his or her own impression of flowers, through individual uses of color, medium and style.

The show begins June 8 and continues through September 21. It’s open on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

At Artisan Gallery in Paoli, a group show called Contemporary Animal Imagery tackles animal subject matter in surprising, beautiful, fun and extremely varied ways. It’s an exhibition of paintings, sculpture, photography and ceramics, but all of the fifteen-plus artists involved explore animal imagery as used in contemporary art.

There’s Randy Richmond’s collection of digital prints combining animals and manmade objects: a swan on a seesaw, a cow approaching a piano; both in moody, almost eerie nighttime settings. Or Audrey Christie’s vibrantly hued hand-colored woodcut of a rooster. Both of those are stark contrasts to Laura Zindel’s ceramic bottles, upon which she presents scientifically precise depictions of snakes, insects and spiders. The show offers so many thought-provoking ways of looking at beings we see almost daily.

The exhibition runs June 27 to August 3, and hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Artwork top to bottom is by Mary Diman, Donna Miller, Randy Richmond and Laura Zindel. 

COMING UP: A few events and performances to check out this week.

Sheryl Crow makes a stop in Madison tonight at the Alliant Energy Center as part of her summer Detours tour, while Ingrid Michaelson plays the Barrymore on Saturday. Also that night, The Kissers offer their final show at the High Noon Saloon.

And festival season is in full swing this weekend, starting with the Isthmus Jazz Festival running Thursday through Sunday at the Memorial Union Terrace. There you can enjoy a century’s worth of jazz styles.

Saturday brings the Clean Lakes Festival at Olin Turville Park, as well as Folk on State, the annual folk music concert series held Saturday afternoons on State Street. And Parade of Homes offers its yearly showcase Saturday through June 22 in four Madison-area neighborhoods.

Also on Saturday, American Players Theatre in Spring Green kicks off its outdoor theater season with A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which runs through October 5.

A Photo a Day

Many artists will tell you the key to being good at their craft is practice, practice, practice. And consistency is also a crucial part of the equation. 

Angela Richardson is learning this firsthand—in an entirely new way—through her latest artistic endeavor.

The Madison visual artist and performer is known in a lot of circles around town (she’s a founding member and performer at Cherry Pop Burlesque, runs Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School Madison and is often known by the stage name “Olive Talique”).

Yet Richardson is returning to an early love of photography by participating in Project 365 on the photo-sharing website Flickr. The premise of Project 365 is simple: Participating artists must post a photo every day for a year.

Of course, actually doing this isn’t so simplistic. Richardson has found the daily practice of taking and sharing a photograph has had profound and sometimes surprising impacts.

Richardson started her own Project 365 site on January 22 and has since captured such varied subject matter as a bird silh

ouetted in a tree, a piece of chocolate cake, doodles on a notebook page, a pair of legs (hers) in fishnet stockings and hot-pink stilettos, local architecture and myriad faces.

“I don’t have any preconceived notions,” she says of what scenes catch her attention. “I really do approach every day as, ‘OK, I’m going out into the world.’”

But over time—she’s now only about a third of the way into the project—she’s learned to spot a good shot.

“As I go along, my eye becomes more finely tuned,” she says. “When I see a picture, I know to 

stop and take it.”

When Richardson posts a photo, she also offers a written entry “to provide context, share info, vent, crack a joke, tell a story,” she explains on her site. In her words as well as her images, she typically presents a mix of humor, optimism, thoughtfulness and beauty.

When viewed together on Richardson’s site, the photos appear to have been chosen as a collective, not a piecemeal accumulation. That the images complement one another is testament to the strength of each person’s individual vantage point, she says.

“The fact that they look neat together is because it’s seeing the world through one person’s eyes,” she says. “I tend to be optimistic. I try to see the beautiful. I have faith in the world and I look for images that reinforce that.”

Taking the time to capture an image every day, as opposed to breaking out a camera only for special occasions, has had a slowing, almost meditative, effect on Richardson.

“It’s also taught me to look really carefully and pay hyper-attention to things,” she says. “I’ve been really moved by the fact that there’s absolute abundant beauty everywhere. It’s been very joyful in that way.”

Over the past few months, Richardson also has learned to trust the process, that she will get a photo every day, even if it comes later than she’d like. “Images are absolutely everywhere,” she says. “I can’t even escape them—and I mean that in the best way.”

She reached her one-hundredth-photo milestone just before Gallery Night last Thursday, and showcased her images at Winnebago Studios. She also hopes to have a show next year after she wraps the project.

Richardson isn’t sure what she’ll photograph before then or what her feelings on the project will be at that point. But she’s grateful for the chance to be “forced” into working on her photography on such a regular basis and adopting a daily practice.

“I didn’t really question the wisdom of that before, but I didn’t understand what that meant,” she says.

For more information on Angela Richardson—or to see her photography or purchase a print—visit her Flickr page or artist site, or email her at angela-art@charter.net.

Richardson’s photos shown above are Sometimes…, This is the beginning of a new story, Contrast and Ha ha ha!

COMING UP: A few events to check out this week

Jazz lovers should check out Tunes at Monona Terrace this evening when MadiSalsa Latin Jazz performs.

Madison Opera offers its first production of tragic opera Lucia Di Lammermoor on Friday and Sunday. Meanwhile Encore! Studio for the Performing Arts debuts its first full musical, Found Money, on Saturday; the production runs through May 24.

The Chazen Museum of Art transforms into a big top on Saturday with circus performers, entertainment and, of course, art. Also on Saturday is the Madison Area Music Awards at the Barrymore Theatre.

Don’t forget Mom this weekend. Olbrich Botanical Gardens presents a Mother’s Day Concert Sunday afternoon, while the UW Arboretum offers a Birding before Brunch walk, Mother’s Day Brunch and Mother’s Day Walk.

And next Tuesday through Sunday, Overture Center presents the musical comedy Monty Python’s Spamalot.