Morris Arts' A SURE HAND Exhibit Opens 2/25

On February 25, 2015, from 6-8pm, Morris Arts will host the opening reception for its thirteenth exhibit at the Gallery at 14 Maple. For this occasion, the Exhibition Committee of Morris Arts and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation selected Sassona Norton (Bedminster), Doug DePice (Secaucus), Neal Korn (Union) and Arlene Gale Milgram (Trenton) for their expertise, talent and vision. As Curator Dick Eger, notes: "We selected works that embodied the defining element of drawings - simplicity...Drawing juxtaposes the austerity of the single line with the power of the image that emerges. It is the sure hand of these artists that transforms the humble into the extraordinary."

Responding to the "rich architecture" of hands, Sassona Norton's works focus on the intricacies and complexity of the hand. Providing Norton with its variety of shapes and forms, the hand can mark the passing of time and express a remarkable range of emotions through gesture and position. By using a much larger scale, filling an entire canvas with hands, Norton intensifies the details of the hands, capturing a sculptural quality, implying what is absent and reflecting both tangible and intangible qualities of humanity. As Curator Eger adds, Norton philosophizes "about the shortness of life, the concept of yearning, the sadness of want and the fierce desire to change reality. She effortlessly folds these themes into her exuberant charcoals of hands."

With work that is both visceral and metaphorical, Doug DePice captures the horror of the Holocaust in his dark and powerful drawings. Inspired by Eli Wiesel's book, Night, Depice describes his works such as The Chimneys thus: "I found the imagery of the smoke to appear heavy with the death of countless souls, and also thick with madness." Images of the Crematorium are "succinct, frightening" and he adds, "To me, these forms are like giant tombstones of history." With his portraits of Anne Frank, DePice strives to give some artistic expression to Anne Frank's haunting words. In the portrait of Anne's face with tape and charcoal, he states, "I wanted the surface to be scarred, marked and ripped as a visual reminder of the distress, anxiety, and uneasiness which gnawed daily at Anne's psychological well-being." DePice wants art to be a light in a world filled with the "darkness of ignorance and hate."

Artist Arlene Gale Milgram considers her art to be abstract but, at its core, her way "of processing my life experience." She channels her thoughts and works in different densities and rhythms, often reclaiming resources from "failed" works to start new pieces. Mixed media works are layered as is life - "full of false starts and new beginnings." She adds, "The scars that remain are maps of time and experience." More recently, she has focused on aging, support systems and "the fragile threads that hold us together." She doesn't expect the viewer to read her "story" in the works but rather to engage them, involve them in her images and enable them to connect to "shared humanity."

The drawings of Neal Korn present us with a unique juxtaposition of familiar imagery and unusual, striking perspectives. A simple portrait is literally "turned on its head" in a wash of color in Head Over to Seaport Marine and his portrayal of iconic images such as Lincoln's monument or the Union, NJ cannon grab the eye with their imaginative and dramatic vantage points as well as with a touch of humor and whimsy. "That is my head being blown out of the cannon," he remarked. His "Icon" series includes drawings of images from Sandy Hook (NJ), Philadelphia (PA), NYC (NY) and Baltimore (MD). Combining a tight, analytical drawing style with the "loose" application of rice paper, to provide texture and contrast and add an intuitive component, Korn creates images of dramatic and intriguing appeal.

Each of these four artists uses the medium of drawing to capture subtleties, delicacy, monumentalism and gesture in distinctive and memorable ways. Not the two dimensional tracing of a line on a surface here -but rather the power, the volume, motion and weight of each artist's vision is captured in these exceptional and dramatic drawings which redefine the usual understanding of this medium and enhance our appreciation of its inherent magic.

Morris Arts, located in Morristown, NJ, is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1973 dedicated to engaging and building community through the arts. Using the arts to inspire, connect and engage, Morris Arts serves as a resource for Morris County with a special focus on arts programming in the schools and in the community, arts advocacy, and support of the Morris Area community of artists and arts organizations. The New Jersey State Council on the Arts has awarded Morris Arts a "Citation of Excellence" and designated it as a "Major Service Organization" in recognition of its "solid history of service excellence, substantial activity and broad public service."