It’s October and that means my favorite time of year.
By now you know I have an abiding love affair with all things spooky and supernatural. This marks my sixth tribute to the most beautiful month of the year. Just two days from now, on the 17th, heralds the full moon which is also the year’s biggest supermoon. It will occur around the same time as the moon’s closest approach to earth, called perigee. It will be visible for most of the night starting around dusk and setting at dawn.
Bye the Light of the Silvery Moon
It’s not mere coincidence that 3rd in the Burg falls on the night of what may be the most spectacular evening of the year, so be sure to look up. Carrie Wissler-Thomas, CEO of the AAH and director of exhibitions, Nate Foster, are all too well versed in the legend of a hirsute creature that walks on two legs and desperately is in need of a trim.
“Nomad” by Jeff Bye
Brooklyn artist Jeff Bye holds a deep fascination and reverence for the beauty of what once was, with remaining remnants tattered, torn and telling tales of the past. When landmarks stood tall, new and dazzling, they represented modernity for its time. Through oil paintings surreal, the exhibit, “The Ugly Beautiful,” takes the viewer back to a day when places of commerce and custom meaningfully memorialized manner and method true to its original conception. When a candy store was much more than a candy store, it became an emporium. Bye traffics in a currency for nostalgia and longing for a life that is now extinct as technology rapidly replaces and erases a memory bank of identity, innocence and idealism. A major part of the attraction in his exhibit lies in seeing beauty in the detritus and decay that time takes on, weathering buildings that are testimonials and tributes to an era that will never be realized again. A timeworn appearance ravaged by blight and disregard becomes a shrine of sensual surrender under Bye’s watchful eye and brush, producing patina and permanence through tint and tone, growing richer through his painting process. The “Ugly Beautiful” is certainly a dichotomy in terms as it highlights his richly hued paintings. Behind the scenes, Nate Foster of the AAH divulged, “I intend to showcase Jeff Bye’s most recent pieces and a large body of work spanning several years focusing on urban decay and what the artist affectionately calls his ‘The Ugly Beautiful.’ I expect this show to be one of this year’s best exhibits.”
“Corner Bodega” by Jeff Bye
As the art writer for TheBurg, I invite you to spend at least part of this 3rd in the Burg evening taking in potent paintings of archaic buildings to anachronistic archetypes of architectural ambience, Bye “the light of the silvery moon.” The artist’s reception is Oct. 18, this Friday, at the Art Association, from 5 to 8 p.m., and the exhibit closes Nov. 14.
Kristin Reynolds: “Ghost in Stairwell”
Spooky Stuff at HIVE in York
Susan Scofield, mistress of “All Things Spooky” at HIVE artspace, found at 126 E. King St. in the White Rose City, strongly subscribes to the adage “Spooky is as spooky does.” Somehow, she casts a spell each October on an ever-changing skeleton crew of living artists who submit their takes on “spooky” from all parts of the country and beyond. Many are from surrounding locales, and some enter their art from as far away as Italy. The list of juried-in-artists seems to grow with every yearly edition of this show. All I can say is, “Art is kinda crazy with a spooky little girl like you,” Susan.
Alexis Manduke: “A Raven in the Rain”
Alexis Manduke from Camp Hill brings Poe’s a “Raven in the Rain” indoors to join HIVE’s harbingers of hyperbole. Kristin Reynolds of Lancaster shows a “Ghost in Stairwell” found the perfect place to hide. Hint…it’s near the stairs. Susan’s other top gallery picks include works from Rachel Hoffman, Kyle Newkirk and Nicole Smeltzer. Consistently topnotch artists Alana Beall and Tina Berrier always send chills up my spine. The usual suspects are here too and find the “likes” of Sam Georgieff, Jamie Gerkin, Heather Greenough, Annie Nann, as well as Daniele Serra and Eve Bluefoot from Italy. And the hometown crowd of the York area is well represented from Blackbird Designs, Hannah Carroll, Karen Lillie, Koh Mauler, Juli Langeheine, Jeramiah Lee, Thomas McAdams, Whitney Ortman, Chista Raught, Phillip Redman, Kate Rush, Wendy Lane Smith and Delany Wasson, all comprise lucky #13 in total. But who’s superstitious? “Get your ghost on” as Spooky closes on Oct. 26. “I ain’t afraid of no ghost.”
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