Art Show Celebrates Elder Talent in the Suzanne Patterson Center

Linda Arntzenius

February was Black History Month and March was Women's History. April was Mathematics Education Month (didn't you know?), as well as National Poetry Month. So what is May?

Well, in addition to National Bike Month, National Hamburger Month, and National Correct Posture Month — to name a few of the concerns promoted by advocacy groups and private sponsors across the nation — May has been Older Americans Month since it took over from Senior Citizens Month in 1974.

But whatever it's called, Susan W. Hoskins, executive director of the Princeton Senior Resource Center (PSRC), prefers to concentrate less on aging and more on the vitality and creativity of the members of this section of the greater Princeton community, many of whom now have the time to devote to artistic pursuits they may have put aside in earlier years.

Hence the title of the art show that opened last Thursday, May 10, at the Suzanne Patterson Center at 45 Stockton Street.

"Vitality and Creativity" presents 60 works by Princeton artists working in a variety of styles and media: acrylics, oils, watercolors, pastels, and photography. "This is our tenth art show but the first open to the community at large," said Ms. Hoskins, who described the show as a way for older adult artists to show and sell their work. Most of the works are for sale with prices ranging from $75 to $2,000, and all are within the exhibition's proscribed limits of 24 x 24 inches.

Besides being open to a wider group than before, the art show is a first in terms of collaboration said Ms. Hoskins. "I'm firm believer in working together with Princeton's many vibrant service organizations and we invited the Arts Council to co-sponsor this event. The Arts Council's Jessica Gold was indispensable in providing advice about mounting the exhibition."

"Vitality and Creativity" showcases artists discovering new talent as well as those pursuing or rediscovering a life-long passion. Some attend classes at PSRC or at the Arts Council, and some work from their own home studios.

Visitors will find landscapes, portraits, and still lifes: sunlit interiors rendered in oils by Ann Kilbourne; vignettes drawn from nature in acrylic by Kit Wong and by Joyce Parker; scenes of natural grandeur such as Emily Chapman's acrylic Grand Teton; and scenes of Italy such as Ms. Chapman's acrylic Gondola and Carla Olsen's Italian Square.

Ms. Olsen has provided the show's signature image in another Italian scene: the acrylic on board, Tuscan Countryside.

The show's first two paintings are oils by Betty Curtiss: Mussels with Oysters and Still Life with Oysters.

Among the Princeton residents who attended the opening last Thursday, was Gus Mosso, who returned to painting two years ago after a 35-year hiatus while he worked in international marketing for Bristol Myers Squibb and then as a private consultant. Mr. Mosso's medium of choice is acrylic. "I don't have time for oils to dry," he quipped.

Since retiring, he has converted his home office into a studio where he creates colorful portraits of flower blooms. His two works, neither of which is for sale, are Grecian Windflowers, and the cheekily named Big Bloomers.

Lawrenceville resident Henry Schweber has been practicing photography on and off, he said, since his twenties. His framed photograph, War Weary, shows a Civil War re-enactor. His Deer was photographed in Utah, where he found the animals to be almost as tame as those in the Princeton area.

Mr. Schweber said that he is drawn to any subject that will make a good picture and experiments with computer software to find the right technique for that image. "I find Photoshop's filters increase the dynamic range of contrast and tone," he said. "The program is a really powerful tool that I began using about two and a half years ago. Before that I worked in a full-color dark room." He admits to spending so much time on his photography that he's been described as obsessive. "I can't fit any more in my house or my wife, Lynn, will throw me out!"

Currently, the retired mechanical engineer who worked for Delval in Trenton has photographs on view in the Ewing Public Library and in the Montgomery Arts Center as part of the Princeton Photography Club's Annual Show.

Unlike Mr. Schweber, painter John O'Connor rarely exhibits his work. The Princeton resident has shown only once before, at PSRC a decade ago. While he has sold some pieces to friends, he said that he has an apartment full of un-exhibited work, only two of which are on show here: the acrylic paintings: Boston, a street corner of the city at night; and Downtown, a daytime Princeton scene of the corner of Witherspoon and Nassau with its prominent Tudor-style building.

Mr. O'Connor's work is reminiscent of that of the American painter and printmaker Edward Hopper, best remembered for his eerily realistic depictions of solitude in contemporary American settings. Hopper's 1942 painting Nighthawks inspired Mr. O'Connor to begin painting. "When I first saw Nighthawks, I sat down and painted a copy of it. I was attracted by the mood of the painting and by Hopper's mastery of light. By copying, you learn about the very important matter of mixing colors. It's a great way to learn. The hope, of course, is that you'll pick up some of his technique."

Copying as a means to learning technique has a long history in the teaching of art and James Chapman's bright acrylic, My Rendition of Van Gogh's Work, pays homage to both the exercise and to the painter who inspires his work. Mr. Chapman emulates Van Gogh's subject matter as well as his signature brushstrokes.

A relative newcomer to art, Robert Wiedis has just one work in the exhibition. Riders on the Plain was inspired by an image he saw in an issue of National Geographic, to which he has added a touch of his own with the creation of a mountainous backdrop. Mr. Wiedis has created planes (no pun intended) of bright color to suggest the movement of horses and riders. Harlequin-like sections reference cubism with a color palette that evokes Van Gogh, whom he concedes was an early model. After seeing one of Van Gogh's chair paintings, Mr. Wiedis was moved to do a pencil sketch of it.

A former engineer who worked for Ingersoll Rand for many years, Mr. Wiedis began art classes after his wife died in 2004. He studied at the South Brunswick Senior Center and now takes both art classes offered at PSRC: Hannah Fink's mixed media art class on Thursdays from 1 to 3 p.m. and Robert Iola's drawing and painting in mixed media on Fridays from 1 to 3 p.m.

"I soak up Bob Iola's demonstrations, and Hannah's lectures have introduced me to a social network of artists," said Mr. Wiedis. "As I paint, things exude from me and I have a sense of expanding myself through painting," he said. "It's amazing to see people's talents evolve by quantum leaps."

Robert Iola has painted the show's two most expensive pieces: Beets with Radishes and Copper Pot with Gourd, each a still life painted in oils and priced at $2,000. The Kendall Park resident has been a professional working artist since he studied painting at the Pratt Institute. "There are a lot of talented people in this area; good painters and photographers," he said of his PSRC students.

Among the other paintings in the show is Kit Wong's delightful Frolicking with Bees, painted in the Chinese style with ducks, bees, and blossoms, although it's not for sale.

Besides watercolors, oils, and acrylics, there is digital photography, such as Carla Olsen's My Orchid and Maia Reim's Red Mailbox, a crisp image of a wisteria-, lilac-, and pine-covered bower that invites the viewer into the scene. The color combinations stay in the mind: deep and soft greens with touches of purple periwinkle with the red of the mailbox as a counterpoint. Ms. Reim's work can also be seen as part of the Princeton Photography Club's show at Montgomery Center for the Arts.

"The artists are proud of their work and I'm excited about this exhibition. I hope it will become an annual event," said Ms. Hoskins, who encourages the public to check out the work on view. "I want people to see what a vital and creative senior community we have here and to celebrate that vitality and creativity."

"Vitality and Creativity" will continue through June 15.

For more information, call 609-924-7108 or visit: www.princetonsenior.org.

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