49th Annual Ways Garden Arts Show

     Today I attended the 49th Annual Ways Garden Arts Show sponsored by the Coalition of Independent Artists and Artisans. I was wearing the CIAA black t-shirt with the quote from René François Ghislain Magritte "Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist." We helped several artists set up their tents and easels and I helped a stained glass window artist hang his work. He had a stained glass window inspired by Picasso's period of expressionism "Seated Women"?? and one stained glass window inspired by the work of William Hart, a local artist whose nightmarish work appears to have made quite an impression. I saved the review of William Hart's show that appeared in the Williamsport Sun Gazette's SHOWCASE insert and was pleased to see him inspiring others.

    There were not very many artists showing work at the show but there were many highly interesting things to see. There was a bonsai tree artist which was an unexpected treat. There were also some punk or Goth artists displaying some really incredible punk or goth art which was the best stuff I've ever seen as far as punk/goth art goes. This really made me regret that I did not have enough money to buy anything.

    Ways Garden is a small park in the Millionaire's Row historical district of Williamsport. There are many mansions in the area which tend to have a peculiar effect upon me. As I sat contemplating the park and the stone mansion next to it I found myself slipping into a waking dream. I prefer modern art and my contemporary world but sometimes when I contemplate an old building my sensibilities start to change and it begins to appear eerily beautiful to me and many unfamiliar phantom memories arise in my mind. It almost seems as though my perception of the world is being slowly transformed into a ghost's perception of the haunting past.


    I brought along a book to read after the artists were all settled and everything had been examined. My book was "The Life Of William Blake" by Alexander Gilchrist which is written in very quaint purple prose. This book seemed appropriate because Blake was both a painter and a poet, although I only appreciate his reputation as a great mystic. Blake's "visionary faculty" seems to match my inner experiences. For example, he was apprenticed to an engraver who sent him to the churches in and near London to make drawings from the monuments and buildings; "The task was singularly adapted to foster the romantic turn of his imagination, and to strengthen his natural affinities for the spiritual in art. It kindled a fervent love of Gothic which lasted his life and exerted enduring influences on his habits of feeling and study. Sometimes his dreaming eye saw more palpable shapes from the phantom past."

posted by Robert Robbins @ 5:55 PM