The autumn art show at the community gallery was entitled: Repeat. This theme challenges the concept that repetition is a fundamental part of visual language and is used to create movement, stillness, confusion, or order. Repetition shows up all over the art world through imagery, process, color, and subject matter thus adding deeper meaning to the work. To meet this vexing format, the BRC craftsman fashioned the “Starry, Starry Knight” banjo (below) to echo a metaphor of the iconic night sky painting by Vincent Van Gogh.
Also recently crafted with an equally repetitive theme was a smartphone holder decorated with left-over fretboard inlays from previous BRC banjo projects. The desktop implement (below) was named the “Eagle Bluffs Cell Perch” in recognition of a nearby avian wildlife preserve along the Missouri River. This patch of backcountry is located adjacent to a county road and not far from a now defunct pub where the BRC founder jammed with Bluegrass pals for many fun-filled years. These musicians appear in the final pages of the nature book “Where the Pelicans Fly” by author Paul Sinrud Johnson who celebrates the wonders of nature found in the Eagle Bluffs Conservation Area of Boone County, Missouri. Enter “Sinrud” in the website search engine and scroll down for further details.
The American Bald Eagle, our national symbol, is the only eagle native to North America. The Eagle Bluffs Cell Perch was gifted to a friend as a token of thanks for her service in the US Armed Forces.
At the gala evening Repeat Show reception in the exhibit hall seen above, gallery visitors puzzle over the Starry banjo and yet again contemplate the age old question- what is art? For an earlier discussion of this philosophical issue, enter the word “abstruse” in the website search engine and scroll down.
From the BRC: Some folks say art is in the eye of the beholder.
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