Grand Purcell

Grand Purcell: The Photography of Paul Grand and the Sculpture of Janis Purcell

September 19 – November 8, 2009
Opening Reception September 26, 2009 7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Artists and Members 6 p.m. – 7 p.m.

As a fine art photographer shooting architecture, portraits, landscapes and abstractions, Paul Grand has created portfolios from around the world. His style is painterly, sculptural, and at times, even a bit theatrical. Mr. Grand avoids the big picture and focuses instead on the telling detail. His subjects – people, buildings or landscapes – are intimate, close portraits, whole or fragments and these arches, lanes, doors, floors, windows and walls suggest states of transition. Reflections expose a parallel universe, neither obvious nor expected. Reality weaves into abstraction and rebounds into reality. His interest and perception lies in the smaller mosaics of a few isolated parts of a larger vastness, yielding sharper, clearer images and understandings. The core details are seminal because he believes that the component parts are greater than their summation into the whole. The results give vivid life to overlooked fragments and yield unexpected recognition of the small, forgotten and unseen subjects and moments that enrich our lives.

In her sculptures, artist Janis Purcell invites the viewer to stand for a while within the space of her dream life – a landscape adorned with color and texture and peopled with challenged heroes and goddesses, morphing vessels, immortalized flowers, and living music. It is work that represents the artist’s “spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic form” described by Carl Jung in his dream research; work that offers to share, play with, inspire, and entertain the viewer. Janis has come to embrace the process of her art, no longer demanding that the work reveal or demonstrate some deeper meaning to her. Instead, she hopes that her sculptures strike a responsive, primordial chord in the viewer. In Jung’s words, “They are pure nature; they show us the unvarnished, natural truth” of this artist’s rich dream life, and we are the better for it.

Tricia Fagan, 2009 Director
The Gallery Mercer County Community College