I’ve been exhibiting at the West End Gallery for over 15 years now and have benefitted in many ways. It was the first place I showed and sold my first piece of work. It was the first place my work was showcased. It was the place that first gave me hope of doing what I love as a career and has served as a jumping off point to other galleries. So many other things as well. But perhaps the greatest benefit may have been what I have gained from observing the work of the other artists there over the years.
I’ve talked here and in my own blog of how artists from the Corning area such as Mark Reep, Marty Poole and Dave Higgins, have shaped how I work and how I see my own work. Another such artist is Treacy Ziegler who has shown her collagraphs and, more recently, her paintings at the West End for many years now.
From the moment I saw Treacy’s work many years ago, I was intrigued. I instantly recognized that she was doing with her work what I wanted and didn’t have in my work at the time. Her prints had great areas of dark and light contrast and even in the lightest sections, a sense of darkness was always present which gave every piece real weight. Her bold colors and striking contrasts gave even the simplest compositions a deeper feeling.
They were also immediately identifiable as Treacy’s work. You could see a piece from across the street and you knew whose work it was. She has a very idiosyncratic visual vocabulary and her shapes and forms react beautifully with one another in the techniques she uses in producing her work.
At the time, my own work was still very transparent and very much watercolor based. With Treacy’s work in mind I started adding layers of darkness in my own way. Simplifying form. Enhancing contrast and color. All the time searching for my own vocabulary, my own look.
I’ve always maintained that artists are often more like synthesizers than creators. They absorb multiple influences and take what they see in these influences, merging them together to create something that is completely different than the original. Sometimes not even reminiscent of the influencing work. For me, the West End has always been a great source for ideas and concepts to absorb. It may be in a certain brushstroke or the way a painting’s composition comes together or just in being exposed to a certain artist’s body of work for a long period of time. Whatever the case, I always find something in the work there that sparks new ideas within me.
And that has been a great benefit…
Redtree Times 
I am a great fan of Treacy’s work. And yes, I see the influences.
I once sent another painter friend a list of contemporary artists I liked and hoped one day to afford and he wrote back, “I had no idea Edward Hopper had that many children.”
I loved this: I’ve always maintained that artists are often more like synthesizers than creators. They absorb multiple influences and take what they see in these influences, merging them together to create something that is completely different than the original.
A year ago I wrote a piece called Kaleidoscope eyes. Talking about writing, I said,
Our task not to invent something entirely new, but to build on the foundation of the past as we construct our own works. At this point, at least, there is no decision to be made. Truly creative work will be grounded in the words of other writers, the interpretation of critics, the assorted imaginings of dreamers and the tattered and fragmented realities of our own lives…
And I quoted Rosabeth Kanter, a specialist in strategy and innovation for Harvard Business School. Her take is that,
Creativity is a lot like looking at the world through a kaleidoscope. You look at a set of elements, the same ones everyone else sees, but then reassemble those floating bits and pieces into an enticing new possibility.
Loved seeing your affirmation of these thoughts.
I like the idea of our influences being a foundation upon which we build. They are building blocks already set in the historical record and ours is to continue upward, a block at a time.
I also like the idea of the kaleidoscope.
Thanks for giving me something to think about!