A Space For Art

by Todd Paul

Artists' studios, galleries and exhibit spaces come and go in Woodstock. Lately it seems they've been going more than coming. With a lack of affordable retail footage in the hamlet, tight economic times for all but the upper crust, and an ongoing defunding of the arts from the federal level on down, you can almost predict which funky artist's shack is next in line to be taken over by purveyors of chic clothes or overpriced, hand-blown, gilt-edged "crafts."

Fortunately, some Woodstockers still feel a commitment to art that runs deeper than a willingness to turn a buck selling "colony of the arts" post cards, bumper stickers and T-shirts. Helen Schofield, owner of 12 Tannery Brook Road, has demonstrated her commitment by playing patron to Marilyn Heir, Ani Tachdjian and Wendy Hutson. Schofield houses, rent-free, The Woodstock Artists Space, an artist-run, not-for-profit enterprise dedicated to waking slumberers and helping area artists. Heir, Tachdjian and Hutson have use of the building until it is sold; they just have to raise enough money to light, heat and advertise it.

Currently featured upstairs at the artists space are works by Steve Weis, Barbara Bachner and Ian Laughlin. Weis' heavy canvasses tend toward the dark of the mind. Red and gold shapes--some avian, some human, many undefined--swirl out of thick black backgrounds. At first sight, these canvasses appear completely abstract, but given time shapes and patterns of energy arise.

Bachner's work gives the opposite impression; while Weis' meaning arises from abstraction, Bachner's abstraction clouds meaning that is obviously present. Bachner's paintings are covered with writing, which is impressed directly into the canvas. Individual words or phrase fragments leap out at the viewer, but the whole is nearly impossible to decipher, creating a frustrating sense of inaccessible intent.

In Laughlin's wire and foil sculptures, the abstraction is complete. Representing the artist's thoughts and feelings, these colorful hanging sculptures cast macabre, out-of-focus shadows on the wall behind them, which the eye attempts unsuccessfully to resolve.

Downstairs, a group show includes works by Lisa Starger, Shelly Parriott, Elin Menzies, Justin Love, Sarkis Simonian, Sue Horowitz and others. Of particular interest is a collection of collaged poems and sketches by Jason Blickstein.

The current show at The Woodstock Artists Space will remain on view through January 7. Hours are Friday through Sunday, 1-6 p.m.