Art
Inspired by Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club
April 5th through June 8th, 2008 
First
Place
Transients (Mother and Daughter) - Thuan
Vu
Two hundred dollar award courtesy of the NEA Second
Place
Phoenix Rising - Lydia Viscardi
Gift
Certificate from Hull's Art Supply and Framing Third
Place
Laughing Monk - Kimberly Raisbeck
Gift
Certificate from Jerry's Artarama Honorable
Mention
Sea Urchin Tray - Karen Young Ford Juried
by
Peter Konsterlie
(Read Mr. Konsterlie's
speech here),
Rachel Moore, & Yolanda Petrocelli
Thanks
to the kind supporters of The Big Read: National
Endowment for the Arts - Institute of Museum and Library Services - Arts Midwest
- City of Bridgeport - City of Shelton - Fairfield County Community Foundation
- HealthNet of the Northeast - Bank of America - People's United Bank - Newtown
Savings Bank - Tetly Tea - Fei Ma - Rosa's Florist - Hull's Art Supply and Framing
- Jerry's Artarama - Coffee Connections - And all the wonderful Big Read partners
in Bridgeport, and Shelton
About
the Exhibit Journey is an exhibition
of work reflecting the themes of Amy Tan's novel The Joy Luck Club. The novel
will serve as a backdrop for the exploration of American immigration, diversity,
tolerance, the preservation of heritage, and the ever changing roles of women.
Journey is the artist's physical
creation of The Joy Luck Club. A tale of love and luck,
self-discovery, and
self-enrichment, each artist has captured the essence of the words and transposed
their personal images into a reflection in color and form. Interlacing experiences,
emotions, heritage and memories, Journey tells its own story of struggle and triumphs,
the joining of family and community, and the strengthening of the collective spirit.
An expression of personal achievement, presence, and relevance, Journey speaks
to the wonderful ancestors of our past, and encourages us to cherish all the lives
that exist inside each of us. "Now
the woman was old. And she had a daughter who grew up speaking only English and
swallowing more Coca-Cola than sorrow. For a long time now the woman had wanted
to give her daughter the single swan feather and tell her, 'This feather may look
worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions.'
And she waited, year after year, until she could tell her daughter this in perfect
American English." - from The Joy Luck Club "A
great book combines enlightenment with enchantment. It awakens our imagination
and enlarges our humanity. It can even offer harrowing insights that somehow console
and comfort us. Whether you're a regular reader already or a nonreader making
up for lost time, thank you for joining the Big Read." - Dana Gioia,
Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
The
Artists Jeff Becker
http://www.jeffbeckerphoto.com
http://www.jeffbeckerphotography.com
There is an essence to all things, captured by shooting
from the heart, as unobtrusively as possible. Intimate, personal photos with soul
and emotion, the true essence and spirit of a person or place. This is what I
photograph. Sometimes it is beautiful, other times not. Patience and time are
fundamental. The right moment appears, but sometimes one must wait for it. And
that can take hours. Vincent Dion
I started
with paintings made by my father circa 1958. He died in 1960 when I was very young.
I have no memory of him. This painting, which he made as a hobbyist, was found
in the house where I grew up. I decided to work directly on my father's painting
to initiate a posthumous collaboration. In doing so, I have created the convergence
of two artistic perspectives; that of my fathers' overlaid by my own. I have no
special fondness for the image or style of the painting. I chose to work directly
onto my father's canvas to give a sense of permanence to our collaboration. Painting
over his picture creates a conversation with my past, and becomes a new memento
of my father's former presence.
In The Tow, I painted out the sails of
the ship and painted in a tugboat. The tugboat pulling the disabled ship suggests
triumph, loss, departure, or arrival as well as interdependence. The tug I painted
is an image appropriated from a J.M.W. Turner painting: The Fighting Temeraire
(1839). In Turner's painting the tugboat symbolizes a new generation of technology
retiring a hero, "The Temeraire". The ship and tug in my collaborative
painting become a metaphor for distinguishing between the old and the new, the
brave and the innocent, the dead and the living.  Karen
Young Ford
While growing up second generation Chinese American, holidays,
celebrations of birth and marriage as well as mourning evolved around a meal or
banquet. Many courses of food having significant meaning (e.g., noodles=longevity)
are served family style. My work celebrates the union of family and friends in
a communal fashion. Each piece reflects the user and how the food is presented.
It should be aesthetically pleasing as well as completely functional. I strive
to harmonize the relation ship between form, function and nature. To avoid distraction
from the food, I employ simple organic forms and stay clear from fussy decoration
because I believe that the marriage between clay, form and glaze speak for themselves.
Cecielia
Moy Fradet
Cecilia Moy Fradet was born in Hong Kong and grew up in New
York City. Her family left China during the revolution. Her father was a calligrapher
and her grandfather painted landscapes. Spending time with them and helping them
grind the black ink as they painted fueled her lifelong passion to draw and paint. Carolina
Guimarey
I have a fascination for surfaces, for the roughness of materials,
for the distinction of the different elements I utilize. Instead of imitating
surfaces, textures or juxtapositions, I expose the peculiarity of these actual
surfaces. I create the dimensionality of the painting. The grain, the particularity
of the surfaces takes real dimension; it's given life; it becomes an object itself.
The pictorial elements become the theme and medium as well. From that connection
with the inner rough essence of the elements I go deeper into the origin of shapes
and forms. I'm obsessively intrigued by geometric forms, rectangles, crisscrossing
and overlapping lines. By limiting my palette and exposing textures, I discover
their essence, the bare stroke, "the essential mark", the beauty in
the simplicity of the shape. I explore how shape interrelates with other shapes
and with itself by the use of the effect of repetition, enlargement or exaggeration.
In essence, my work is an exploration of the boundaries of a co-dependent partnership
among subjects where each one adds a condition to the other and it's being transformed
by it as well. Elizabeth Helling
Noh Spring
is a meditation, a celebration of Japanese art and design in its interpretation
of nature. The mask is a miniature reproduction of one of the characters in a
Noh play. Here, she is part of the tree of life which is in bloom and springs
up from a body of water. The pattern of the water on the surface is taken from
a Japanese textile design. The blossoms on the tree are a nod to the spring cherry
blossom festivals celebrated in Japan. Joan Jardine
A
group of first generation Americans of Eastern European Immigrants. The Great
Depression forced them to leave school early and find work in the coal mines of
eastern Pennsylvania. They migrated to the Bridgeport area in the late nineteen
thirties and found work in the bustling factories of the area. The
men went on to serve their country in WWII and the women supported the war effort
as defense plant workers. After the war they found good jobs in the local plants.
Their work ethic raised them into the middle class. They realized the American
dream and gave their children the advantages they never had. Linda
Keller
My Grandfather was so proud of his sons who were born in America.
When my Uncle Lou, his eldest was old enough to sit for a pose, my Grandfather
saved enough money for a tine double photograph. The photographer provided the
clothing. As I painted this picture based on that old, black-and-white photograph,
I could feel his pride and joy. Karen Maru
Thai
people, like the world over, struggle to maintain their own traditions while (SELECTIVLY)
taking on the visual culture of the rest of the world. These wedding dresses show
the persistence of Thai fashion as it has persisted for thousands of years (the
belted waist, folds in the skirt material, and a shaped bodice) and also show
how Thai brides are adopting parts of international wedding traditions (a floor
length gown, one made in white).These pieces are part of a series called "Something
Old, Something New."  Kimberly
Raisbeck
Kimberly Raisbeck was born and raised in Bogota, Colombia. She
came to the US ten years ago after graduating from Jorge Tadeo University with
a degree in Fine Arts. Her work is driven by an interest in spirituality, diversity
and the complex fabric of human emotion. Kim's curiosity about various religious
traditions was sparked at the age of thirteen when she read Siddhartha by Herman
Hesse and later by her experiences with Peruvian shamanism in New York City and
Peru, as well as her travels in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Marlene
Siff
http://www.marlenesiff.com
I am concerned with communicating a sense of harmony, balance, order and
spirituality.
We are all confronted on a daily basis with the fragmentation
of our non-linear lives, trying, as in a puzzle, to make all the pieces fit together
to make sense of it all. My paintings, works on paper, and sculpture depict imagery
of personal events and psychological issues. They are expressed through geometric
shapes, color, light, space, texture, edges and movement all interplaying with
one another engaging the viewer to participate. The multi-dimensionality and multi-layering
of the structures make reference to the layers one must uncover to penetrate the
illusions of reality and reach the mystery and essence of the soul.  Lydia
Viscardi
The phoenix is a mythological bird that is depicted in different
forms in many cultures. It is often associated with fire and the sun thus it's
red color. It is also associated with water, as it renews itself eternally like
the sun rising from the sea. In Persian mythology, the phoenix carries the soul
towards the godhead.
Phoenix Rising honors my father, Henry
Viscardi Jr., who died in 2004 at the age of 91. He was born with severely deformed
legs and devoted much of his life to advancing the rights of people with disabilities.
'The Phoenix Child", a book my father wrote about a disabled boy, is not
autobiographical, but my father clearly identified with the hardships this young
boy experienced. In Phoenix Rising, the hammock that was meticulously handcrafted
by my father, symbolizes his soul. The phoenixes carry it on its final journey.  Thuan
Vu
http://www.thuanvu.com
Identity
politics are at the heart of my work. As a Vietnamese-American male, my paintings
explore the many dualities that I inhabit--east vs. west, tradition vs. modernity,
faith vs. reality--and how they can lead to a sense of displacement. My work attempts
to document the transmutable and subjective nature of our identities. For the
past six years, I have painted exclusively in a black and white grisaille method,
cutting and pasting different realities to form a convincing new one. Time and
space are ambiguous. Consequently, the figure is caught in an eternal limbo. This
limbo is the space where one searches for, and creates a sense of self.
After
visiting Vietnam for the first time five years ago, I realized that there had
been a long-standing tradition in the culture of working in black and white. Often
times, artists were asked to enlarge a small photograph of an ancestor into a
large drawing that could appear on a family altar, or in some cases, on the tomb
of the deceased. Knowing this, I made very large faux-ancestral drawings using
the Vietnamese method, ve voi bot ve sot. In Transients, I am not trying to capture
the person-in sharp focus with high attention to detail--but rather I am interested
in capturing a memory as it is developing or as it is being lost.
This
event is part of The Big Read, an initiative of the National Endowment for the
Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts
Midwest. Listed on the national Register of Historic
Places, The Barnum building is owned by the City of Bridgeport.
 Following
is the speech given by Peter Konsterlie, who participated as a juror of the Journey
show.
We would like to thank the artist's who
participated in the show. The diversity of the entries were
new and surprising, and the high quality of art made it difficult to decide the
awards for best in show. Today I feel very lucky because I
get to talk about art with you. you see, when I'm not making art, I love talking
about it. The exhibition has the premise of diversity. The
idea of multiculturalism has been around so long that it might sound like an antiquated
idea, and maybe so much so that it may sound corny to us, or an old issue. But
its the dialogue that is invaluable to both parties. The discussion starts, and
we start to make a difference, in a child's life or an elderly person who wants
to create something for their grand kids. One of the joys
of teaching is the dialogue of new ideas, and how people create different ways
of seeing. I feel like I have the best of both worlds I get to make art and I'm
privileged to teach it. I don't mean to undervalue the challenges of teaching
today's students, but for me the rewards far outweigh the costs. One
of the classes I teach is a sculpture class round town and sometime here at the
Barnum; one student of mine recently stepped back after finishing her project
and looking at her creation said, "I'm proud of myself". I hear great
inspiring things like that while I'm teaching. These are the
rewards of my profession. My personal vision for Bridgeport is it to be come a
'beacon for the arts'. Artists world wide will decide to settle here and raise
families, Because we believe in the arts for the principal of the thing, and not
because of the practicality of it. Culture does in fact make the world for us,
and our children. Its innate to our society and brings great ideas to our culture.
It makes society complete. We need more funding for the arts to bring this rich
offering to our culture. Let's move Bridgeport Connecticut
toward a brighter future and appreciate the difference and similarities of its
people. Thank you, and have a great time looking at the exhibition. Peter
Konsterlie,
Co Chair and Juror of the Journey Exhibit
Professor of Art History,
University of Bridgeport,
Instructor of Painting at Housatonic Community College
Website:
www.konsterlie.net On
behalf of the Co Chairs and Jurors Peter Konsterlie, Rachel Moore, and Yolanda
Petrocelli and The Barnum Museum. | 
