There’s this painting….
If you want to catch a glimpse, slow down as you drive Main Street in Lexington.
Look through the two story glass windows of the Downtown Art Center – the building hatted with the wonderful steel circle sculpture. There is this painting… . You may even want to park and get out to get a better look.
CrossTown Colors,the creation of collaboration, currently resides just beyond those tall glass windows.
To get a proper sense of the exhibit, to honestly experience the impact of this creation, urge yourself to go inside.
Seven feet tall and six feet wide, the anchor to the 44 painting exhibit is a mammoth piece by native artist Blake Snyder Eames and new Lexington transplant Patricia Baldwin Seggebruch.
Blake and Patricia have known each other just shy of one year at install date, yet viewers to the exhibit taking in the scope of the entire collaboration can feel a resonance of deep connection throughout the space.
This resonance, which goes beyond the art itself, began back in February 2015 with the first hello over a house, a shared love, and unspoken sensibility. It was a magical click.
We all hope for this magical moment even once in our lives –standing in the flow of something much grander than one’s self. That click..
This has been the case for both Blake and Trish throughout the entire process that has resulted in CrossTown Colors.
“There were goosebumps,” Blake Eames proclaimed recently in telling the back story of this exhibit, “and not just once.”’
The goosebumps first appeared while sitting over coffee, only the third time they’d been together, creating the framework for this exhibit that arose from a simple inquiry from Trish:“What if we did a collaborative exhibit?”
As if seeing inside each other’s ideas, they swiftly framed out the skeleton of what became not only the entire CrossTown Colors exhibit, but specifically the anchor piece, grander than either one alone could have contrived.
Synchronicity.
Goosebumps recurred upon hanging. The release of months of breath-holding was palpable as Blake, Trish, and gracious hanging guru _Chris Henkel stepped back from the keyed seven-foot-tall structure and saw for the first time what their two works combined into one had become. Beyond synchronicity, it was a testament of trust, freedom of creation, and grace.
After living abroad for two years followed by a stint in Seattle, Trish and her husband moved to the ‘castle’ on East Loudon just one year ago. Moving to Lexington was a dream of John’s, to get closer to the thoroughbreds he so adored. Because of a historied trajectory in teaching encaustic throughout the world, Trish is able to live from anywhere and do what drives her to get up in the morning. The fact of it getting to happen in an 1880’s Victorian castle is a whole other story.
Social media brought Trish and Blake together, thanks to the active NoLi district Facebook page they both follow Blake found Trish by voicing her appreciation for saving this Lexington architectural gem, commenting on her love for this old home. She soon found herself giving decorating advice to a starry-eyed suburban west-coast transplant.
The pair agreed to work from the same palette and matching canvas sizes. From this point on, their forms and styles digress. Eames’s 22 works sport rollicking, bold patterns that are presented with geometric precision. Every painting is enhanced by her signature mark: finely aligned dots that add fluidity and tactile vitality to each piece.
Blake is well known in Lexington for her work in design through her company Blake Eames Design. She is a resident of downtown’s south end where she and her musician husband, Willie Eames, and children reside in a renovation of their own. The exhibit name, CrossTown Colors, resulted from this harmony of locations – Blake south, Trish north – and their dissimilar yet analogous use of color.
Seggebruch’s 22 encaustic paintings result from the ancient technique of combining beeswax with paint pigments, thereby creating a more sculpted, muted work. Although her subject matter derives from her vision of abstract shapes and forms, her medium allows her to create soft edges in ethereal tones.
The juxtaposition of these distinct styles forms a metaphor for a city that is a playground for diversity yet plays well with others. A city that communicates.
CrossTown Colors is on exhibit through April 3, 2016 at the City Gallery, DAC. Take a moment to slow down. Stop by. Take it in.