Stations of the Cross at Anderson Creative

First impressions are always the make or break of any situation. After 30 some years of living by the beeper, one learns to take in a lot of info in a short span of time, say about 6 minutes or so. My husband and I literally breezed in, about and out of this wonderful show at Anderson Creative. Reviews have been already written by other bloggers and the local rag so no need to really dig deep on my part. One of his patients was in dire need of his attendance at the big house, and with one car downtown (dummies); we could not spend the time needed to really absorb the impact of this exhibition. The full show is online at the gallery’s website.

The owner and I actually belong to the same church, as a matter of fact; I was probably babysitting him in the nursery during our active years in the pews. Now our family finds reverence in the “church of the woods” so our time actually spent inside real stone walls is done north of here on rare occasions.

So back to first impressions…..two standout pieces are by Tiffany Marsh (Station 7) and Tom Megalis (Station 6). Both works are intense, direct and tactile. I was pleased to also see some multimedia incorporated into a couple of creations, specifically Kevin’s (who should really be in the shoebox show rather than turd girl) but without my reading glasses, the faces were a bit on the fuzzy side for us AARP members. Many of our local talents were represented, including Erin, Joseph, and Marcy who are frequent exhibitors. Unfortunately, as I said, our time was limited and I did not have any reading glasses so the writings that accompanied the works were too far away for me to see and we did not have the time to devote to the devotionals. I suggest, from reading other reviews that one spends the time to do so as well as reading the statements posted online.

The crowd inside the gallery was large and reverent; many people were reading the words with a hand on their lips in concentration. Kudos to Craig and Joseph for using faith as a subject avoided by many “artists” and art venues unless it is from an “anti” standpoint because Lord knows we can’t be spiritual and artists at the same time. It seems to violate some rule in the big book of artists’ personas (the same one where we all wear black berets and hold brushes with the pinky finger up).

If you happen to be Jewish or Sikh or Hindu or even atheist, forget the words if they offend you or hold no meaningful value, experience the show for the art itself. Look at the frames, the textures, the scale and dimensionality of the works on display. My favorite aspect of the 6 minutes…...the tiny chair perched on a light switch box or something like that. It reminded me of one of God’s greatest gifts of all, humor.