December 4 2008

On Display at Jordan Art Gallery

European Artistic Flair

BY F. L. Brewer

Art is about expression and internationally acclaimed artist Connie Jordan expresses herself through the medium of oils on canvas, but for her five star gallery she has searched for and found artists who work in a wide array and combinations of mediums. Although Connie is an abstract artist, she showcases young artists from a variety of backgrounds and countries as well as from Texas.

Though all artists are inspired, every artist finds a unique way to communicate their inner stirrings. Two such artists are Denise Buisman-Pilger, born in Holland, and Tanja Dugas, from Germany. Though both artists are of a similar age, born in Europe, and currently live in Texas, each one has a different approach to her art and is inspired by different events and parts of her life.

Denise's aim is to experience and capture American vistas by combining photography with acrylic paints on canvas. She approaches her art with enthusiasm and an eager spirit of adventure as she anticipates the next project. She begins by photographing the boldest and most memorable forms of the places she visits: a skyline, park, or in the case of Las Vegas, the flashing neon lights of the famed strip. Her style captures the personality of the Dallas, Chicago or Las Vegas metro-scapes as if seen through the curved lens of the camera.

Denise's paintings are deliberately filled with detail so that the longer you look at them, the more you see. For instance, the contrasting arrangement of the geometric shapes of the towering buildings of the Dallas skyline immediately catch the eye, but the subtle curves of the rambling steer sculptures nearly hidden in the river bottom give the viewer both the sense of the visual impact of Dallas, and its heritage. Viewing her collage of Dallas is like seeing the D in DFW for the first time.

If Denise's artistic collections are about the personality of the subject, then Tanja's (pronounced Tan-ya) probe the soul. Tanja began writing at a young age as the family traveled extensively in Europe and America. Her view of life changed once again when she had an extreme allergic reaction to a food that resulted in a near death experience.

Though some of her pieces are fun and amusing, most of her photography and art seeks to capture the essence of the subject. The great American photographer Ansel Adams inspired her photographic technique and her artistic studies are made more powerful by her use of dark and light tones. Her watercolor entitled His Beautiful, done in somber colors, eloquently reflects hope in the fog of confusion and shows the twin influences of Adams and Van Gogh in her technique.

In the same way Tanja learned to express herself as a child traveling as part of a small family in a big world, she is reaching out and teaching her students in the Dallas School District to translate the inner and often conflicting emotions of maturing in an inner urban environment into fine art.

For more about Connie, Denise and Tanja, you may view their work at the Jordan Art Gallery located at 112 N. Beaton, Corsicana. For those who have computers, the Jordan Gallery website is: www.jordanartgallery.net.