Art Taco’s Review of “War and Peace and the Height in Between.”

Rose Marie Prins is one of those artists that can work with a variety of materials, in painting, sculpture, book-making and do so in diverse ways, though all of it has her distinctive signature. She has been reviewed here before: [Link], [Link], [Link]. Her current show is in the lobby of the Catherine Hickman Theater in Gulfport.

Ms Prins reading from her art book.

The mixed media work, which includes painting, drawing, and sculpture is inspired by a poem titled “A War Far and Near,” by Timothy Houghton. There are two versions of this poem in the show, one is in scroll form, the other as a hand-bound book pictured above, which Ms. Prins read an excerpt from on opening night.

Rose Marie Prins, “Peace With Virginia Leaf #3”

The poem about the Civil War is interpreted by the artist as about the inner struggle for self-actualization that takes place within all of us. This, in part, takes place between the materials, the will of the artist and where the work wants to go. Too much control and one chokes the life out of it, too little and it dissipates. There are several done with Sumi inks in broad, incisive, passionate strokes with complex delicate splashes of black escaping from the main forms. Note the lower left hand corner. It is a small leaf from a Civil War battlefield, pictured below right.

Close-up of work above.

Several of the Sumi ink works have small leaves in the same location. They were picked from Civil War battlefields and act as representational, organic, local forms that act as foils for the ink abstractions. They grew on land where the war took place, blood was shed and men died. Tying the metaphor for the inner struggle to the outer literal war, this is a brilliant touch.

Other works like this one, were in oil stick, collage and some have sand in them. They are in carefully modulated, pungent blues, earthtones and clay reds, acting as chromatic metaphors for the inner battle.

Congratulations to Rose Marie Prins,  City of Imagination, Inc., and the Catherine Hickman Theater for a very good show.

City of Imagination, Inc., is an organization dedicated to supporting the arts in Gulfport. They are affiliated with the Gulfport Arts Center and also put on classes for people to hone their skills and enjoy the arts. [Link]

At the opening, Tracy and the Doctors of Thinkology played beautifully. They can be reached at 727.381.2995 and at [email protected]

A special note of thanks to Rose Marie Prins for taking time to talk and answer questions and to Carol Komater for all her help. [Link]