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ArtsWest 24’s top artists ranged in subject matter from stuff hanging around the house to scenic vistas, but their works all rewarded sustained attention

Scott Wente, Eau Claire Leader-Telegram Staff

Rusty hangers. Spoon collections. Jewelry boxes. Dresser drawers.

They’re all inanimate objects until Erin Goedtel makes them shine on her canvas stage.

Goedtel, a 22-year-old senior art major at UW-Stout, Menomonie, said her oil painting “Intimates)” is a metaphor for the enduring relationship people have with ordinary household objects.

But Goedtel said “Intimates),” deemed best of show in the ArtsWest 24 exhibit on view through April 9 at L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library, also suggests a balance of support and confrontation.

Goedtel said the piece challenges viewers to look for meaning in the mundane. To accomplish that task, she painted in a realistic style and rendered the life-size images of dilapidated, meticulously arranged wire hangers in subdued blues, grays and pastels.

“I definitely like the sense you get. It shows it was used, not meant to be pretty,” Goedtel said. “It just speaks about the simplicity.”

Goedtel’s piece was among 213 submitted by 122 Chippewa Valley artists.

Juror Kathy Foley, director of Wausau’s Leigh Yawkey Woodson Museum, selected 68 works to appear in the show.

Foley applauded the variety of “fine work,” including oil paintings, woodcuts and lithographs.

“The works that really grabbed my attention initially were, in fact, the works that I gave awards to,” she said. “Really superior work has staying power.”

“Erin’s (Goedtel) and Susan’s (Phelps Pearson) paintings impressed me on that first quick look and as I continued to deliberate,” Foley said.

Pearson’s inspiration for “Scottish Road,” which earned first prize, came from her experiences living in Scotland. She photographed landscapes and then painted them in acrylics.

 “One of the things I try to do is capture the moment and the way the scenery feels to me,” Pearson said. “The light, the shade -- there’s sort of a warmth there.”

“One of the things I try to do is capture the moment and the way the scenery feels to me,” Pearson said. “The light, the shade -- there’s sort of a warmth there.”

The realistic “Scottish Road” represents the softer side of Pearson’s artistry; she also constructs assemblages, which she described as large, elaborate collages.

“I need every once in a while to go off into something that’s completely fantastic, made up,” she said, “and then there are other times I feel as though I want to represent what’s out there.”

Pearson, 65, earned an honorable mention at the ArtsWest exhibit 10 years ago.

In the woodcut print “Twin Towers,” second prize winner Connie Best-Ashby attempted to relate a personal tragedy to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. While her own pain wasn’t tantamount to that of Sept. 11 victims, Best-Ashby said her art symbolizes personal demolition.

“There was a correlation,” said Best-Ashby, 64. “There was a small piece of me that felt like that at one time.”

Best-Ashby was paralyzed from the neck down in the late 1980s but has since regained many of her abilities.

“It fits me. I’m a patient person,” she said of her piece, which she worked on eight hours a day for a couple of months. “It’s a medium I like. I like the wood. I like the smell of the wood.”

Entering a regional art exhibit was a new experience for David Starr, whose “Como mi?” placed third.

“I really wasn’t expecting to take any place,” said Starr, 21, a junior fine arts major at UW-Stout.

Starr used two women, a mirror, strong shadows and composition to depict self-image in his oil painting.

“Light has deep meaning,” Starr said. “To have one strong source of light coming down, helping to illuminate people, I think that’s something really important to me.”

Mildred Larson, associate library director, said ArtsWest is comprehensive and difficult to judge because of the skill and variety represented.

“We generally tend to attract very talented artists to this exhibit,” Larson said. “The general quality of the show is consistent, and this is towards the top as far as quality is concerned.”

Wente can be reached at 833-9211, (800) 236-7077 or scott.wente@ecpc.com.