Standing Rock Explains 'The Birds and the Bees and the Poems From the Trees'

The North Water Street Gallery opened its doors to reveal its 9th Annual Environmental Art Show titled "The Birds and the Bees and the Poems from the Trees" this month.

This show combines two things that are a cornerstone of Kent culture: environmentalism and art. If you are familiar with downtown events in the last five years, you are probably familiar with the "Who's Your Mama?" Earth Day Festival event that begins to spring up as the snow begins to melt. 

If this latest environmental art show is a prelude for whats to come, we won't be disappointed at this year's festival.

Curator, Jeff Ingram, assembled art from veteran artists as well as adding some new faces in the mix. 

Veteran artist Vince Packard shows numerous new paintings that, in Vince's refined style, brought out the dark and fleeting beauty of nature by blending themes of history and the antique with death and nostalgia. 

Packard has been in this show since he and Ingram created the idea nine years ago. Vince's art is always a treat.

Another veteran artist, Jim Vandenboom, shows a new piece called Blowing in the Wind. This piece consists of four irregular triangular shapes cut from the bark of a tree. These pieces are arranged in a square on the wall with each corner shifting around the square. This gives the piece a spiraling feeling and, combined with the title, reminds me of leaves rustling on a fading afternoon.

In addition, Vandenboom installed this year's selected poems From the Tree. This is the third year for this wonderfully touching program that encourages elementary school students to think about trees in various different ways and then compose a poem. The tree workshops are facilitated by college students from the Wick Poetry Center. At the end of these workshops, 20 poems are selected to be displayed at the Environmental Art Show.

For this display, Vandenboom intersplices his own drawings of trees in between the children's poems. This connects generations through an artistic reflection on nature. Vandenboom is once again "totally blown away" by what has come out of these young minds.

Every year the poems from the tree find a soft spot in my heart. To ice the cake, each student will read his or her poem during the "Who's Your Mama?" festival this year. Mark your calendars. After seeing the talent last year it is not to be missed. 

One of the new artists to emerge from the crowd is Gary Phile. Painter and animal lover, Phile shows four recent works that he has completed since Christmas. 

Goo Factory plays with dark humor as a menacing building silhouetted against a vivid sunset manufactures "goo balls" that look like oil droplets with large round googly eyes. These goo balls are pollution and their only job is to make more pollution. This rather depressing situation is highlighted with humor with the "Gooyear" blimp flying overhead. 

In Aurora and Elderly Tree, Phile also plays with ideas of silhouette and a dark luminosity as these landscapes reflect the expansive and still quiet of the night. 

In a different light, Hole in Roof depicts a beautiful purple mountain range behind a small shack. This shack is curious because there is a hole in the roof. Nothing in the painting alludes to how this hole was made. It is up to the viewer to decide. 

Lynn Vogel displays three of six banners that educate about watersheds. She produced these banners as an educational tool that can travel easily to different events. All six banners will be on view during the "Who's your Mama?" Earth Day Festival. 

Rounding out the exhibition are works from Nina Friday of Lansing, MI, and Douglas 'Skip' French of Hocking Hills, OH. 

As the weather is getting warmer an afternon stroll downtown would be topped off nicely with a visit to this show. Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday 1 to 5 p.m. or by appointment at 330-673-4970. The show runs through May 7.