Below are the upcoming art shows that will be displaying the artwork of Peter Muzyka. Also included are workshops and classes that Peter will be teaching in the near future.
Visions of America Show at Union Point Georgia
This story appeared Sunday, July 20th 2008 in the Athens Banner Herald on my current collaborative show with photographer Tim Reilly. Hope you enjoy the spirit of the story.
On a long drive through lonely countryside, these are the things your eyes are drawn to. Maybe you think little of them, these sheds and shacks, clapboard structures old and decaying, gradually sinking back into the earth. Or maybe instead they afford a fertile imagination just the thing to wrap a story around. What kind of people used this place, what purpose did it serve, what secrets does it hold? For Madison artists Tim Reilly and Pete Muzyka, it's without question the latter that drives their creative interest. Their works share an uncommon thread in these "common structures," as they call them. All feature as subjects buildings that once existed or still exist in and around Madison. Their works are currently on display at the Lyndon House Arts Center in an exhibit titled "Common Structures: The Simple Elegance of the Ordinary," which holds an artists' reception today. In Reilly's large format black and white portraits and photographs, a humble backyard shed is lit with ethereal light, its boards blending majestically into the trees surrounding it. Or a small outbuilding is darkened with angular shadows, lending an even greater air of mystery to its padlocked door. A perfect blending with Reilly's images are Muzyka's pen and ink drawings, his skills evident in the tiniest details of wood grains or the sweeping textures of a field of wild grass. Muzyka also works in egg tempera, though these works aren't on display; he says he felt this exhibit was better suited to pairing pen and ink with black and white photographs. Certainly it offers the structures a greater sense of timelessness. Muzyka's broader scapes tell the story of these structures' loneliness, too, looking out as they do over open, empty fields. But at the same time the works speak of places once loved and cared for. The artists stress that's part of the draw for them - that these places are overlooked, and that in featuring them in their work, they hope people might stop to take the time to consider their meaning in the world. "An analogy," says Reilly, who also works as a commercial architectural photographer, "is when you look at old cars in a junkyard. In reality, every one of them was somebody's pride and joy at some time. And there's that wonderful connection (to these structures) between what we love and appreciate to things that are no longer meaningful - these emotional cycles of attachment and detachment." Reilly laments that many people are inclined to tear down such structures - that in fact their presence can raise the tax value on a piece of property, so there's no incentive to keep an old shed around. "I think what we both hope is just to give people an awareness," Reilly says, "to slow down and look at these places and consider the people who occupied them - and if not as they're driving past, then here in the gallery." To be sure, it's here in the gallery that the buildings are shown in their best light, so to speak, captured at just the right moment in Reilly's photographs, for instance, when the sun's angle gives a building a textured intrigue; or in the careful strokes of Muzyka's pen that offer a reminder of the hands that built it. "I think of this as vanishing rural art," says Muzyka, "these places that other people think of as disposable or as eyesores. As a culture we tend to focus on the young and beautiful." "But it's important," adds Reilly, "to respect the wisdom of age."
If you go... "Common Structures: The Simple Elegance of the Ordinary" Photographs by Tim Reilly and pen and ink drawings by Pete Muzyka When: Artists' reception 2-4 p.m. today; exhibit runs through Sept. 9 Where: Lyndon House Arts Center, 293 Hoyt St. Cost: Free Call: (706) 613-3623 Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on 072008
The fee for the course is $95 and must be paid in advance. The class size will be limited and will be filled on a first come, first served basis.
Checks should be made to STMA, Inc. and mailed to: Steffen Thomas Museum of Art 4200 Bethany Road Buckhead, GA 30625
For information about paying by credit card: Call Pam Tomany @ 706-342-7557
In addition to the fee for the course, each artist will be responsible for paying for his/her own supplies, which will be purchased from Pete at the first class.
Estimated cost per student for supplies: $75 This includes the following: *Dry artist’s pigments *Egg medium *Distilled water *Brushes (3 sable brushes per artist) *Small pigment mixing/storage cups *12" x 16" panels (2 per artist) In addition, students should bring water containers (2) for washing brushes and adding water to the paint and paper towels to wipe brushes
All Artwork and Text Copyright 1974-2007 Peter Muzyka and Vanishing Rural Georgia Art
