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Art is the name of the game
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN
© St. Petersburg Times, If you plan to see the fourth annual themed exhibit at the Pasco Art Center, "Games People Play," plan to spend some time. For this special show, artists were asked to create artwork expressing what the exhibit title means to them, and the entries are so interesting that you will want to spend some time reading about them and thinking about what they mean. Some are instantly accessible -- a painting of a baby playing a game with her mother's glasses, another of a boy playing "grownup" by walking in his daddy's dress shoes, for example. Some are so subtle that you'll have to read the artist's statement to see what it all means -- the small urinal with a tube leading from it, for one. And some are so clever, you'll want to stop and read not only the artist's statement, but all the parts that make up the artwork. Take Trish Demasky's board game, A Game of Chance. It's set up like a Monopoly board, but the starting point says, "Choose: Functional or Dysfunctional Family." If you choose Functional Family, you can go about 6 inches along the board before you are instructed, "Go directly to the sea of mental illness; There are no functional families." Other paths lead to other choices, some of them somber, others comical, others ironic. Darla Willhite's oil, Hand Counting the Ballots, shows a man's eye enlarged by a magnifying glass as he holds a pin-pricked ballot near his nose. The artist's statement muses about the games that politicians and officials played during the notorious Florida recount. Harry Farmlett's large, bright, flag-bedecked painting is a comment on the current economic situation. Between slivers of an American flag are a mix of a roulette wheel and the ticker and board as seen from the pit of the New York Stock Exchange. Roulette+ The Market = Double Zero, a small sign explains. A piece by Susan Duda Schultz has a title with a double meaning, A Losing Battle. It shows an attractive woman surrounded by diet pills and diet pill bottles. Jamie Wojciechowski's Art Woman is chicken wire formed into the body of a woman. The artist reveals that the strips of painted canvas woven through the chicken wire are from old paintings that have been cut into strips,. Ms. Schultz's other humorous installation has a pile of art supplies -- brush, three tubes of paint -- in a puddle under an empty frame. Its name? The Game of Procrastination. Bob Hersch's colorful abstract, Playing with People's Minds, ponders the meaning of abstract art and whether there is any meaning to it at all. Several pieces have serious and painful messages. Peggy Gallaher's The Games Native Americans Have to Play to Survive is a dream catcher swathed in fake dollar bills and silver coins. The accompanying statement notes how American Indians, after years of being taken advantage of by whites, are now getting something back at Indian-owned casinos. The show is not competitive. Instead, various people throughout the community were asked to write a statement about the piece they think most effectively reflects the show's themes. The writers are attorney Dionne Blaesing, art teacher Paula Smith, technician Barbara Penrosa, insurance adjuster Frank Lesick, bar and motorcycle shop owners John and Karen Leyden, New Port Richey police Capt. Darryl Garman and Michelle Anderson, director of a domestic abuse shelter. The reception honoring the artists from 7 to 9 p.m. Sept. 21 will feature music by Steve Boisen and Billy Sage. At a glanceWHAT: Fourth annual themed exhibit, "Games People Play" WHERE: Pasco Art Center, 5744 Moog Road, Holiday WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays through Oct. 27. A reception will be held for the artists from 7 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 21 TICKETS: Admission is free
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