Phillip Isaacson
"Black & White"
Portland Herald Press/Maine Sunday Telegram
February 22, 2009

EXCERPT FROM MAINE SUNDAY TELEGRAM REVIEW BY PHILIP ISAACSON
‘BLACK & WHITE' exhibit at June Fitzpatrick Gallery“

"Black & White" at June Fitzpatrick MECA is a gathering of 10 or more artists mostly familiar to the gallery, but with renewable sources of energy.

It is fresh as a daisy and much more than a month long Old Home Day that the roster may imply.

There are plenty of best feet forward, among which are Edward Mackenzie's picnic kit encased in an old carbonated drink case equipped with an assortment of Brownie cameras and black-and-white plastic spoons.

Kendra Ferguson's "Dance Class" series, derived from incised lines and an almost allusive suggestion of aquarelle (the show's only note of color), in its perfect austerity would make a Zen sand garden look self-indulgent.
Jeff Woodbury's etchings and a serigraph temper their abstraction by their lineage from California and Pennsylvania highway maps. Among them, "Ghost State (Pennsylvania)" is an achievement of form and a little wonder of opacity. Read the wall text for his line drawings that comprise "Time Line."

Richard Wilson is at his peak with his would-be naughty boys. Why do they have such a difficult time in a not very difficult set of social circumstances? Perhaps his beautiful draftsmanship produces guys that are in touch with former times.

Claire Seidl's forceful watercolor and ink "First Sight" is the first work in this medium that I have seen from this photographer. I also note Patt Franklin's black pastel "Turbo" and Rose Marasco's "Micucci's," which has nothing to do with ethnic provisions and everything to do with Humphrey Bogart.

I also mention with enthusiasm Alison Hildreth's beautiful drypoint "White Moth," Amy Stacey Curtis' pastel "398" and Dudley Zoop's small ink monotypes with celestial inferences.

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