Vessels

Mayo and Hannigan featured in art show that is deeper than you think.

The Columbia Art Gallery in Hood River, OR, is pleased to present a new show featuring abstract art forms. The show, titled “Vessels,” features the works of two artists: Sculptor John Mayo from White Salmon, WA, and oil painter Melinda Hannigan from Mercer Island, WA, and Hood River. OR.

The show opens on Friday, August 4, and runs through the end of the month. The public is invited to an artists’ reception on Friday the 4th, from 6 to 8 p.m., where hors-d-oeuvres and wine will be served.

Curator for the show, Jan Meyer, says that anyone who appreciates sophisticated art, and who is equally fascinated by literal and abstract forms, would enjoy this show. “This show is not about seeing. It’s about rethinking how we see. It’s about artists transcending the tangible forms of the objects that they depict. Both bodies of work are inspired by vessels: ships of the ocean and containers of the soul.”

Artists Mayo and Hannigan work with their subjects in different ways, both playing with scale and dimension.

Hannigan does so by exploring and reinterpreting the hulls of rusty, worn-out, ships --- ships that have been around the world more than a few times: tankers, containerships and old bulk carriers.

She says, “The rust marks, drips, scrapes and smears, the lettering and numbers, all give each vessel a personality. My goal is to capture that personality through the creative use of color, perspective, composition and texture.” In doing so, Hannigan transforms small portions of these weathered hulls into large canvases that exalt the beauty of the patina.

Mayo, a one-of-a-kind sculptor, thinks of vessels as anything that forms a container for something, or which can carry something from one place to another. He uncovers the essence of the vessels he explores, by peeling away their outer shells, and by exposing their unique infrastructures.

Mayo says, “I create my sculptures by combining the use of art and technology. I start out with the shape of a vessel that I like, and then use a 3D CAD system to examine the interior spaces that make up it up. I use the CAD system as a tool to help me envision what the cross-section of the vessel would look like, and how that cross-section could turn into a sculpture. Basically, I use it as a tool to create the blueprint for building the sculpture.”

The sculptures that result from the process are made of steel and wood, where according to Mayo, the empty space is every bit as important --- probably even more important --- than the spaces that are filled.

Curator Jan Meyer says that Hannigan’s paintings and Mayo’s sculptures are similar not just because the subject matter is vessels, but because they both involve a kind of dichotomy.

She says, “Melinda’s works are about finding beauty in the mundane, utilitarian, and about taking a real object and making it abstract. John’s works are about being both full and empty, and about being both art and technology.”

Mayo’s sculptures can be found in the homes and organizations of collectors as far east as New York, as far south as Austin, Texas, and as far west as the Pearl District. Hannigan’s work is shown mostly in galleries and museums in the Seattle metropolitan area. Her works, like Mayo’s, can be found in collectors’ homes and organizations across the country.

Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. For more information about the show or other events sponsored by Columbia Center for the Arts, please call 541-387-8877.