Review By Kathy Y. Wilson

Sad-eyed people dominate the work of Shirley McCauley’s paintings as evidenced in “Daddy’s Girl.”

Damsels and Divas!, the seven-woman show hanging now at the Arts Consortium of Cincinnati, is a misnomer, of sorts. The works -- an assortment of paintings, color pencil portraitures, artifacts as art and even some wooden statues -- neither depict divas as we know them nor damsels as we stereotype them.

Instead, what the established artists Shirley McCauly, Velma Morris, Jewel O'Neal, Gayle Renfro, Letitia Waller, Angela Williams and Joyce Phillips Young present is strength in vulnerability and a collectively keen sense of time and place.

McCauly, for instance, uses a technique wherein her paintings look more like photographs superimposed on canvas and then painted over. What results are stunning portraits of sad-eyed people (in this case women and girls) set against brilliant-hued backdrops.

"Daddy's Girl" is a kneeling black girl with what looks like fireworks exploding above her head. However, she isn't celebrating: She's in repose, almost submissive. In McCauly's work, the eyes have it. Whether staring forthright ("For My Daughter's Eyes," "Daddy's Girl"), downcast ("Tangled Web") or partially obscured ("Elizabeth"), these girls and women have each seen things and they beg us closer.

Conversely, with their big-eyed, voluptuous and exotic black women O'Neal's three pieces appear almost Gauguin-esque -- all roundness, caramel complexions and otherworldliness.

Renfro presents artifacts -- "Ethiopian Food Basket," "Wild Thing" and "Afghanistan Camel Trapping" among them -- as art, turning items from daily life in other cultures into mounted and framed art.

Waller's two oversized canvases --"Woman with Mask" and "Spiritual Advisor" -- appear dipped in clay. They evoke calm and spirituality, especially "Spiritual Advisor," whose mask-like face tilts to the sun/Son/heavens. Each images channels Georgia O'Keefe through a muted sensuality.

Morris continues the saturation of color in her nature studies that nod to Van Gogh in every thickly layered brush stroke.

Young's work looks like paint-by-numbers, but don't be deceived by perceived simplicities. Her method is complex and interlocking, joining not only subjects but also color, exhibiting surprisingly intimate relationships between both. The best example of this is "Jammin," a funkdafied Picasso-esque take with its disjointed pieces fitting finally into a Rastafarian musician.

Finally, Williams exhibits Masai-like wooden works painted in an orgy of blacks, yellows and reds. There's even a small side table ("Welcomed Burden") that's practical and thought provoking.

By mixing media but maintaining the prominence of color, disparate influences and stylistic mannerisms, Damsels and Divas is a testament to an insane wealth of black female artistic talent. In the strict sense, there's an absence of the damsel and the diva in the installation's subject matter. However, the pieces do scream, yell and throw all kinds of fits.

But save the rescue effort.

E-mail Kathy Y. Wilson

Your Negro Tour Guide (February 14, 2002)
Your Negro Tour Guide (February 7, 2002)
Under the Rainbow (January 31, 2002)
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