Picks for November ArtHop: Walter Saul offers multimedia performance at Fresno Pacific; 4 noted artists come together at Fig Tree Gallery
By Donald Munro
Fresno Pacific University is home to a remarkable ArtHop event tonight.
Walter Saul, the composer and pianist so beloved among the Fresno-area classical music scene, presents “Quiltings.” This piano recital brings together music and visual art in a one-time multimedia presentation.
It runs from 6:15-7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 7, at the Warkentine Culture and Arts Center, 4838 E. Butler Ave., on the main FPU campus. Admission is free, and this is a drop-in event.
The show has a wonderful family connection: Saul will present 46 original short piano pieces that “interpret” 114 of Ann Harwell’s painting-like quilts, images of which will be shown on a large screen, the university’s media relations office reports.
Harwell is Saul’s sister-in-law. She was named one of the American South’s 100 most-renowned artists.
Harwell divides her catalog into four galleries: Earth, Kaleidoscope, Sun Quilts and Astronomy. The program is identical to one that Saul recently did at Houghton University and in Portland, Oregon. He is a nationally award-winning composer and a professor emeritus at FPU.
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ArtHop is Fresno’s monthly open house of galleries and studios in the downtown and Tower District neighborhoods. Most venues are open 5-8 p.m.
You can find the full lineup at the Fresno Arts Council’s website.
Connections at Fig Tree Gallery
A solo show by Ann Leedy, Shannon Bickford, Kathy Wosika or Anne Scheid by itself would be consequential. Together, they make up a powerhouse. In “4 Voices,” which opens Thursday, Nov. 7, at Fig Tree Gallery, this quartet of experienced Valley artists share the theme of the written word.
A quick rundown from the gallery:
• Leedy’s inspiration begins with Nature. She started with a Haiku poem followed by a drawing. Her poem:
Suddenly scarlet
Bursting forth from winter’s gray
Darts, then whirls away
• Bickford’s paintings often combine words and images — one not necessarily preceding the other, but developing together as she works. Here are the words:
Origins
Before words,
before imaginings.
Nothing and everything
all wrapped into one.
Like a breath held,
waiting for morning.
Humbled,
I paint.
• Wosika says her work teeters between joy and disaster. She writes: “The joy is in making work with natural fibers, handmade papers, and sun-drenched cyanotypes. The disasters are the stories and cries, past and present, we hear from war-stricken countries.” Contrasts mark her engagement. Words are not visible here but rather hidden in the process.
• Scheid’s explorations went in two different directions.
One is a 2024 monthly calendar whose grid becomes an experimental visual record of days. Notes and Quotes are included. The month’s grid is the geometry on which the organic subject stands.
In the second, words inspired a series of watercolor drawings that explore “Light.” She writes: “Of all the mysteries of the cosmos, Light is the most phenomenal. The velocity of light, traveling at 186,000 miles per second, dominates Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, in this theory he proves mathematically that everything in the cosmos is in continual flux with one exception. Light is the one constant.”
The exhibition continues through Dec. 1.
Special bonus
The fact that the theme of the exhibition is words ties perfectly into a related story to tell you about. Matt Leedy, Ann Leedy’s son, just wrote a book, and he asked his mom to help. He writes:
My book, “Dugout Dreams: The Heart and Heartbreak of a Travel Baseball Team,” was recently published and launched on Aug. 6.
When my publisher said it was time to think about cover art, I said I had it covered, although I hadn’t yet discussed this with my mom. For years, her work has been on the abstract side of the spectrum. But when I was young, she was focused more on figurative drawing.
She immediately agreed to harken back to those days and create cover art depicting pre-teen hyper-competitive youth sports, which is the subject of my novella. She used a photo of my son as motivation. It was truly a family affair.
I think she did an incredible job, and the cover of my book is a work of art. I’d rather look at it than re-read my words for the thousandth time.
Matt Leedy will participate in a group reading of local authors at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 23 at Fig Tree Gallery.
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