“Colorful Realms” Brightens the Season at the Edgewood Gallery

Colorful Realms, a group exhibit at the Edgewood Gallery, functions on several levels. First, it offers a portfolio of artworks created in different media: Diana Godfrey’s abstract acrylic paintings, a selection of Terry Askey-Cole’s vessels, platters, mosaics and other pieces, jewelry made by Judy McCumber with gemstones, sterling silver, beads and other elements.

Yet, the various works aren’t presented in total isolation. Color is one connector, as seen in Godfrey’s use of color in touches or marks, or more intensely; Askey-Cole’s affinity for earth colors; and the role color plays in McCumber’s creations. At the same time, color doesn’t dominate the show. Godfrey has 29 paintings on display, and they amply document her interest in texture and surface, in forms and shapes. Beyond that, she seems comfortable with addressing varied subjects. Zephyr, for example, is abstract but communicates a sense of flow, of the notion of winds as suggested by the piece’s title. Similarly Interior doesn’t depict a house or skyscraper; it suggests an interior setting.  A third painting, Card Game, has shapes hinting at cards.

Those paintings are just one segment of Godfrey’s body of work. In another artwork, she views a grid of neighborhood streets from above, integrating green, gold and other colors. In Crowd, a work in done in acrylic and mixed media, she focuses on shapes, pushing them together.  Within, meanwhile, emphasizes intersections of several forms, and Nations, one of Godfrey’s best paintings at Edgewood, demonstrates her ability to improvise. She works in an abstract vein, so there’s no imagery of flags or leaders, but the artist does include glimpses of a fence, conveying borders and territory. From another angle, there’s a chunk of intense color in the painting’s upper right-hand corner, enhancing the work’s visual appeal. And her paintings in the current exhibition include some outliers, a few works from Godfrey’s Realm of Possibilities. These are acrylics on paper, and they are smaller, softer, and markedly different from her other paintings and noteworthy in their own right.

Godfrey, whose home studio has long been in Westcott Neighborhood, has shown her artworks both at local venues such as Edgewood and Auburn’s Schweinfurth Art Center, and also out of town. Her work has appeared at the Novado Gallery in Jersey City, New Jersey and in several galleries on the coast of Maine.

Complimenting Godfrey’s paintings, Terry Askey-Cole exhibits an array of ceramic pieces, with several vessels from her Torn series. Each has a somewhat jagged hole in its top, suggesting an illusion of the clay being torn. The sculptor also scores with a seashore platter, greenish in color and decorated with images of starfish and other sea creatures,  and with Woven Platter, a stoneware piece. The latter work has dozens of tiny rectangles on its surface.

And a mosaic portrays leaves in a pretty manner, demonstrating Askey-Cole’s interest in nature. That work isn’t a one-off; the artist has created a selection of mosaics.

She’s also fully capable for making top-flight figurative artworks. Isolde, a tall stoneware vessel, is a fine ceramic sculpture. Its title refers to an Irish princess, a character in the King Arthur saga. Like Godfrey, Askey-Cole is an experienced artist. She’s exhibited her ceramics at Syracuse Soapworks, the Heartwood Gift Barn in Sherburne, New York and other venues. Finally, Judy McCumber has earrings, bracelets and necklaces on display, reflecting both her innovative designs and jewelry-making skills.

 
Colorful Realms will run through January 3, 2025 at Edgewood, 216 Tecumseh Rd. The gallery is open from 9:30 a.m. through 6:00 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and on Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. During Thanksgiving week, Edgewood is closed on November 28, Thanksgiving Day, and on November 29 and 30.

For more information, call 315-445-8111 or access edgewoodartandframe.com.

Carl Mellor covered visual arts for the Syracuse New Times from 1994 through 2019. He continues to write about exhibitions and artists in the Syracuse area.