Review of Pink

NORTH COAST JOURNAL,
Art Beat
by R.W. Evans

Marilyn Andrews and Lori Goodman have a duo show at Piante Gallery. (I’m tempted to use all caps for this announcement, but I’ve been told that would be shouting.) This is not a collaboration as such, but separate presentations with each artist expressing her concise vision while being keenly aware of the other……

Lori Goodman, by contrast, asks us to confront pink. “It’s not my color; I can’t wear it. I never gave it much thought,” said Goodman. “Despite all this, on a trip to China about five years ago, I impulsively purchased a skein of silk thread of the most beautiful pink. I’ve had it in my studio ever since and I’ve looked at it almost every day.” The color is very subtle, diffuse, almost overpowered by the luster of silk.

“I wanted to do something with the thread. I was messing around with it and made these hanging pieces, but you could hardly tell they were pink; I guess I was sort of easing my way into pink. Then all of a sudden,” she said, laughing, “I found myself making these six-foot by nine-foot pink walls for a shelter. And that’s what I’m putting in the show.”

Goodman’s medium in this instance is handmade paper. She made the pulp and labored to get just the right color. “As I made my shelter I begin to realize that the original calming effect of pink had changed with prolonged exposure and the increase in scale of my panels to something more agitated.”

Lori Goodman and Marilyn Andrews want you to take their experiential journeys with them exploring the dichotomy of whimsy and weighty. Both artists embrace process in their work and delight in voyaging out to the world and into introspection. They know that their forms of expression may not be effortlessly entered but they have great faith in anyone’s ability to do so. Marilyn says it well: “I don’t think of an artist as being a certain kind of person as much as I feel that every person is a certain kind of artist.” This not-to-be-missed show is up until April 30.