A canvas is a canvas is a canvas.
Painters have for generations proven that their art form can exist on paper, wood, metal, fabric, clay, and even human skin. And from Pablo Picasso to Julian Schnabel, painters have demonstrated that common everyday dinnerware, added to traditional canvas, can add three dimensionality, texture, and complexity to an artwork.
Jersey City artist Beth DiCara has invited 11 local painters to grace everyday China with their unique artistic styles. The results of their efforts are now on display at Made with Love in Jersey City through Feb. 15. Each artist was given the same tools – six basic paint hues and heart-shaped dessert plates – yet created a variety of figurative and abstract designs.
“I did a show at Made with Love last year and they asked me to do another one again this year,” said DiCara, a professional sculptor. “I thought it would be fun to have local painters who I admire to paint these heart-shaped plates in their own style. So, everybody gets the same little hearts and the same paints but the plates all came out differently because different people painted them.”
‘I thought it would be fun to have local painters who I admire to paint these heart shaped plates in their own style.’ – Beth DiCara
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Part of the exercise, DiCara said, was to see how different painters came up with art pieces that were unique to their style and aesthetic, even though they had all received the same tools for the project.
And even though DiCara, who has a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art, said she was “over” the whole discussion about the merits of craft art as it relates to fine art, she admits that part of the Painted Hearts exercise was also to bridge the perceived gap between the two.
“There’s always this distinction between ‘functional’ art and art art, and functional art is usually called craft,” she said. “I want to get people to realize that just having something beautiful that you use doesn’t mean that it’s not art.”
Painted Hearts will be on exhibit through Wednesday, Feb. 15 at Made with Love, 530 Jersey Ave., Jersey City. An opening reception for the artists will be held Saturday, Jan. 28 from 6 to 8 p.m. For more information, call (201) 451-5199.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.