Inventing a New World

The title, “The Miseducation of Raymond O. Sink,†the show at the Tremaine Gallery at Hotchkiss, reminded me of a novel I read recently by Michael Chabon, “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay.†The book is about the infancy of comic books and given the symphonic similarity of the two titles I thought maybe the show would be about some kind of cartoons.

   I wasn’t wrong.

   But that doesn’t begin to describe the multi-dimensional work hung on the walls and positioned around the room of the gallery. However, the descriptive term for cartoons, which has more of a Disney connotation these days, is graphic art, though this is so much more as it comprises paintings, drawings and sculpture.

   The artists, Emily Sartor and Jim Wright, are husband and wife and share a studio, and subsequently concepts and ideas, but individual pieces do not share ownership. Their styles are complementary but

distinctly different; Sartor is responsible for paintings and drawings, which are both precise and lush. Wright produces work that is three-dimensional. His sculptures and paintings are multi-layered: using acrylic, he paints shapes on plastic, then cuts them out and applies them to the surface of the canvas. Both artists layer their work with huge amounts of information, multiple story lines and narratives. A riot of color and imagery fill each frame, jamming a ton of information and thought into each piece.

   So what is the “Miseducation of Raymond O. Sink?†Sartor and Wright have invented an entire world and story for the fictional character, Sink. They made him an inventor, determined to improve the world, but his inventions keep going

off track, bringing him to new

places of discovery. There is a literal narrative and a pictorial narrative but it will be up to the viewer to decipher the story.

The 1970s pop-art colors are intentionally misleading. At first glance, the viewer is invited to a three-ring circus, but on closer inspection, finds an undercurrent of darkness. A tiger sculpture has come alive in the studio and bitten off the head of the painter; The seductive riverboat in a sea of kudzu is actually decaying; The artist’s studio is adorned with paintings of naval disasters; The prisoners have broken free of the prison, and wild monkeys show up in multiple works.

   The curator, Teri Moore, sees recurring themes in the different stories; nostalgia, character development, historical character, process, discovery and misdirection, all with many parallels to the artistic process.

    It is, she says, “A miseducation being very much an education.â€

   For information, 860-435-4423 or Hotchkiss.org/arts.

   Tara Kelly’s art education includes time spent as Julian Schnabel’s studio assistant and running the New York office for Swiss art dealer Bruno Bischofberger.