Artists seek Peace

Published 12:00 pm Wednesday, March 12, 2003

A large peace mandala with candles and flowers lay in the center of the floor at Bayview Community Hall, while a massive globe representing Earth hung from the ceiling beyond it.

The mandala was created on site by artist Rob Schouten, who made it out of soil, crumbled cedar bark, sand, gravel, cornmeal and cedar greens.

The globe was the work of Eric Miller, of Eastsound, Orcas Island. Both large pieces commanded the viewer’s attention, but not less than the gallery of diverse artworks that surrounded them.

More than 55 artists from South Whidbey showed 75 to 80 works of art — paintings, sculptures, collages, poetry, even film — at the Artists for Peace exhibit last week. And, according to organizer Richard Evans, at least 200 people came to Bayview Hall to view it.

“It was a really spontaneous community involvement,” Evans said. “At least half the art was made for the occasion.”

The art itself was expansive in its scope. A Georgia Gerber bronze dove offered the classic symbol of peace. A collage by Sarah Wallace depicted cherished U.S. monuments split in two. A portrait by Fara Wexler was stark in its evocation of fear and disbelief, and Bruce Morrow’s well-known cowboys “danced the night away” while oil wells burned in the Texas landscape.

David Gignac sculpted a Warhead with fangs and a Peace head with a smile. Drew Kampion’s “War Is Destruction” was articulated with figures bound in wire. Mike McVay crafted an unnerving baby stroller, bent and misshapen, with its child crushed inside. A sculpture titled “Involuntary Citizen” by Ivan Neaigus showed a city at war, the small figures fighting not in uniform.

“The main message is the civilians always get it,” Neaigus said.

Evans’ contribution to the show was his film, “Toys on a Field of Blue,” which he called “one of the first anti-war films of the early ’60s.”

Almost all South Whidbey’s artistic community came together for the exhibit, which was presented “as another show of solidarity in the worldwide protest against unsupported military action abroad.” Part of the event was a free forum moderated by David Ossman, where all points of view were solicited.

“But no one spoke of anything but peace,” Evans said. “One of the most open and eloquent speakers was Grethe Cammermeyer, talking about the gas suits, and how horrific it was to be enclosed in one of those things. Her words were deeply heartfelt.”

Other speakers recounted their own experiences in wartime. And Ossman himself said it was “getting closer to deciding what we who are opposed to this war are going to do next.”