Musicians collaborate. Why can’t fine artists?
A new exhibition at One Daytona’s Gallery500 explores the theme of collaboration featuring a series of works by five artists: Robert Shirk, of Ormond Beach; Beau Wild, of Port Orange; Jean Banas, of New Smyrna Beach; and Lillian Verkins, and Jennifer Payne, of Orlando. The exhibition opened on Friday, June 28, and will run through Sep. 29.
The exhibit’s concept was born when Shirk expressed to Gallery500 Director Amber O’Neal that he wished to add something different to his work. Shirk, who is a Neo-Pointillist artist, admires abstract expressionistic work, but that art style doesn’t come naturally to him.
“It’s just not in my personality,” Shirk said. “So I was telling her, ‘I know a number of artists that maybe we can collaborate.'”
The first artist he contacted was Wild, who paints both non-objective and figurative abstracts.
“I thought it was exciting and it would be unexpected,” Wild said. “You never know what’s going to happen when you collaborate with someone else.”
Shirk added his trademark dots — which he paints on multiple sheets of layered plexiglass to create an image — to works by each of the other four artists. The women would give him a piece and he’d work on it and give it back.
Wild was the last artist to turn in her two paintings, and she joked that it’s due to the subjects Shirk chose for her works: A monkey and a laughing man.
“Gorgeous women — the Geisha, the fairy and the Spanish dancing woman,” Wild said, laughing. “And then I get the monkey.”
Banas’ works follow in the tradition of the abstract expressionists movemennt, according to her artist statement, in which the painting process is the subject matter. Banas, who at 94 years old just won Best of Show with one of her paintings at the Florida Artists Group Symposium in late June, was initially afraid her pieces were too big for the initiative.
But Shirk talked her into saying yes. Her collaborative piece with Shirk features a Geisha, and once she saw it completed, she didn’t want to touch it.
“I always like to try experimenting with different things and I loved [Shirk’s] work, so I thought it would be great, and it worked out really well,” Banas said.
And after Verkins saw the art piece by Banas and Shirk, she agreed to join in the collaboration as well. She gave Shirk her piece titled, “Before I disappear,” and Shirk added a Flamenco dancer. In May, it won an award of distinction at the Art League of Daytona Beach “The Way I See It” exhibition.
“When he showed me the idea, I was like, ‘Great! I love it,'” Verkins recalled.
When it came to Shirk’s collaboration with Payne — whose work is “completely intuitive and spontaneous,” according to her artist statement — he saw the painting she provided and he wanted to add a magical flair. A couple months ago, Shirk had seen another one of Payne’s pieces featuring a fairy, and thought it was perfect.
Gallery assistant Natasha Fenga and Gallery Director Amber O’Neal. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
The exhibit features five collaborative pieces, plus works by each respective artist.
Painters don’t collaborate very often, Verkins said. She said some people asked her how she could give her painting to another artist to work on.
“I think it’s so great that we were able to let it go — to go ahead and have that freedom to let it go,” Verkins said.
It’s an exhibit that took a lot of trust, Shirk said.
“It’s very humbling to me for these awesome, established artists to give me their work,” Shirk said.
