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Michael is in the foreground here and gives you an idea of just how big that corn cob pipe
and those smoke rings actually are! |
Mixed-media artist and puppeteer Wayne White, who was a set designer and puppeteer for Pee Wee's Playhouse, currently has an exhibition, titled "FOE," at
Marketview Arts, located at 37 W. Philadelphia Street in downtown York. We found it by chance when Michael and I went to York Arts' City Art Gallery (at 118 W. Phila. Street) to get measurements for the exhibition in October. (Sadly, there was no show at City Art Gallery, so it was closed, but we did peek in the windows, and Michael and I measured the front window from the outside, which, because of the way we were doing it, probably looked very strange to passing traffic.
Anyway, we were toddling along, found an open market on the street, where I got some hand-dyed silk scarves for my Mom and me and a neat pin for my Mother-in-law. After strolling around Central Market for awhile and buying some loose tea at one of my favorite stores
Cherie Ann (who makes me want to be a fiber artist so much with all her gorgeous wool skeins, colorful scarves, and
awesome knit hats), we wandered into a building with art in the window and the letters F.O.E. (which stands for Fraternal Order of Eagles) in the stained glass. Downstairs were selections from, I think, York Art Association artists, some of whose studios were downstairs (and into whose studio windows we got to peek). We continued wandering, not really understanding that something was actually on the upper floors. At first, I found the York College printmaking department, which was deserted, and I would have walked around the area more, but it felt wrong, like we were invading some place not intended for us. And then up one more flight of stairs, from which we could hear banjo music, we found the Wayne White exhibition, which was
amazing. The scale and Cubist-style detail of the figures was incredibly impressive. I just have a few pictures here, but the figures were based on an event that happened in York, involving the Confederate demands for goods, during the Civil War--hence the picture below of a soldier taking a pig and a pie. The title of the show, "FOE," is a reference to the stained glass sign on the building's façade, which refers to the Fraternal Order once headquartered in the building, and the idea of an incursion by opposing forces.
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Look at the amazing detail here...the ridges in the toenails, the buildup of cardboard to
indicate bones, calluses, and corns, and the bristly hair on the scrawny leg! |
Everything is made out of cardboard, and in a few instances, one could tell what had once been in the boxes. There was a frozen crinkle-cut fry box and a box with Amazon Prime tape still visible. The close-up of the leg and foot above (which belonged to a figure putting on a boot--which you could move by way of ropes) shows just how detailed the figures are.
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A Confederate soldier with a pig in one hand and a pie in the other. Sadly, my picture is so
blurry....this was so fantastic in person. It towers over the viewer, extending into the mini-dome
above the gallery space. |
