Mixed messages

Jeanette Staley's multi-layered paintings

by Leon Nigrosh

ONE WOMAN'S WORK: MIXED MEDIA PAINTINGS BY JEANETTE STALEY
at the ARTSWorcester Gallery at Quinsigamond Community College, 670 West Boylston Street, through June 1.

We're all familiar with the old adage, "a woman's work is never done." While Jeanette Staley admirably performs her duties as a wife and mother, she still finds time to create

pretty pictures for us to look at. Currently, nearly 30 of her mixed media paintings grace the walls of the ARTSWorcester Gallery at QCC. As we stroll through the long corridor we take passing notice of still lifes containing representations of Chinese export ware, pewter bowls and mugs, along with bountiful servings of fresh fruit. Staley's ability to present these objects with such realistic vision creates a convincing ambiance that leads one to believe that the fruits might indeed be edible. Because the images are so pleasant and easy to look at, it would be easy to dismiss them as pictures from greeting cards found at the Christmas Tree Shops. But, as we examine each work, it slowly begins to dawn on us that these little vignettes, painted over collaged elements, present a far more serious nature and objective.

Through her facile use of brush and color, Staley first captures our attention with her old-worldly miniatures such as A Day Like Any Other, which shows a beautifully rendered pewter flute goblet and a small red glass pitcher. Then the headlines from the collaged newspapers underneath begin to register. Clips referring to the problems in Kosovo, killings in Sierra Leone, and plunderers in Nigeria, are jarring in their conceptual juxtaposition. In this manner, Staley hopes to jolt complacent viewers into recognizing that there is more to life than just acquiring pretty things.

Her 19 by 23-inch, mixed-media work, Sisters, features a marvelously rendered pewter pitcher, simple china cup and saucer, and spoon. This painting is buoyed by heavily collaged and patinaed pieces of sheet music, torn newspapers, bits of maps, and images from history books. The chief feature in this work and others similar to it is the handwriting that travels across the page. We want to discern its meaning, but because it is barely legible, we are left to decide its importance. Staley acknowledges that while the actual writing is her own script, the passages are quotes by Emerson and particularly from Dante's Divine Comedy. She says that Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) wrote about the contemporary problems in politics and society that were occurring 700 years ago -- and that since that time, little if anything has changed.

Staley ably applies her acrylic on collage technique in a series of paintings, Arbitrary I-IV, in which she places pears and apples on pedestals. In case we miss the point, she writes on each one in French, "a woman on a pedestal." The fruits are lushly colored and fully modeled, reminiscent of the figurative work by French artist Lucian Freud (1922-), one of Staley's favorites. But it's the baneful innocence of the collaged Madonna images, corset ads, bridal pictures, and newspaper photos of Marilyn Monroe that eventually give the viewer pause.

Continuing in this vein, she also presents us with a tall, narrow composition, Fallen, which portrays six luscious pears tumbling down a dark collage of cartoon pictures from Disney's Cinderella and a varied assortment of provocative ads from newspaper dating pages. The implications here are obvious. (On the grounds of truth and accuracy in reporting, Staley told this writer that these ads came from recent pages of the Worcester Phoenix.)

Looking at all of Staley's work, including her 29 by 23-inch painting, Pears for Tomorrow, it's hard to believe that she is self-taught. In this work the pears shade naturally from green to red and are expertly rendered. The collaged background is made up of segments of floral wallpaper floated with fragments of illuminated manuscript and artfully placed bits of gold leaf. The bowl of fruit is placed on a well-draped tablecloth -- but, to add an almost surrealistic component, there is no evidence of a table. She successfully employs this artifice in several other paintings like her large History of Ideas for Women and The Table by the Window. By creating this additional level of visual exploration, Staley further ensnares the viewer in each of her works, requiring a few additional moments of contemplation, during which time she hopes to get across her message that "understanding and personal humility can lead to a fair, just, and compassionate society."

The ARTSWorcester Gallery at QCC is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Call 508-854-4281.