“Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,” wrote John Gillespie Magee, Jr. in his oft-quoted poem High Flight, “and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings…put out my hand, and touched the face of God.” The entire poem appears on the back of the Space Shuttle Challenger Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery proving yet again that art—whether poetry or music or the visual arts—possesses the power to reflect and channel human aspirations and emotions in ways that touch us all.
For “Flights of Fancy,” the October exhibition in the Placitas Community Library’s Collin Meeting Room (and available virtually, local artists offer their own observations on the wonders of flying and striving for freedom of movement with no boundaries. Their work portrays the sensation of soaring and swooping, whether emotionally or in fact.
The 21 artists represented in this exhibit employ a variety of artistic media from painting to pottery to achieve their aims. Participants include Roberta Allen, Carolyn Berry, Jeri Burzin, Judy Carlson, Charlie Christmann, Christiane Couvert, Lauren Deyo, Cristina Diaz-Armtzen, Pat Gould, Lesley Long, Melissa Lowry Mosley, Barbara Marx, Elizabeth Potter, Judith Roderick, Catalina Salinas,Terri Sankovitz, Alfons Schuster, Lee Small, Barbara Taub, Corrine Vialpando, and Mary Whiteside. Exhibition Coordinator Margaret Bruch describes this newest PCL Art Committee venture as a “soaring success!”
Beginning Saturday, October 3, “Flights of Fancy” can be viewed in the Collin Meeting Room during the Library’s Special Operating Hours: Tuesdays 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., Thursdays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Saturdays 1 to 5:00 p.m. Please check the library schedule or call (505) 867-3355 for changes or to leave a message to arrange access to the work in the exhibit.
All work is available for purchase online or through the library and 25 percent of sales will benefit PCL as it moves toward inaugurating the new Nancy P. Kellum-Rose and Scott W. Deuel Wing early next year. The final Collin Meeting Room exhibit, “Off the Wall,” will open to the public on November 6.
Artwork shown here: