Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off.” This is the central theme of Deciduous, a collection of brightly colored abstract works curated by Johnson Simon. Nine local artists explore their understanding of the summer-to-fall transition in an exhibit, including oil, acrylic, mixed media, aerosol pigments, ink on canvas, stoneware, gouache, and ink on wood and paper.

Free Fall showcases the dynamic quality Johnson Simon so often incorporates in his motion-centric pieces. The subject–a person roughed-out in white acrylic amidst a shambling mass of pencil strokes–appears to be suspended upside down in mid-air. The background is an amalgamation of looser pencil strokes and bright hues, peppered with fragments of dried leaves, adding a dimensional aspect to the piece.

Johnson Simon
*Free Fall*
Acrylic, leaves on canvas
5' x 7'

Jen Swim created a stoneware vase in soft, natural tones textured with indents on its surface. The wide, round base is a matte dusty tone topped by a high gloss ash tone that tapers to a small round opening. The piece is pinpointed with dark speckles and embellished with tufts of human hair in a range of colors and textures – fitting a recurring theme in Swim’s work of the cycles of the body.

Jen Swim
*Hair Jar*
Stoneware, hair
22" x 10" x 8"

Jennifer Neel’s Fall in Woodruff Place I and II depict wooded lanes in a historic Indianapolis neighborhood. Both streets in either painting are flanked by benches and shaded by mature deciduous hardwoods bearing autumn reds, golds, greens, and browns. Each painting uses rough, brief brushstrokes of oil paint to depict he image of the landscape in fuzzy detail.

Jennifer Neel
*Fall in Woodruff Place*
Oil on canvas
17" x 21"

Jennifer Neel
*Fall in Woodruff Place II*
Oil on canvas
24" x 22"

The dramatic contrast of the hazy, neutral-toned borders and the garish bright swaths of color in Falling mirror the juxtaposition found in the graffiti that inspired the piece. ROSEY, the artist who created the piece, often draws inspiration from cubism, religious iconography, and tribal art. The influence of tribal art can be found in the linear patterns that are superimposed over the hues in a sort of runic pattern.

A muted warm toned sky presides over this massive disjointed landscape constructed by multicolored facets. The sweeping patches fit together smoothly with a certain natural format despite the jumbling variation of colors, textures, grain, and pattern in each section. Artist H. Ward Miles aims to find beauty in a world laced with negativity. The inordinate patches are formatted with a natural flow that reflects Miles’ focus on the contrast of “great joys and great sorrows.” Miles is, in her words, trying to “accurately depict a big, messy life containing both.”

H. Ward Miles
*Back Home*
Acrylic on canvas
60" x 72"

Both pieces by Gary Gee feature brightly-hued acrylic, aerosol ink, and other mixed media on canvas. In Alaskan Cruise, Swaths of cyan give the impression of water while a mild green mimics a misty sky spangled with patches of metallic glitter. 80’s Dance Party features a cacophony of neon acrylics, convalescing into sparse layers of overlapping paint that vein into a swirled, fluid texture.

Gary Gee
*Alaskan Cruise*
Acrylic, aerosol, ink, and mixed-media on canvas
10" x 20"

Gary Gee
*80’s Dance Party*
Acrylic, aerosol, ink, and mixed-media on canvas
10" x 10"

Lay Down by Lyndy Bazile features the face of a woman illustrated in gouache on paper. Her wistful countenance rests on delicately folded hands. The subject’s warm-toned olive skin compliments streaked chestnut hair. Thin, textured brushstrokes define the contours of her body and face.

Lyndy Bazile
*Lay Down*
Gouache on paper
11" x 15"

Bright hues and a soft, ethereal glow give an otherworldly quality to two pieces by Mary Beth that embody the transitional nature of autumn. In Heal Yourself the elevated female figure glows in the center of a Pheonix. A dazzling inferno bordered by a hellish landscape and bright, stark rays jutting out from its focal point. In Shedding Cosmic Skins, a midnight blue galaxy speckled with stars and frosted with wisps of starlight is the silhouette of intertwined serpents scored by a crossed pattern of delicate threads laid over the image.

Mary Beth
*Heal Yourself*
Fluid acrylics
18" x 24"

Mary Beth
*Shedding Cosmic Skins*
Fluid acrylics
12" x 24"

Rainforest and Love Grows by Ricki Gibson are brightly-hued, realistic oil paintings of foliage. Bulky, petaled blossoms are the subject of Love Grows, stippled with velvet details and accented with reflective copper leaf in the painting’s margins. Stark white outlines of umbrella-like structures are overlaid in the image of tropical foliage and fronds in Rainforest, flanked by a languid, dripping background in muted pale blue and white tones.

Ricki Gibson
*Rainforest*
Oil on canvas
36” x 48”

Ricki Gibson
*Love Grows*
Oil, velvet, and copper leaf on canvas
30" x 30"

Things Could Be Much Better by Cait Renk evokes the playful nature of a comic strip. Carbon black, a thin charcoal gray, and turquoise are used to illustrate the simple dialogue on life. The grain of the wood canvas and the starkness of the blotchy ink give a nostalgic, handmade simplicity to the piece.

Cait Renk
*Things Could Be Much Better*
Gouache and ink on wood
12" x 12"

See Deciduous in the Hank and Dolly Gallery through the month of September.