Downtown galleries display local work

Art enthusiasts do not need to wait until Bloomington's July 9 Downtown Gallery Walk to enjoy the work of local artists at locations throughout the city. Instead, patrons of the arts can create their own personal "gallery walk" each month to see what new exhibitions are featured throughout the downtown area. \nThis month The Gallery, 109 E. Sixth Street, celebrates the work of Hope School of Fine Art Professor Emeritus Rudy Pozzatti by displaying his colorful prints and watercolor paintings of flowers and rose windows. Pozzatti retired from IU in 1991 after 36 years of teaching printmaking and has devoted his time to completing new projects in his at-home studio ever since. His exhibition, which lines the upstairs balcony of The Gallery, drew such a large crowd on its May 28 opening that some patrons waited outside.\nViewers said his vibrantly colored work screams with oranges and purples. One example, "Eye of the Flower," is a watercolor of a flower that explodes into an orange-red center.\n"I like this one," Gallery patron Imri McKinney said. "It draws you in with its bright center and colors. It's almost like fire."\nPozzatti said his inspiration to paint flowers comes from a life spent with women who garden, including his mother, wife and daughter.\n"I've always been around great flowers, and when you're around them so much, you can't help but notice how beautiful they are," Pozzatti said.\nPozzatti said his latest work, a color relief with etching and engraving titled "Cerberus," is the first in a line of a series he wants to do on the 12 feats of Hercules.\n"That was kind of an experiment to get into the series," Pozzatti said of "Cerberus," a red and black piece that shows the mythological, three-headed dog guarding the gates of Hades.\nHis wife, Dorothy Pozzatti, said she is supportive of her husband's latest venture.\n"It's a project that's got his attention," she said. "It will take quite awhile for him to get it done."\nBoxcar Books and Community Center, a nonprofit bookstore at 310 S. Washington Street, recently featured the photography of Julia Karr. Karr's exhibit displays images she took at the opening day of the Bloomington Farmers Market.\nThe black and white photographs of landscape and architecture photographer Gretchen Kromer are currently on display at the John Waldron Art Center, 122 S. Walnut Street, as part of a Bloomington Area Arts Council gallery display, including the work of metalsmith James Obermeir and oil painter Phyllis Westfall.\nOne of Kromer's photographs, "Ponte di Legno, Ninfa, Italy," shows a bridge serenely stretched over a river surrounded by trees. Among other metal pieces on display, Obermeier's "Unexpected Growth" sits in the middle of the Rosemary P. Miller Gallery. The thin bench of dark metal has a crack down its center where grass peeks out, growing from an unexpected place.\nWestfall's oil paintings of country landscapes and architecture line the walls of the Flashlight Gallery's third floor. Westfall said she entered a juried competition to win her space in the gallery.\n"It was one of the nicer things that has happened to me in my art," she said. \nShe explained she had only recently become devoted to her painting. \n"I am much more serious about art now that my kids are grown," she said.\nGraduate student Christopher Lowther currently has his work on display at Gallery West Expresso, 702 W. Kirkwood Ave. In addition to several black and white photographs and a watercolor painting, Lowther has some of his digital artwork exhibited on two television sets at the gallery. He said that digital and video work are the true focus of his art. \n"I do a lot of things that have to do with the Web and Flash animation," he said. \nDuring the gallery opening, Lowther showed one of his Flash cartoons that he described as having a commercial or pop-art feel to it. \n"It's much different than my videowork, which is very dark," he said.\nThe two television screens show black and white moving images, flashing from one scene or pattern to another against a backdrop of haunting music.\nLocated in a quaint house turned cafe, Gallery West Expresso displays and sells the masterpieces of local artists while serving coffee and caffeinated drinks. In addition to Lowther's work, the gallery currently features Laura Bulla's colorful acrylic and oil paintings of still lifes, animals and landscapes.\nBulla's "Not so Still Life" shows a cat peering out from beneath a blanket, ready to pounce on a little green frog that hops by a still life setup of a bright blue vase with a peacock feather and a copper tea kettle.\nManager Lacy Davis said the gallery's monthly art openings always include a musical act and wine and finger food. She said the owners, who often travel, were inspired to open an art gallery that also served coffee after seeing art exhibits in Europe. Many European galleries offer free coffee to their patrons while they are observing the art.\n"Our idea is that if business picks up enough, we'll give away our coffee just like they do in Europe," Davis said.\n-- Contact arts editor Jenica Schultz at jwschult@indiana.edu .