Visual Arts - No place like home
The word “shelter” can mean the physical protection of a roof, and also the emotional protection of family. Both the literal and spiritual connotations of that word are employed in artist Cooper Sanchez’s exhibition at the Inman Park alternative gallery White Space.
Shelter’s documentation of the comforts of nature and old-timey aesthetics is steeped in a Southern boy’s imagination. Sanchez’s works on wood feature childlike, sweetly rendered natural forms in soft, chalky colors. Favorite subjects are robins, cardinals, magnolia blossoms and irises that express an infatuation with the natural world.
On many of the paintings, Sanchez has added text, including several “to do” lists that document a kind of familiar domestic busyness, ranging from “thank god” to “drink beer.” The effect is Martha Stewart domesticity-meets-Southern funkiness.
In the nicely spare “Dogwood House #1,” a modest bungalow cut from a piece of wood is screwed onto a wood background painted with a pink-blossomed dogwood tree. Sitting on one of the tree’s branches is another wood cutout of a red cardinal.
It is no surprise that Shelter was partly inspired by Sanchez’s recent purchase of a modest home in Clarkston. Like the birth of a child, a first job or marriage, few events are as fraught with such psychological tension. That clearly monumental event is represented in “783” (the street address of Sanchez’s new home), in which one of Sanchez’s familiar icons — a human heart with wings — signals the ecstasy of finding his personal resting place.
By constructing his collages handyman-style out of bits of wood and screws, Sanchez suggests that “home” is a physical space but also an ideal condition to work toward, something in need of constant tinkering and modification to achieve the picture of domestic bliss seen in the mind’s eye.
Shelter: A Survey of Red Clay and Southern Dwellings by Cooper Sanchez runs through May 1 at White Space, 814 Edgewood Ave. Fri.-Sun., 11 a.m.-5 p.m. www.somecallitart.com. 404-688-1892.