Prayers by Diana Harvey

The Second Annual Art as Prayer Show at Studio 62 is installed for the month of May. These invited artists have been getting ready all year to share their inner selves.

After enjoying small-sized versions of Jody Stephenson's art in Faltering Towards Perfection, it was nice to see the full sized originals Jody is capable of. In the landscapes, local favorite Dale Caldwell was the model for Prophet of the Woods. The prophet shouts his spirituality out. Jody's photographer husband Ron Lutz took the photo study.

Dale's shout out is for real, as demonstrated by his own installation, a prayer wall. It now contains about fifty prayer requests in the nine categories Dale offered, which he prays for every day.

As for the spiritual end of Jody Stephenson's works, What Cannot be Shaken had interesting multiple horizons and all the colors of the rainbow. Could it be suggesting all the levels of spiritual understanding contained from one viewpoint? Each viewer must decide for him/herself.

My two favorites of the show, however, were the two girls, whoever they are, in Jack Miller's Serenity and Anticipation. A yellow and pink lit bare breasted woman accompanies a greenlit companion. So simple, yet so powerful.

But it is Diana Harvey who, for me, stole the show with Prayers. On a black ground feathers fall over a simple Hopi pot decorated with the traditional Hopi eagle tail design. The painting above it, Thanks for a Beautiful Spring contained a Budha of jade no larger than a thumb, in real life and in this painting. Diana has left the cats out of these still lives, as she says she plans to do from now on.

Mary Springer's Annunciation featured a visiting angel. The casually draped woman seated in the foreground is so involving you hardly notice the angel until it appears out of the light from beyond, rendered in vivid colorful strokes.

Mel Shipley's gleaming spiritual bronzes flank the doorway. Charles Pierce lets the words paint the picture in elegant calligraphy. Mr. Shrine and Terry Russell contributed shrines. Terry's is a zen interior behind Mardi Gras beads. Ralph's is a mish-mash of everything you might think of in prayer, including good old Uncle Sam as a low flying painted wooden figurine. Sarah Russell contributed meditative wall sconces. There are other fine works of art of a spiritual nature here as well.