Howard Hersh - Review - October, 1999

Howard Hersh

Howard Hersh: Expanding Universe

by Keira Kotler
The Magazine
Volume VII, Issue VI

Looking outside, one sees the passage of summer lying visible in color. Color symbolizes transformation and evolution in the natural world and causes internal movement in people that mirrors change on the outside. Color fluctuations highlight metamorphosis and mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. From summer to autumn, reds turn rust; greens turn yellow and brown; and the sun's rays change from orange to amber, casting a golden glow on the land below.

In Expanding Universe, a mixed-media exhibition by Howard Hersh, layers of craft and creation echo the seasonal evolution currently taking place. Using various techniques including painting, monoprinting, collage, Asian writing, and sculpture, Hersh's works take on the form of building blocks where, much like the trunk of a tree, each stage of change is visible and integral to the finished form. Each element of his work is self-created. From the wooden-box panel surfaces that are cut apart and reassembled to the monoprinted rice paper collaged into the paint, every piece of Hersh's creations is a birth, death, and rebirth of its own — a microcosm of the universe in its entirety.

Multiple layers of material and texture speak to the artist's diligence, as one easily sees the painstaking detail that has been devoted to each step of the process. The combination of precisely cut panels and color alludes to a relationship between architecture and nature, leaving one to ponder the existence of organic structures in nature and to question their mutual roles. It can be inferred that Hersh intends to heighten one's awareness of nature, to support a balance between it and architecture, and to symbolize through color an organic process taking place in all living beings.

While Hersh's art feels extremely personal, the use of color makes it universal. spotlighting a process to which all people can relate. Suggestions of autumn trigger a visceral, sensory reaction-awaking the memory to chilling mornings, wafts of chamisa, and the gradual fading of green to gold. In the end Hersh's work represents all life as much as it represents the artist himself. Ultimately, the process, and in some ways the challenge, is to merely sit quietly and observe.


	Howard Hersh Howard Hersh: Expanding Universe by Keira Kotler The Magazine Volume VII, Issue VI Looking outside, one sees the passage of summer lying visible in color. Color symbolizes transformation and evolution in the natural world and causes internal movement in people that mirrors change on the outside. Color fluctuations highlight metamorphosis and mark the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. From summer to autumn, reds turn rust; greens turn yellow and brown; and the sun's rays change from orange to amber, casting a golden glow on the land below. In Expanding Universe, a mixed-media exhibition by Howard Hersh, layers of craft and creation echo the seasonal evolution currently taking place. Using various techniques including painting, monoprinting, collage, Asian writing, and sculpture, Hersh's works take on the form of building blocks where, much like the trunk of a tree, each stage of change is visible and integral to the finished form. Each element of his work is self-created. From the wooden-box panel surfaces that are cut apart and reassembled to the monoprinted rice paper collaged into the paint, every piece of Hersh's creations is a birth, death, and rebirth of its own — a microcosm of the universe in its entirety. Multiple layers of material and texture speak to the artist's diligence, as one easily sees the painstaking detail that has been devoted to each step of the process. The combination of precisely cut panels and color alludes to a relationship between architecture and nature, leaving one to ponder the existence of organic structures in nature and to question their mutual roles. It can be inferred that Hersh intends to heighten one's awareness of nature, to support a balance between it and architecture, and to symbolize through color an organic process taking place in all living beings. While Hersh's art feels extremely personal, the use of color makes it universal. spotlighting a process to which all people can relate. Suggestions of autumn trigger a visceral, sensory reaction-awaking the memory to chilling mornings, wafts of chamisa, and the gradual fading of green to gold. In the end Hersh's work represents all life as much as it represents the artist himself. Ultimately, the process, and in some ways the challenge, is to merely sit quietly and observe.