Charming, Whimsical Paintings Of Hal Mayforth At Loomis Chaffee
Windsor Exhibit Features Works By Vermont Artist-Illustrator
By Susan Dunne, The Hartford Courant,
10:48 am EST, March 6, 2014
Hartford-area residents may have seen the work of Hal Mayforth
before. He's created illustrations for articles in dozens of national
magazines and the Courant. His recurring character is a little guy with
bulging eyes and a huge nose, wigging out over whatever situation the
subject of the article puts him in.
The new exhibit of Mayforth's work at the Mercy Gallery at Loomis
Chaffee School in Windsor doesn't feature that little guy, but instead a
wider range of Mayforth's loopy sense of humor. The exhibit of
watercolors and acrylic paintings is so charming that visitors may find
themselves immediately going online to
mayforth.com to buy a print, if they can't afford a piece right off the wall.
"I don't draw from life. I draw from my mind," Mayforth, of East
Montpelier, Vt., said during a gallery walk-through. "I seldom start
drawing with preconceived notions and I never know where it will take
me." His primary goal? "I just want to put a smile on someone's face."
So he comes up with paintings
titled "Do you really need that cupcake?," "Turn all your crap off once
in a while," "Persistence will wear the bastards down," "Don't hold
your breath waiting for thunderous applause" and "Floss the ones you
want to keep."
Fifteen of those "humorous word paintings" are in the exhibit, along with three of a different style of word paintings.
These paintings feature a random variety of pop-culture references —
pumpkinhead, moonbeam, periodic table, some mother's son, presto
changeo, turning piont, Willie Nelson — looping around each other in
multilayered spirals.
"They're just free-associated, but I'm sure a therapist could make
something of it," he said. "I think two years of college majoring in
liberal arts helped me. I know a little bit about a lot of things."
Other paintings in the show are grid paintings, with different images
placed in neat rows, in a style inspired the pictographs of abstract
expressionist Adolph Gottlieb. "I like the combination of
vintage-looking cartoon characters and abstract marks," he said.
The silly tone of the exhibit is clear from the start, beginning with
what Mayforth calls "The Dreaded Artist's Statement." "To be honest,
there is not a lot of philosophical hokum behind these paintings," he
writes. "My paintings are conceptually all over the map. The thread that
runs through them all is a certain off-kilter sensibility."
HAL MAYFORTH will be at the Eugene Mercy Jr.
Gallery in the Richmond Art Center at Loomis Chaffee School, 4
Batchelder Road in Windsor, until Thursday, April 17. Details, including
hours: www.loomischaffee. Information about Mayforth: www.mayforth.com.
