Hartford Courant review of Mercy Gallery Show

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.