How to Go
What: Project Ethiope, Paintings by Peter Gooch
Where: ArtStreet Studio D Gallery, University of Dayton, 330 Kiefaber St., Dayton
When: Continues through Sept. 24
Artist reception: 4 to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 21
More information: (937) 229-5101, artstreet. udayton.edu
Ethiopia is a peninsula-like landmass in Africa, about twice the size of Texas with 87 million people.
Artists who visit foreign countries move beyond the facts to study the people, the culture, and most of all, the unique colors that establish a sense of place.
Peter Gooch, an associate professor at the University of Dayton, is such an artist.
Gooch spent more than seven weeks in sub-Saharan Africa over two separate trips in December 2008 and November 2009. He gathered inspiration for his art by taking photographs with the help of his wife, Sharon Ransom. The result is two solo shows of 30 works on paper and small panels. Twelve of these are displayed at the ArtStreet Studio D Gallery at the University of Dayton, and the rest are presented at the B. Deemer Gallery in Louisville, Ky.
“It was an incredibly powerful, visual and physical experience to be in Ethiopia. It has a very rich, complex and idiosyncratic culture,” Gooch said. “It had such a powerful effect on me that I’m just beginning to distill or assimilate all the visual data I gathered.”
Gooch broke down that experience into three related groups of work: Lalibela paintings, Boku paintings and Mekuamia paintings. He translated the rock-hewn churches and hilltop monasteries surrounding Lalibela into five acrylic paintings reflective of the ancient city’s atmospheric quality. “Lalibela — Yellow” is his recollection and synthesis of a lemon and lime roadside stand. This striking work on paper is characterized by vertical strips of yellows, greens and blues punctuated with exclamations of black on cream.
Boku references the ceremonial leadership staffs of the Oromo tribes. The visuals he created include three high, narrow paintings shown together. Tiny horizontal strips of varying hues march upward in a sea of roughly blended colors.
The Christian pilgrims of central and northern Ethiopia carry Mekuamia walking staffs. In “Mekuamia — Yellow Wedge,” tiny horizontal strips of yellow, green and blue cross behind a representative staff in a sea of blood red.
His painting technique was developed in graduate school. He saturates a single color on a large square of plastic film. He uses additives such as garnet and slate particles, iron oxide and ceramic grog, and hangs them to dry. He will then transfer a section to his current project using gel; multiple layers are the result.
Gooch’s earlier shows are culminations of trips to Malta, Cambodia and Canada, among others. He earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, painting, from Eastern Michigan University, and a master’s in painting with honors from Western Michigan University. He’s received an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artist Award and three UD Summer Research Fellowships. Besides the B Deemer Gallery, he is represented by the Robert L. Kidd Gallery and The River Gallery in Michigan.
“As the painting teacher, I have to be an active professional painter in order to teach my discipline. School is a system, and systems are levelers,” Gooch said. “It’s almost paradoxical because art has to be very individual, and the process for each artist differs depending on their character, their interests, and so forth. So in art, we try to also teach what’s outside of the system to make unique individuals.”
Contact contributing arts writer Pamela Dillon at pamdillon@woh.rr.com
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