{"id":75104,"date":"2024-05-23T08:48:50","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T15:48:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=75104"},"modified":"2024-06-05T14:38:59","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T21:38:59","slug":"the-nature-of-layers-in-the-art-of-melinda-and-joseph-ostraff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/the-nature-of-layers-in-the-art-of-melinda-and-joseph-ostraff\/","title":{"rendered":"The Nature of Layers in the Art of Melinda and Joseph Ostraff"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

Joe & Melinda Ostraff, “Aria,” oil and acrylic, 72 x 60 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

A visitor to Phillips Gallery during what are becoming their annual showings of the art of Melinda and Joseph Ostraff (see last year’s here<\/a>) might initially have the impression that the artists work in two formats. One, the more common by far this year, is about the size of a notebook page, presenting something akin to a scientist\u2019s impressions from a field trip. The other is larger and more formal\u201425 or 30 times as large, and covered with images in rhythmic motion akin to a dance.<\/h4>\n

Ah, but take 28 of those small works and arrange them seven wide and four high, or take another 30, five high and six wide, and you have a large one. The first yields \u201cLincoln Park Arboretum,\u201d the second \u201cAria,\u201d which introduces another, very different distinction. Difficulty in art is usually taken to mean difficulty in interpretation. But \u201cAria\u201d is, at least initially, difficult to see. Glanced at or from a distance, it looks like a geometric abstraction made of 30 densely patterned squares of subtly modulated color marked by circles and cut up into various-sized squares. But look closely and the visual noise is like a filter or a window through which an elaborate garden can be made out. In places it resembles those drone shots filmmakers have taken to so strongly, looking straight down into a forest or a city, only in this case it\u2019s a field of monochromatic flowers. Contrast varies, but tends to be high, making the blossoms stand out, and individual squares may introduce orange, or blue, or green shades.<\/h4>\n
\"An<\/a>

Joe & Melinda Ostraff, “Dies Solis #1- #5,” each 11 x 11 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A vertically aligned artwork made of multiple square canvases depicting stylized botanical prints in monochrome shades of gray and white. The central piece highlights a large, lime green leaf pattern that stands out against the subdued background.<\/p><\/div>\n

Few disciplines can have as much in common as botany and painting. On the surface, of course, both involve countless hours of alert observation and analysis of form, color and underlying structure. Beyond that, each has much to say about the behavior and functions of plants in nature, in agriculture, and especially the many roles of flowers, from their physical part in reproduction to their significant, divergent meanings in cultures around the world. Joseph Ostraff, who moves freely between teaching art and collaborating with his fellow artists, finds his most rewarding collaborator in his wife, Melinda, who studies and teaches ethnobotany, a discipline keenly attuned to local and regional patterns and practices. Anyone who is alert to the parallel interest among students of world art will appreciate their timely alliance. Merely ask yourself, does this dictionary entry\u2014\u201cstudy of the traditional knowledge and customs of a people concerning plants and their medical, religious, and other uses\u201d\u2014 better refer to art, or science?<\/h4>\n

At the Phillips opening, Joe gestured to a suite of flower studies that he said were all \u201cdrawn by Melinda.\u201d He may have meant \u201cdrawn\u201d in the traditional sense, in which a work of art starts with drawing and design, then moves on to more elaborate media. In their case, that work may reach extremes of elaboration. The most spoken-of concept among artists today is \u201clayer,\u201d and an Ostraff will have multiple layers, some translucent and others opaque, most often with stencils used to produce hard edges between them. Often the most elaborate designs are laid down, only to be largely covered by the next layer, and textures from lower layers are sometimes all that can be seen in the surface of what\u2019s on top.<\/h4>\n

Then again, some exquisite drawing is included, and in \u201cBellagio,\u201d the drawn flowers are repeated, here in black, there white, and in one, green silhouettes, in ghostly backgrounds, and in smaller forms that appear to be cut into the body of the paint. No surprise, really, that such sophisticated concepts deliver eloquent craft in response. The title, as is so often the case, refers to a place the couple visited and associate with the works they began there.<\/h4>\n

No explanation is offered for the partial focus, in this body of work, on flowers as specifically funerary totems. None is needed, of course; I\u2019m writing this in the shadow of a tall spray of flowers we brought back from a family funeral that took place the day after the opening. The thing about using the same symbols to celebrate joy and grief is that the objects\u2014in this case flowers\u2014connect events that have little in common except when we realize that they may form a tapestry from a life\u2019s events, or the lives of those who share them.<\/h4>\n
\"A<\/a>

Joe & Melinda Ostraff, “In Memory Of #1,” 24×24 in.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Joe & Melinda Ostraff<\/em>, Phillips Gallery<\/a>, Salt Lake City, through June 14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A visitor to Phillips Gallery during what are becoming their annual showings of the art of Melinda and Joseph Ostraff (see last year’s here) might initially have the impression that the artists work in two formats. One, the more common by far this year, is about the size […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"featured_media":75105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[2206,3215,157],"class_list":["post-75104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-joseph-ostraff","tag-melinda-ostraff","tag-phillips-gallery"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Aria-scaled.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 10:23:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75104"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75540,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75104\/revisions\/75540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}