The Healing Arts

Local artists respond to Sept. 11 with creativity

BY GLEN STARKEY AND SALLY KAY

In the aftermath of Sept. 11, it seems everyone is trying to find a way to make sense of things, to find an outlet for anger, to in some way help, to in some way heal. Local artists, too, have been searching for a way to respond creatively to this unfathomable event.

Sculptor Rick Cohan’s typical themes are war, America, the veteran, which makes perfect sense because he’s a Vietnam vet. After the attacks, he felt, "overwhelmed, but inspired." He was motivated by "the grandeur and stark reality of it all" and felt the attack was "dramatic and atrocious and cowardly."

In his piece "Torch of Terror" he "is addressing the concept of terrorism–the face of terrorism." Though he doesn’t feel a responsibility to create out of a tragedy, he does wants to "make art that is true. I try to make my art honest."

After the attack, Cohen said, "I felt that this was the beginning of World War III, and that it would be long and bloody. The spirit of America is based upon freedom, liberty, and justice that is found so rarely in the rest of the world. America is still the cornerstone of freedom, justice and liberty, but none of these are free. All must be fought for and defended by soldiers. I would support the soldier, wherever they go. Anyone who takes orders–these are the true heroes."

Painter Etty Klinger moved here from New York a year ago, and while she didn’t know anyone who died in the attack, she has friends who did. What motivated her was, "the enormity of it all. I can’t fathom how many [dead] people that actually is. The enormity shook me.

"I was choked," continued Klinger. "I couldn’t cry, I needed a physical release."

She had to get a larger canvas to express how she felt–"rage, frustrated, helplessness"–but creating the large painting and several others was "cathartic."

According to Klinger, people are responding to her art "in a connecting sort of way. People see it and say ‘Yeah, that’s how I felt...that’s how my heart felt, too."

What motivated her to make her paintings? "It was my attempt to communicate my own feelings, to connect, to tell other people how I felt. Words flow more easily when they’re not words. More than anything, art should be beautiful. But these images are pain, suffering, anger. It had to come out."

Another New York transplant, photographer Denise De Luise, has a beautiful photo of the WTC she took years ago. She’s framed it and written of the glass: "We are one world, one people, one heart, one voice, one pain, one anger, one fear, one hope, one despair, one joy, one peace, one hate, one love, one God...one."

"That’s a skyline I’ve looked at forever," recalled De Luise. "I’m devastated–I just know that life has changed forever."

Her motivation was partly that "Nothing has ever had this impact. There’s so many ways to feel about this–rage to sorrow. I feel sorrow.

"It’s still with me," she added. "I don’t find it lifting; I don’t find it getting better. I’m trying to feel love, trying to find a place for the sorrow."

She hopes others will come away from her art with a feeling of compassion. "[I hope that] we could sense compassion for each other as Americans, for Afghans, for all people. I’d like people to focus on the compassion and love of the majority of all people. We need to pull together and feel a sense of togetherness as a majority."

Painter Paulette Perlman does mostly motivational, positive, and uplifting work. And the work she did in response to this tragedy is no different. "I wanted people, as bad as it was, to look at moving forward, positively.

"Artwork should be a call to public awareness," she added. "I want to send a positive message."

But despite her attempt to remain positive, Perlman, like so many others, was thoroughly affected: "I was devastated. I wanted to show gratitude for those who survived.

"This has made us more a part of the world. We are more vulnerable than we ever thought we were. My hope is that this helps us come together as a nation."

In response to these attacks, ceramist Mark Sensenbach has created big plates out of clay with figures on them. His motivation: a general mood of frustration with the U.S. machine of money being the core of everything we do. He’s trying to "get back to simplicity."

"It’s out of sorrow for the people [hurt or killed by this attack]" that Sensenbach created these plates. "There’s sorrow...and natural beauty from the world [in these ceramic creations]."

Watercolor painter Verona Re-Bow created a painting to express her feelings, but she sees this event as a chance for the U.S. to take the high road.

"If we don’t respond with violence, we can see this as an opportunity of rising out of the ashes," said Re-Bow. "This could bring about a paradigm shift [of] how we view violence."

She chose to use the image of a phoenix coming out of the ashes with wings carrying flames. "Violence is never justice. Out of something horrible, something new can be born."

She hopes people will be inspired to "step out, helping beyond their personal affairs. Out of destruction, something new can be born. I think it’s a wake-up call. We have a chance to view life through other people’s eyes–to see terror, fear, insecurity."

Re-Bow believes artists have "a responsibility not just to record [an event like this one], but to go beyond it–to look through and behind it and offer another way to look at it. An artist is a visionary [who] carries a vision beyond [their] own little world.

"Real art is to nourish, to inspire people at a different level," continued Re-Bow. "Like a window into another reality."

Draftsperson Loretta Ramseyer was in L.A. when she heard the news: "I tended to scrawl like a little kid...all in red...I was eager to get back to San Luis."

Her motivation for creating work in response to this terrorist attack was simply "the need to do something. The materials were there, and I felt like it was a momentous occasion and I had to draw how I felt."

Metal sculptor Jeffrey Allen Thies has created a sketch for a monumental steel sculpture that he hopes may someday be built. It’s two huge structures resembling the WTC fully standing with a flag pole in the middle, flag at half mast. His motive is for it to be a permanent memorial piece.

Personally, he wanted "anything that would extinguish the anxiety that I had."

When people see the piece, he says, "I hope they would feel some sort of remorse. To feel something. That people would remember, it’s a day in history that affects everyone."

Glen Starkey is a New Times staff writer and Sally Kay is an intern.