Rhoda's work is indescribable, but I'll try to describe it. In a sense, her work is easier to capture in photographs than Jeff's, on the other hand you can't really get a sense of scale. You have to see her work in the PAINT, PAPER, CLAY, WAX, WOOD show to believe it. I named this blog entry, "Rhoda Kahler invents the universe" because this woman is absolutely primordial. In the same room, she's got everything from tiny budding seeds, sacred containers of mysterious life forces, and gigantic columns of vegetal exuberance that risk crashing through the ceiling.
The night before the show opened, Leah and I were helping Rhoda take some of her latest pieces hot out of the kiln. They were done to a turn. Toasty clouds and hot nails. Rhoda started with a few things on pedestals and hanging on the wall but before long she was spreading clouds up to the very edge of the wall and tiny bits almost down on the floor. She got the idea, at the last minute, of turning the passageway between two rooms into a "doorway to the renaissance." To Rhoda, the difference between "idea" and "actuality" is very small, so it was no sooner conceptualized than done.
She lavishes earthy greens, reds, browns, and a delicious creamy white over her pieces, with occasional jewel-like blues. These blues are brilliant, hard, but never cold. They are the spark that ignites her Big Bang. You better stand back, and don't try this at home.
Rhoda is going to change the way people think of clay.
Adrian
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