“I Scarce Can Take It I”
opens at Yards Project, Cleveland Ohio.
Works by Misty Lindsey, Martha Cliffel, Gadi Zamir, and Reverend Albert Wagner
Opening reception Thursday, Sept 13th 6PM – 9PM. On view through November 24th
I SCARCE CAN TAKE IT IN is a line from the lyrics of the gospel song How Great Thou Art, from a Christian hymn based on a Swedish traditional melody and a poem written by Carl Boberg (1859–1940) in Mönsterås, Sweden in 1885. The lyrics detail the overwhelming feeling one receives from a spiritual force, a story of inspiration and hope, told by an ordinary man seeking solace, inspired by church bells ringing during a wild thunderstorm. Their works are romantic and pure, with personal narratives that are told through the casted- out objects, recycled materials and the reclaimed wood that were literally lost and found again. The transformative moment is celebrated with urgency to tell their stories of their everyday faith and falter.
Misty Lindsey, Martha Cliffel, Gadi Zamir, and Reverend Albert Wagner possess a rawness and tactility that leads to an immediate presence in their work of destiny. They choose to celebrate expression and creativity over despair and hopelessness and share self-determined training outside of any formal pedagogy or tradition. Instead, we learn about inspiration, beautiful and invigorating, through mysticism, myth, faith, rebellion, and beauty.
Misty Lindsey is a Chattanooga-based artist that has been represented at the Outsider Art Fair in NYC. Her work is filled with expressive characters that reveal a commentary of universal hopes and dreams, fears and worries. Her text-based work is confessional and represents the voice of the last, the lost and those that have the least. Misty has been a member of High Art Fridays (HAF) since 2015.
“Misty’s work first surfaced for me on Ron Shelton’s High Art Fridays. I immediately responded first to the innocence of her paintings and collages. They were vulnerable. She has a cathartic voice that is true grit. They are determined honest works.” Liz Maugans, curator, Yards Project
Reverend Albert Wagner was born in 1924 in Bassett, Arkansas. Albert Wagner went to work in the cotton fields as a water carrier for the pickers when he was ten years old. In 1941 at the age of 17, he moved with his family to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked as a dishwasher before starting his furniture moving company. Years later, while cleaning his basement in preparation for his fiftieth birthday celebration, he noticed some paint spatters on a piece of wood and was suddenly overwhelmed with memories of his childhood and with inspiration for works of art. In the years that followed he made hundreds of paintings and sculptures to “get the Word out.” Albert worked in his home studio creating over 3,000 paintings and sculptures for 32 years, until his death on September 1, 2006, at age 82.
Gadi Zamir was born and raised in Jerusalem, Zamir grew up making art. Along with working hard on his artwork, in 2012, Zamir founded Negative Space Gallery and Studio. Negative Space Gallery is a meeting ground for creative people who want to make a difference in the world by enacting their dreams with art. Negative Space provides emerging visual and performing artists resources to experiment, stretch, fail and transform. “The gallery is a platform for all kinds of genres – music, film, etc.,” says Zamir. The gallery also provides a space for Zamir to create and showcase his work.
Martha Cliffel is a self-taught artist living and working in Lakewood, Ohio. She is the mother of 7 children and a recovering Catholic. She worked as a school teacher and has always been interested in the work of “play”. Her work is an amalgamation of domestic and religious influences. She collects objects from flea-markets, thrift stores, and front yard trash piles and gleans the value from each special object as she gives new life to them in the form of an art object. Her process becomes a metaphor for the journey that each of us takes in this wide world.
Liz Maugans, USA contributing writer
featured image by Misty Lindsey: “eric van vuren quote” mixed media 24 x 24in
