Salonick pieces take 1st place, ‘Best in Show’ at Wyoming Valley Art League

If you were to visit the Wyoming Valley Art League’s Circle Centre for the Arts and walk through the first-floor gallery, you’d see an exhibit of Curtis Salonick’s photographic art. Titled “Confluence of Metaphors,” it showcases birds and full moons, hints at crucifixion scenes and offers a Victorian-style structure you might easily imagine is haunted.

Then if you walked upstairs to the second-floor gallery, you’d find the Wyoming Valley Art League’s Spring Juried Exhibit, with close to 70 pieces created by several artists. And here, two additional Salonick pieces respectively won “Best in Show” and first place in the photography category.

“It’s an honor,” Salonick said during the recent opening reception for the Juried Exhibit as guests milled about and agreed that the faces in his award-winning works looked like death masks.

One of his subjects is a face surrounded by images of golden flowers, the other by a weathered tangle of driftwood. The material for that second photo, which captured Best in Show, came to Salonick not from an ocean but courtesy of the banks of the Lehigh River, near the Francis E. Walter Dam.

“Oh, he’s a genius,” art fan Nancy Turner of Kingston said as she admired artwork with her granddaughter, Hokulani Clemens.

The decision-making process about awards for the juried show is secret, but Art League president Margie Bryant said her best guess as to what had impressed the judge about Salonick’s Best of Show piece would be “the complexity of it, and the starkness.”

The show also included many other pieces to admire and other artists were on hand at the opening reception to discuss their work.

Stephanie Garrahan of Dallas, for example, had been driving through West Virginia when she spotted not only a garden hose and two porch chairs but — surprise — a claw-foot bathtub outside a little house. The sight inspired her to pull over and shoot a photo.

“I didn’t expect to win anything,” she said. But “Home in the Holler” took third place in the photography category.

Times Leader history and genealogy columnist Tom Mooney attended the reception and found his eye caught by three paintings by artist Piera Marotto. Titled “Time For Justice,” “Time for A Cat Nap” and “Once Upon A Time,” the focal point for an animal lover was cat sleeping on a book shelf in the center painting.

“The one I liked best had a cat enjoying a nap while draped over a bookshelf containing what seemed to be lots of classic learning,” Mooney said via email after the show. “What I got out of it was the idea that sometimes we should just relax and chill out as we make our way through our very serious lives. The homage to Salvador Dali via the melting watch added to the humor of juxtaposing western culture with ‘getouttahereimsleeping’.”

Winners in various categories, whom Art League president Bryant describes with approval as “a really diverse group of artists,” include:

Photography: Curtis Salonick, “Flowers,” first place; Allison Maslow, “Dusk,” second place; Stephanie Garrahan, “Home in the Holler,” third place; Sharon Rolland, “If Wishes Were Horses Beggars Would Be Rich,” honorable mention.

Mixed Media: Robert Broghamer, “Baptism of an Unknown species, first place; John Clark, “Vincent,” second place; J. Clark, “Dragonfly Pot,” third place; Patricia McMahon Lacy, “Positively 4th and 293 Streets,” honorable mention.

Sculpture: Frank Mariano, “Old School,” first place.

Drawing: John Lund, “My Weekend at Graceland,” first place; Shirley Trievel, “Nya,” second place; Doris Cresko, “Serenity in Blue,” third place; Judith Olaviany, “Deacon,” honorable mention.

Painting: Leandra Hetero, “Black Betty,” first place; Michelle Thomas, “Early Fall,” second place; Danielle Bellumori, “October,” third place; Janet Carey, “Red,” honorable mention.

The Circle Centre for the Arts, rear 130 South Franklin St., Wilkes-Barre is open noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, or by appointment.