The first thing that captures the viewer’s attention upon entering the second floor of the Niagara Falls Public Library is the color.
Dozens of paintings in all mediums line the main corridor, most of which use an amalgamation of colors that dwarf the offerings in a jumbo box of crayons.
The viewer can’t help but crack a smile upon this hailstorm of hue — which is Don King’s precise point.
The well-known Niagara Falls resident, who serves on the Niagara Falls School Board and the board of Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center, put about 60 creations made by his late mother on display through April 30. The wide variety of works, including landscapes, portraits and watercolors, is meant to offer a temporary reprieve from what have been hard times in the region of late.
“Nobody’s enjoying what they’re doing anymore. Nobody’s talking good about anything,” he said. “Our community is not only depressed financially and economically, but also culturally.”
To that end, Don King hopes to introduce as many people as possible to his mother’s work. A prolific painter who put brush to canvas — or pen to paper, or whatever utensil to whatever medium she could find — Polly King painted for eight decades before passing away in 1993.
Clearly proud of his mom’s legacy, a beaming Don King spent a good part of a recent morning expounding upon the various creations he put on display, including a painting of a Miami beach made during King’s college days in Florida in the 1950s and three contrasting paintings of a Spanish landscape as seen from the patio of the apartment Polly King once occupied.
“It is a priority for me to enjoy her art,” said King, who boasted about her mother’s work with the noted painter Charles Burchfield and her studies in Europe and New York City.
On display at Memorial, the Weinberg Campus and many other public places, Polly King’s work is also represented in several private collections, including that of Betty Babanoury, the library’s director.
“I look at this as an ensemble of her work,” she said of the exhibit. “Some of her work is very powerful.”
The exhibit opened Wednesday with an open house and features several notable local pieces, including several paintings of the cataract and an original Artpark program from its debut season over which Polly King sketched that night’s performers. The exhibit as a whole, according to her son, should benefit anyone who views it.
“If you surround yourself with happy things, you can’t help but feel better about yourself,” Don King said. “This is a wonderful therapeutic thing for me — better than aspirin.”
Art
March 6, 2009
ART: The late Polly King honored with exhibit
- Art
-
-
LIFESTYLE: Make art part of Syracuse trip
I am not an art critic. I can’t pick out a Renoir from a Michelangelo to save my life, nor can I even define what the Impressionist period is.
But I know what I like. And I like the Everson Museum of Art. -
ART: The NACC presents Holiday Extravaganza, "Artists and Friends"
Rachel Schiff was hanging her jewel-toned paintings in the Garden Gallery, admiring the soft light coming in from the giant windows and the beautiful marble floors.
-
MUSIC: The songs (and paintings) of Ron Hawkins
A lot of things have changed since Ron Hawkins was on the stage at Gateway Harbor in North Tonawanda in 2006.
-
ART: Buffalo Society of Artists show hits Kenan Center
The Buffalo Society of Artists is reaching out.
-
ART: Warhol photo collection comes to Castellani
"In the future, everyone will be world famous for 15 minutes.”
-
ART: The Lewiston Art Festival
In nearly every way, the Lewiston Art Festival is growing.
-
LIFESTYLE: 'Body Worlds' challenges the mind, heart
The “Body Worlds” exhibit was created as a vehicle for science, but it has stirred up emotions of a far different sort in pretty much every city that it’s visited.
-
ART: NACC goes "Beyond the Barrel"
The Niagara Arts and Cultural Center typically opens its “Beyond the Barrel” art exhibition at the end of June, but this year presented an opportunity that NACC staff couldn’t pass up.
-
ART: 100 American Craftsmen descend on Lockport
There will be art you can wear, art you can clean with and art you can drink from.
-
ART: Jed Jackson returns for exhibit
Thus, while the campus rocks this weekend, the Castellani will present the opening of “JED: 30 Years of Painting by Jed Jackson.”
- More Art Headlines
-
Franciscan Files Tell Stories of Priest Abuse
Wildfire Destroys 2 Homes
Flight Diverted After Suspicious Note
Panel Recommends Against Routine Prostate Test
Remains of Veterans Found in Basement Are Buried
Fired Lingerie Employee Claims Discrimination
Joplin Remembers Deadly Tornado, 1 Year Later
Serial Stabbings Suspect Guilty of Murder
Facebook Shares Continue Negative Slide
8 Hurt in Oklahoma Shooting After NBA Playoff
US Airways: Diverted Flight Has 'Landed Safely'
A Few Odd Business Sparks but Europe Gloomy
Revived Focus on Regulation After JPMorgan Loss
Gerard Butler: the Good, the Bad and the Cannes
At Least 25 Dead in India Train Collision
Raw Video: Private Rocket Blasts Off
Boy to Rescuers: 'Do You Have a Plan?'
Doctors and Devotees Debate Barefoot Running
Blacks Seek to Find Their Own Missing
Houston Museum Unveils $85 Million Dinosaur Hall
