JOHN HERTZLER     wood     stone     resume

JOHN HERTZLER
heart knowledge

ARTIST’S JAZZ RECEPTION
Friday, June 20, 5:00-8:00
Featuring the Reese Project
Exhibition continues thru Labor Day

ANNOUNCING
A NEW LYNDEN GALLERY PUBLICATION
SCULPTURE

Heart Knowledge, sculpture in wood

LYNDEN GALLERY presents an exhibition of new work by John Hertzler. An Artist’s Jazz Reception will be held on Friday, June 20 from 5:00 to 8:00 pm, featuring THE REESE PROJECT, and on Saturday, June 21 from 9:00 till noon. A new Lynden Gallery publication, SCULPTURE, featuring John and five other gallery sculptors will be introduced. Front wall feature will be award-winning graduating Elizabethtown Area High School Senior, Drew Winey. The exhibition will continue thru Labor Day.

JOHN HERTZLER’s sculpture is created in life-sized proportion, five to eight feet high of found wood. Working with a dynamic he calls, “near to”, or “face to face”, he is constantly sizing them up. Are they comfortably on the floor? Where is the head and what does it look like? Where is the emotional center and how is it radiating? Does the piece have “presence”? This new body of work speaks to the heart – the reality of pain, and the growth that radiates from it – like a tree that has been pruned in turn providing health and well-being for new shoots.

HERTZLER’S PROCESS as he walks among the sculpture, turning to face, or reach out and touch, allows exploration of the dynamics of three-dimensional expression. There is a background noise while I am working” he says, “of a love for this world. It infuses the care taken in finishing a piece. A willingness to follow an inspiration trail where it leads, a sense of health and wholeness in the expression.” The process brings a feeling of beauty and joy, without intentionally focusing on the outcome. “The basic substance of the wood and the trees from which it comes is basic to the work – branching, aspiring, reaching – universally perceived as a friend.”

A NATIVE OF ELIZABETHTOWN and a 1964 graduate of Elizabethtown College, John received a Bachelor of Science degree in English. After a tour of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Army as a Platoon Leader, John returned to the states and settled in New York City, New York. While there, he received a Master of Theology degree at Union Seminary and drove taxi. It was in New York City that he began sculpting, finding the process engaging and immediately gratifying - wood and stone became his medium for expression beyond words. In 1977 he returned to the family farm, setting sculpting aside until the 2000 when he began again in earnest above the heifer pen.

FEATURED IN ART OF THE STATE, at the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, John’s work has been shown in numerous museum and gallery venues throughout the Mid-Atlantic, including: The Doshi Gallery for Contemporary Art, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Hagerstown Art Museum, Hagerstown, Maryland, and several gallery venues in the 1970’s. More recently, his work has been shown at the Lancaster Arts Hotel Gallery and the Lyet Gallery, Leffler Chapel and Performance Center, at Elizabethtown College.

LYNDEN GALLERY RELEASES SCULPTURE, a new publication featuring five of the area’s best sculptors, James Bright, Milt Friedly, Milton Good, John Hertzler and David Zimmerman. Becky Ault, owner of ART Research Enterprises, Inc. states in the forward, “they share a familial voice thru nature and form, with a compulsion and respect for materials in a contemporary theme. Underlying a continual struggle with scale, movement and truth in expression, is a deep-seated desire to communicate their intentions.”

ART RESEARCH ENTERPRISES in Lancaster, Pennsylvania has been the foundry of choice for some of the world’s most prestigious sculptors. It was gallery owner Lisa Clemens’ visit to the foundry two years ago at the urging of her sculptors that fed her desire to write SCULPTURE. In her eight years of owning a gallery she grew increasingly interested in the fine art of sculpting, it’s many mediums and techniques, and educating her collectorship and the public. SCULPTURE is the culmination of two years of researching process, interviews with the artists to better understand the nature of its creation, and the tedious art of photographing such work.

TOBY RICHARD’S PHOTOGRAPHY worked with the gallery in cataloguing the works of these artists, as well as the late Clifton Sheely to whom the catalogue is dedicated. “It was a learning experience for all of us – only a beginning. I have an enormous respect for those who photograph sculpture – it’s extremely difficult and time consuming,” says Lisa. Toby photographed work not only in the gallery, but also in barns and abandoned warehouses, capturing the essence of the artist in his surroundings.

LYNDEN GALLERY AWARDED graduating High School Senior, Drew Winey a portfolio exhibition of his work. The work will be on display during John Hertzler’s exhibition as the Front Wall Feature. Patricia Ricci, the head of Elizabethtown College’s Fine Art Department, selected Drew’s work for the award. “I’m impressed with the level of work Elizabethtown High School art students exhibit,” she told department head, Kevin Goss. An accomplished draughtsman and musician, Drew plans to continue his studies in Fine Art at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida.

THE REESE PROJECT, featuring Tom Reese, Laurie Haines Reese and Aaron Walker, will perform jazz for the Opening Reception on Friday night. The Reese Project plays lively jazz, blues, funk and classical with a unique combination of flute, cello, guitar and drums. As quoted in Guitar World, it’s “music that rocks, pops and plays it cool.” A suggested cover charge of $5.00 is suggested in support of the band, and this ongoing, popular venue for local jazz and acoustical performers.

LYNDEN GALLERY features central Pennsylvania’s largest Fine Art Gallery, offering Custom Framing, Art and Interior Design Consultation to a discerning clientele. Located at 117 South Market Street, in Downtown Elizabethtown’s original Fire Hall, the gallery is open Tuesday thru Saturday 9:00 to 5:00. Evening hours are available by appointment. Directions can be found on the gallery website, www.lyndengallery.com, or by calling 717-367-9236. The gallery is handicap accessible and offers convenient parking.

COMING UP AT LYNDEN GALLERY:

ANNIE STRICKLER and PAUL FLURY, September 2008
JANET HAMMOND, October 2008
NED WERT, November 2008
THE PAINTER’S PALLETTE, December 2008