Fine Art & Jazz at Lynden Gallery
BRAD STROMAN
Opening Thursday, December 1, 5-8:00
Featuring the Otis Kitchen Trio

"Nature stretcheth out her arms to embrace Man, only let his thoughts be of equal greatness."       Ralph Waldo Emerson

Listen.   Brad Stroman has a message.   Articulated in acrylic on panel, these lifelike object studies are breathing - speaking quietly.   Listen.   An Artist Reception will be held on Thursday, December 1 from 5-8:00 at the Lynden Gallery.   Jazz will be provided by the Otis Kitchen trio and a $3.00 cover charge is appreciated, but not required, for attendance.   The exhibition continues through the holidays.  

BRAD STROMAN deliberately chooses not to paint a grandiose landscape to get his message across.   Instead he chooses the everyday, small, incidental objects we pass underfoot without notice - a leaf, stone, shell or twig.    All around us nature is struggling to survive amidst the destruction man creates.   Look - can you see it?   Cars screaming down the highway, urban sprawl wasting away our   inheritence, technology beckonning us deeper into our individual enclaves.   Take notice, he seems to say.

Brad's paintings contain an equisitely detailed rendering of a found object in nature, trapped - held down by something commonly created by man - string, barbed wire, a hook.    Brad employs his signature Zen circle with increasingly more textured and colorful backgrounds as the stage for each still life.   He says ,

"The circle in my work can be obvious by the use of color or texture (carved in) or very indiscreet but never is it unnecessary. The circle stands for unity, completeness and harmony in our world between man and nature. Most often, the circle will never be complete in my work; bits and pieces deliberately missing or worn away. Without the inclusion of the symbolic circle, my work would be just another still life study of nature."  

Incorporating the Japanese Zen Buddhist concept of Wabi-Sabi is elemental in Brad's paintings as well.   Deliberately austere in composition, the focus is on the detailed tompe o'leil renderings of simple everyday objects, placed slightly off-center.   He goes on to say,

"Wabi-sabi is the belief that all things in life are imperfect, impermanent or incomplete. Things humble and modest are therefore beautiful - the crinkled fall leaf, the tumbled creek stone, the bleached animal bone or the beach worn shell. "

In an understated, small and quiet way, these objects often exhibit the effects of aging or appear coarse or "ugly" - one natural item in its end cycle of life as we know it.   This impermanence of life is the basis for Brad's message - an awareness of the growing imperilment of our environment.

Stroman holds a BS in Art Education from Kutztown University and has pursued graduate studies through the Penn State University and Millersville University.   Recently retired, he taught Art for 34 years at Lower Dauphin High School and was revered as a teacher.   He received the esteemed Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation, Teacher as Artist Award, and taught and worked at the Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado.   Nominated by his students, he was also named to the Who's Who Among America's Teachers several times.

A Signature Member of the Colored Pencil Society of America, his work most recently was awarded the Colored Pencil Society of America, Five-Year Merit Award in Ft. Worth, Texas, and the Strathmore Paper Company Award for Excellence, Ft. Worth, Texas and the Honorable Mention in Acrylics, Hilton Head National Juried Art Exhibition, Hilton Head, South Carolina.

His work has been published in American Artist Magazine , The Coming of Age of Colored Pencil by Linda S. Price, and The Best of Colored Pencil , Volumes 2 and 5 published by Rockport Publishers, Gloucester, Massachusetts.  

Not satisfied to rest on the achievement gained through his colored pencil work and feeling limited by the medium, Brad sought a new format of expression. His desire to work larger led to   exploration of acrylic on panel as his current medium of choice.   His first complete body of work, Sticks and Stones - the Millstone Series , premiered in 2001, followed by Earth Art in 2003.   Each collection has become increasingly more textured and colorful, still all essentially maintaining the same environmental, wabi-sabi message to be still and listen.

These most recent works have been well-received and have toured to various exhibitions throughout the country including the Columbus Museum of Art, Newark, Ohio, the Art of the State Exhibition, Pennsylvania State Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Tatum Arts Center, Hood College, Frederick, Maryland, the Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA, the KD Moore Gallery, Evergreen, Colorado, the Atrium Gallery, Ft Worth, Texas, the Ellipse Art Center, Arlington, Virginia, the Washington State Convention and Trade Center, Seattle, Washington, the Vera Curnow Gallery, Rising Sun, Indiana, the Hess Gallery, Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna Art Museum, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.   Most recently, his work has been accepted for representation by galleries in Carmel, California and Manteo, North Carolina.

JAZZ for the reception, is being provided by the Otis Kitchen Trio of Elizabethtown.   Dr. Otis Kitchen is professor of music Emeritus at Elizabethtown College, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania where he taught for 31 years.   A graduate of Bridgewater College, Bridgewater, Virginia, the Navy School of Music, Northwestern University, and received an honorary Doctor of Music from the National Conservatory of Mexico.    He currently teaches as an adjunct professor at Elizabethtown College, and is active in coordinating small ensemble groups.  

Lynden Gallery hopes to tap into the jazz following in the region, ultimately bringing some bigger names to our openings each month.   By combining fine art, live jazz, wine, and hors d'oeuvres, we provide patrons with a night of entertainment and a unique cultural experience worth going out of their way for.  

Lynden Gallery is located at 117 South Market Street in Elizabethtown, in the original, refurbished Fire Hall.   The gallery is handicap accessible and offers convenient parking.   Open Tuesday through Friday 9:00 to 6:00 and Saturday 9:00 to 5:00, the gallery also offers evening hours by appointment.   For more information about Lynden Gallery or Brad Stroman, kindly call the gallery at 717.367.9236 or refer to the website at www.lyndengallery.com .