Review

"Spruce" (Detail), Photo Frieze.

mariaurora
(Maria Creyts)
Open studio

1-6 p.m.

Livestock Exchange Building
1600 Genessee, Stes. 516 and 518
Kansas City, MO

Today only.

Artist's site: http://www.mariaurora.net

One of the main purposes of this column is to get people to disengage themselves from the computer and go see art in person.

That's what you should do today, if you can. But if you can't make Maria Creyts' open studio this afternoon in the West Bottoms -- because you're stuck at work or not in Kansas City -- she's also offering a virtual tour through her Web site.

It really would take an in-person visit to Creyts' new studio, though, to appreciate the sheer scope of her digital photo friezes and to see the original still life arrangements of fabric and lace.

The image above is only an excerpt of Spruce, which is 13 inches high but has its width listed as "variable". Translation: It's long. And if Creyts wants to, she can make it realllly long. (The longest of her works in a recent show in Spokane, Washington, logged in at 16 feet.)

That said, she can also go compact with the photo pieces without losing any visual impact, as her one-foot-square contribution to the current Small Works show at Pi Gallery proves.

The photo friezes grew out of Creyts' fabric-inspired painting work. The artist, who signs her work mariaurora, arranges varied sorts of cloth in layers (usually behind an unusually-shaped cutout) and then paints what she sees.

The effect is striking either way. Painting flattens the arrangement and brings pattern and color to the forefront. Those elements also play major roles in the photo friezes, but the true stars there are texture and shadow.

Looking at Spruce, for example, it's possible to see every subtle shading in the plaid area and each individual strand of fringe. Creyts describes the effect as "sumptuous", and she's right. Thanks to the use of a special high-definition lens, a viewer could put out a hand to touch the frieze and almost expect to feel something soft.

That's not to suggest that you actually touch the works -- but seeing them today, preferably in person? Yeah ... that's a suggestion.

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