Review

Bulletin Board Drawings and Paintings (Detail).

Tommy Creach

6-10 p.m.
(Opening Reception)

OneVillage a Community Church
5700 Nall
Roeland Park, KS
913.400.2060

Hours after Final Friday: By appointment.
Runs through: Feb. 19.

Gallery site: http://www.onevillagekc.com

The more people you know, the more you find out that life has a way of punching holes right through stereotypes.

Conventional thinking makes vitality the exclusive province of the young, with insight and wisdom belonging solely to those who've lived a few (dozen) more years.

That might be true in large part. Otherwise, it wouldn't be conventional thinking. But the more involved in the arts someone is, the more likely he or she is to bust those assumptions.

Tommy Creach is a junior at Shawnee Mission North High School, making him one of the youngest artists ever featured here. But Creach, whose show of paintings and drawings opens tonight at OneVillage a Community Church in Roeland Park, has already figured out that art doesn't have to be self-referential to be deeply personal.

Until recently, I only drew what was pleasing to my eyes, interesting to draw, and connected with me in some way (pictures of cities I was passionate about, people I knew, etc.), Creach writes.  But I've always thought about drawing pictures as making music. If you can't hear the music, the picture is just a bunch of shapes and lines that pleases everyone's eyes but yours.

Truth is, the music is still there; the songs are just different. Life changes. Now what I make is meant to relate to how I'm feeling in the moment, at the moment. And when you're drawing or painting unscripted, the possible outcomes are endless. I enjoy the chaos of those moments. And that's what I shoot for.

Creach's creative chaos has spawned more than the raw, almost aggressive paintings which comprise most of his part of the latest OneVillage show. Creach, who shares the space with photographer Steve Larson, also affords viewers a look into how his works take shape.

One of the most eye-catching elements of Creach's show is a bulletin board, covered with drawings and paintings in various media and varying stages of completion. (A section of the board is pictured above.) Above the board, three tiny canvases — also incomplete — serve to show how Creach translates his inspiration from one medium to another.

It's a gutsy move, letting strangers see the creative process in progress. And whether that move is another result of beyond-his-years maturity or the outgrowth of youthful trust and optimism, it's a step as bold as Creach's heartfelt art itself.

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