Review

Plaster Wall Hanging by Eric Doucette.

Eric Doucette
It's a Relief!

By appointment.

{:m Momentum Gallery
2014 Main Street
Kansas City, MO
816.560.1450

Hours: First Fridays, 6-10 p.m. and by appointment
Runs through: Aug. 31.

Artist's site: http://www.ericdoucette.com
Gallery site: http://khesse.chartwellkc.net/getagent/Pages.php?Page=565593

This isn't one of those "At first glance" things.

Even upon close inspection, the art now on display at {:m Momentum Gallery in the Crossroads looks as though it were created by someone working more than a century ago — from 1837 to 1901, to be precise.

That was the span of the Victorian Era, which inspired, informs and permeates Eric Doucette's work ... and Doucette is very much alive and well.

His painted plaster wall hangings, which make up the It's a Relief show at Momentum, are moments of telescoped time. Each appears to have aged gracefully for decades, with the colors muted just so and fine networks of cracks spiderwebbing the surface.

That's all, pardon the pun, by design. This collection is an outgrowth of his faux finishing business — which, of course, is all about making spaces appear older than they are.

Integrating texture with pattern in a movable art form was the root concept, Doucette continues. Choosing from my library of historic design and ornament was fairly easy. Modifying line drawings into colorful, dimensional works of art was the challenge. Building layers of plaster and then cuttingdesigns into masking materials (a similar concept used in airbrushing), I could then build additional layers of colored plaster on top. Cutting by hand as well as the cracking effects, which is somewhat
controllable, achieves a certain rawness to each piece.  

(Note: Somewhat controllable. Part of the creative excitement for Doucette is seeing just how and where the cracks will develop.)

The result can be deceptive as to the materials used, not only as to age. The hanging above, for example, appears at first glance (ah, there's that phrase) to have been carved from wood, not executed in plaster.

What's apparent from the first look is that Doucette has an eye not only for recreating the past, but for updating the classics and making them his own.

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