Art Exhibit by John Krifka and Larry Rankin

**ARTWORK LOOKS INWARD AND OUTWARD AT GALLERY A3 ​** November’s exhibits at Gallery A3 invite viewers to explore interpretations of memories and a delight in outdoor details. In *Happenstance–here or otherwise*, John Krifka’s recent oil paintings on canvas take their form and inspiration from personal memories, both general and specific. In the color photographs of *Trailside–vision and variety,* Larry Rankin celebrates the visual fragments of nature he discovered on walks through woodlands and dunes.

**JOHN KRIFKA Happenstance–here or otherwise** Memory, according to John Krifka, does not exist in stasis. Over the years, he suggests, our sense of recall is triggered by new thoughts, imagined alternatives, and additional experiences. “Not only can a recollection change,” he says, “but snippets of a newly-changed emotional reality can cause time, place, or meaning to shift. John draws on a variety of memories in his paintings. Some reach deep into particular personal experience while others touch lightly on elusive recollections. Other times the memory makes imperfect sense, only to himself. Butterflies, for example, does not pinpoint any one significant event, but riffs off his wonder at the ever-increasing number of brightly-lit aquariums he sees in doctors’ waiting rooms. In contrast, Torn and Alone invoke universally relatable painful experiences. ​ Line, shape, color, and obscure references all twist together on the canvases. “The painting style often lends simplicity to a bright confusion,” John explains. “And the images can characterize personal memories as representing the humor and continuance of a life’s challenging and ongoing executive function.”

**LARRY RANKIN Trailside–vision and variety** Larry Rankin knows that a walk in the woods—or along the dunes—can be brisk physical exercise. But his attention to nature’s details effectively slows down any speed walk in favor of contemplative experience. “My impulse to make landscape and nature photographs inevitably compels me to observe details along the trail, often small or random accumulations on the ground, disordered at first glance but in fact comprising esthetically appealing relationships of light, color, texture, and form,” he explains.  “The experience of being where the images were made is often multisensory. I want my prints to preserve that experience of place for my own memory and hopefully evoke similar personal reflections for the viewer.” He captures images digitally and then processes them in the “digital darkroom”, a technological tweaking that Larry describes as an integral part of his creative practice. “A trailside detail gains personal identity, it comes alive, and intrinsic beauty emerges from the tangle of the forest floor or an expanse of beach sand,” he says.