By Page H. Gifford
Correspondent
There is an ethereal feeling, a soft tranquility and a surrealism to Alyce Walcavich’s work. Her work is diverse because of the subjects she chooses, whether it be windows, trees, or draped fabric. Walcavich takes simple subjects and breathes life into them, and draws the onlooker allowing the story to unfold.
Walcavich received her BFA in fine arts (Phi Beta Kappa) and her MFA in painting and printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University. She taught in the public school system for over 40 years until retiring in 2017. She began at the junior high level, taught high school, and became the arts department chairman for the Governor’s Magnet School of the Arts in Virginia and the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Florida. During her career, she taught nearly all media and techniques in the art field.
Walcavich’s inspiration and favorite subjects come from many sources.
“In graduate school I painted in oil on large canvases, close up still life items as materials and objects, using the style of photorealism.” She said her favorite painters were Richard Estes and Janet Fish.
“In photography, I have always been attracted to the close-ups of Edward Weston and Ralph Gibson: the atmospheric landscapes of Michael Kenna, the sensuous beauty of black and white exposures of Ansel Adams, the surrealism of Maggie Taylor and Jerry Uelsmann and the double exposures and narratives of Duane Michaels,” she said. “I have also been inspired by Billy Dinh’s B exposures setting of nighttime scenes and William Eggleston pieces conveying the beauty of the mundane world that depicts the quality of lives in our everyday world similar to the Edward Hopper painting of “Nighthawks.” I have always been so in love with that painting.”
Lately, the works of Helen Sear have attracted her interest in magic realism and surrealism.
“Her overlays and rich textual surfaces convey a mystical approach to art and a magical feeling that I would like to include in my works. My work explores the natural and man-made environment focusing on the sense of touch and vision. Using digital techniques and hand coloring, I create layered effects evoking a magical realistic feel. In my present pieces, I try to include that element of surrealism where textures are overlaid on natural environments.”
She said she is trying to contrast texture and color with an underlying structural element in the composition.
“I want the viewer to explore and interpret their feelings through the work. Technically I use the process of my photographs that have been processed through Photoshop techniques, using overlays and overlapping layers,” she said. “After the piece has been printed out I continue to work on the art with colored pencils trying to coordinate the colors, shapes, textures, and composition.” What Walcavich does is fascinating and a progression of art in the new age. Mixed media and digital are becoming the norm along with traditional forms of art, allowing artists to experiment further with their ideas.
