Showing in September at The Clown September 2— 30 Opening Reception: Thursday, Sept 6, 6-8 p.m. Wine Tasting, 5-8 p.m.

The gallery at THE CLOWN welcomes artists, Lisa A. Dombek and Susan E. Bennett. Both artists find unique ways of drawing their inspiration from the landscape, though each in her own way. Dombek finds inspiration in the large and monumental while Bennett directs her attention to the flotsam at her feet. The works selected for exhibition in the gallery, represent the end product of each artist's individual investigations.

Lisa A. Dombek

"Landscapes & Archways" – Works in mixed media

Lisa A. Dombek has created an exciting body of paintings and mixed media drawings using the now destroyed million dollar bridge as her source from the landscape. Arriving at a crucial point in the bridges history, during the erection of the Casco Bay Bridge, the artist worked on scene shooting photographs and executing drawings and paintings. She remarks, "Crashing into huge piles of sand like a great elephant falling to its knees, rubble twisted into seemingly fantastic sculpture; being replaced by the cold, red steel and concrete of a future time."

This movement and scale is eerily captured in the wonderful drawings, paintings and photographs Dombek will display at the Gallery at THE CLOWN opening September 6, 6 to 8 pm.

Lisa A. Dombek, Bridge with Crane, 1998
Lisa A. Dombek, Bridge with Birds, 2000
Lisa A. Dombek, Passageway Series-Red, 2001	Lisa A. Dombek, Tides & Moons, 2001
Lisa A. Dombek, Bridge with Storm, 1998
Lisa A. Dombek, Phippsburg Scape, 2001	Lisa A. Dombek, Wings Over Water, 2001
Lisa A. Dombek, Study for Bridge with Storm Cloud, 1998

Susan E. Bennett

"Twigs & Splatter" – Recent Sculpture and Drawings

Artist Susan E. Bennett was inspired by a very different element in the landscape. It was not the grand scale of the landscape that captured her imagination, but the twigs and sticks laying on the beach of her lakeside retreat. Her process with them went as follows,

"They were sorted according to length, thickness and other distinct characteristics; then they were dyed with black ink. I let them dry splattered on large sheets of paper, thus creating a fuzzy memory of their original random habit. Once dry, they were wrapped, waxed, buried, sanded, observed, recorded and arranged in rows for display."

This then became the inspiration for her work with metal. Bennett's thorough and intense investigation of this tiny, often overlooked portion of the landscape, has yielded a body of sculpture and drawing of very high caliber.

Susan Bennett , Twig Tree, 2001 mild steel, wood, polyurethane 10" x 10" x 7" Susan Bennett , Fall, 2001 mild steel, metal, patina, shellac 16" x 11" x 11" Susan Bennett , Moon Flower, 2001 mild steel, patina, polyurethane, dye 3' x 2' x 18" Susan Bennett , Buried Twigs, 2001 wood, steel, plaster, metal coating, patina 16" x 11"