The beauty of animals runs wild

‘ ‘ ‘ Zoo animals, mythological symbols, comic books, medieval manuscripts and poems all serve… ‘ ‘ ‘ Zoo animals, mythological symbols, comic books, medieval manuscripts and poems all serve as inspiration for the works of artist and Carnegie Mellon professor Patricia Bellan-Gillen in her new show ‘ZOO.Logic+’ at Pittsburgh Center for the Arts. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Bellan-Gillen uses this wide variety of inspirational sources to ensure she achieves a balance between comedy and pathos in the serious topics her works approach, including separation of church and state, power and the Cold War.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Daring viewers to look deeper, Bellan-Gillen relies upon the complication of specific symbols’ meanings and that no one knows exactly what an image definitively represents. Often, the symbols she uses rely on the human inclination to search for and identify with human characteristics in all objects and beings. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ The artist’s older works in the show are composed of the series ‘Beautiful Stories,’ which she began about six years ago, and use animals as their focal points. ‘Beautiful Stories’ was inspired by a paleontologist who said that creation stories about this search for the human image should be taught as beautiful stories, not as science or history. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ In a work in the series, ‘Ouroborous/Red Sky in the Morning,’ a lion consumes his own tail, which Bellan-Gillen explains can represent the idea of power as a self-sustaining hunger for more. Red beads hang from the painting as signs of warning that could represent red rain, drops of blood or the beads used as monetary symbols in African trade. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Although the works often seem to point to a specific issue, Bellan-Gillen is careful to leave the interpretation of her work’s focus open to each viewer. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘I really have this fear of the pieces being one-liners,’ said Bellan-Gillen. ‘I like to set them up so that there’s some mystique, some intrigue and so that different people bring their own ideas. Sometimes if something seems like it’s too specific of a story, I’ll try to upend it. Or if I’m taking myself too seriously.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Bellan-Gillen explained that she likes to work on a large scale because of the way relating to something close to its actual size creates a more interesting relationship. Although some of the works are smaller, many of the pieces in the show are around 7 feet by 10 feet and seem to swallow the viewer into the narrative of the canvas.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Bellan-Gillen prefers to keep her symbols simple so that they remain open and anyone can identify with them. The snowman is a symbol found throughout her work because of its simple form and therefore its ability for universal identification. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ She said, ‘The snowmen are this need to create something in our own image, whether that’s spiritual or not, but the snowman is sort of the most simple, primal representation of a figure or fairly close to it, and that’s the first thing that a child starts to make. It’s also, for me, the search for something bigger or something spiritual.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Bellan-Gillen’s most recent works in the show, which she began work on this summer, represent a shift to human figures as the symbolic focal points, instead of animals. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Her painting ‘War by Proxy/Spy vs. Spy’ focuses on two spies searching for each other through telescopes from opposite sides of the work. They are separated by a cloud of smoke and an evil being in the center of the work. Inspired by the comic strip ‘Spy vs. Spy’ that Bellan-Gillen used to read in MAD Magazine, the work refers to the Cold War. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Because Bellan-Gillen keeps the spy figures simple, rendering them as white cutouts of the human form, and because they are inspired by a comic strip, they balance an element of comedy with the serious nature of the Cold War issue. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ These new works are rendered mostly in black-and-white, with small splotches of colors, to place the emphasis on the return to drawing that these works also represent for Bellan-Gillen. For her, black-and-white places an emphasis on every line the hand has drawn, as well as the contrast between something finely drawn and something spontaneously rendered. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ With ‘ZOO.Logic+,’ Bellan-Gillen returns to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts for her second exhibition, after her 1995 exhibition when she was named ‘Pittsburgh Artist of the Year.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Something that overrides all of my work, but especially my newer work, which is more drawing than painting, is a mixture of delicate rendering with very broad rendering, a little bit of humor mixed in with pathos, trying to combine different styles and bring them together,’ said Bellan-Gillen.