On
display at the Sidney Public Library and the Cheyenne County Community Center until
Aug 10th are paintings by Ron Nordyke of Chappell. Some of the paintings at the Center are from
a series of “hand, quilt and sky” pieces called the Time-Life Quilt
series. Each painting expresses a time
of day which coincides with a time of life.
For example a 6:00 a.m. sky and the hand of a newborn on a baby blanket
quilt. A 9:00 p.m. sunset with the hand
of a his 84 year old Mother-in-law on a “States Quilt” with her hand across the
Nebraska block, a state where she was born and raised. Her hand showing the signs of a life of
endless working, cooking, loving, writing, washing, serving, dancing and somewhat
reshaped by the presence of arthritis.
This series of paintings appear to be landscapes.
 |
| "Life's Little Ups and Downs" |
Recognized regionally for his “Landscape
Quilt” paintings Ron Nordyke is continually using the juxtaposition of
objects
and ideas to create visual metaphors in his works. Whether he’s
working with his art students
on a community project, on a commission, or his own work, he’s
searching for “meaning”. A love of art has kept him searching and
creating with his hands since he was a small child. His works don’t
actually fit into any
category. He enjoys the awesome beauty of a sky, a landscape, a face, or
just
something old, weathered, and worn. In
some ways they are a lot like the quilts he paints; a little piece of
this and
a scrap of that. Just as quilts are laid
out in patterns of simple repeating shapes, his art has some of these
themes
that reoccur regularly,… and life is a lot like that. Looking for ways
to visually express the
overlapping of the “natural” God-created world and the “man-made world”
fuels
his artistic fire.
