Fascinated with faces
Before, it was Dr. Phil and Oprah. Now, it's this little football-headed toy doll. Patricia Thornton is haunted by faces - visages that, like the glass etchings she grew up creating, offer a transparent glimpse beyond, into the realm of dreams and whimsy, threat and fear. Faces become objects, which in turn signify something else altogether: maybe mirrors, maybe symbols, maybe a little of both."I'm interested in how people relate to objects, their spirituality and the environment," says Thornton. "What constitutes beauty and ugliness, how we make those decisions, why we choose the way we choose - those are things that I like to explore with my work."
For the first couple of years of this new century, Thornton's interests played out in a series of paintings of Dr. Phil and Oprah, two instantly recognizable icons who - both literally and symbolically - tell us a lot about America as a culture.
"I find that I'm most often attracted to old shriveled things," says Thornton. "I think it's fascinating when people question those values - they think it's because I hate my mother or something."
Thornton doesn't hate her mother, even though she did leave home at the age of 14 after "family life disintegrated." Thornton credits her parents, who made their living etching glassware, for teaching her a passion for art. Thornton recalls with some fondness her years growing up, touring craft festivals in a van with her parents, meeting artists whose creativity wasn't bound up in lofty academic ideas about what does - and doesn't - constitute fine art.
"I grew up around people who would go into the Pick-n-Save and buy a bunch of baskets, glue googly eyes on them, and sell them as art," says Thornton. "So I have a great appreciation for that kind of folk art. ... Picasso said, 'If you can learn to paint like a 2-year-old, you've got it right.' I try to get there in my own work."
Thornton's fascination with those old toys and with such whimsical creativity has resulted in a series of works she's dubbed "Misfits, Monsters and Pretty Things." A show of the work opens on Monday, Feb. 20, at the University Center Art Gallery, located on the UM campus. Admission is free.
Down to the final keg:
Already, the PBR Performance Series has been a brewsing battle (sorry, couldn't resist). Twelve bands have fallen in the preliminary rounds, and only six remain in contention for the right to be declared Montana PBR Band of the Year. Tonight is the final round of the monthlong competition, and the diverse slate of bands should give any fan of local music reason to cheer. The free keg of beer should please anyone else who wanders in off the street.There's space-rock courtesy of Volumen, the country twang of Shane Clouse and Stomping Ground, glam-punk from the International Playboys, the reggae vibe of Green Star, funk from Swyl and jam-rock from Miller Creek. The lineup thus promises a near complete cross-section of Missoula's bar-music scene.
Tonight's winner, decided in equal measures by fan voting and judging, will earn $1,000 cash, 1,000 full-color, glossy posters, lots of PBR schwag to pass out at future shows and the honor of being the Montana PBR Band of the Year.
It's a pretty sweet deal for them, and regardless of who wins, tonight's show should be a pretty sweet deal for the audience. Admission is $6 - and did we mention the free keg of beer starting at 8 p.m.? The whole thing goes down at the Other Side.
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