Capital Times, April 5,1991
Artist depicts solitude in paintings
Cecelia Fox
Special to the Capital Times
Joanna Klain's show of intaglio
prints in the Gallery Lounge is about
loneliness, a loneliness so cutting that
even groups of people are
alone...together.
The lover of traditionally acceptable
art will find much to admire here.
Objects are realistically depicted and
conventional systems of perspective
prevail. Yet the dream like poses and
subjects of these prints create a sense of
unreality and leap into more intuitive
realms.
Klain sees her prints as "more
emotional expression than
representational art." She finds it easier
to describe what her work is not, rather
than what it is.
Although the viewer perceives a
frozen moment, figures poised between
one breath and the next, Klain insists
that her work is not narrative per se.
Half the fascination is trying to discover
what these people are doing, but the
prints are not illustrations from life.
"The Enormous Room” is a
metaphor that looks like a story at first
Survey shows tax attitudes differ in state
Victoria Phillips
Capital Times Staff
With the April 15 deadline looming
on the horizon, taxes are on the minds of
many people. But who thought about
taxes in October and November? The
Pennsylvania State Data Center at Penn
State Harrisburg did, when they
conducted 880 telephone surveys about
Pennsylvanian attitudes toward taxes.
PSH NEWS
glance. A woman trailing a scarf dances
in a circus ring, her eyes focused on a
spot in the shadows that surround her. A
young girl peeks around a tenet flap,
waiting to enter.
Both intently watch something
invisible to the viewer. The ringmaster?
Another performer? Separated by a huge
six-pointed star that crouches on the
floor like a malformed spider, they do
not relate or interact.
The figures are drawn as if
spotlighted and shadows dominate the
rest of the work. A weary sadness wraps
the scene.
Texture is an illusion of line, light
and dark. The highly-patterned walls and
clothing in some of the prints result
from using lace to imprint the soft waxy
ground that covers most of a plate being
etched. The lace's elaborate design gives
a furry texture to the backgrounds.
Natural forms, such as the sky and
grass, have an organic curve bringing to
mind feathers and smoke that balances
the geometric patterns of the lace
templates.
At least one woman inhabits each
work. According to Klain, only
"Summer Evening" is a self-portrait
(she's the one facing the porch). Cats and
"What we were really interested in
was seeing how people perceive taxes on
a fairness scale," said Berwood Yost,
Survey Research Coordinator at Penn
State Harrisburg. He said the survey
shows that "people prioritize taxes
differently."
By a margin of 2 to 1, people rated
cigarette and alcohol taxes as more fair
than unfair. People said gasoline and
local property taxes were the most
lions recur as subjects and symbols. Klain this represents the solitude
The main theme of this exhibit is essential to her working routines. For
aloneness. None of the figures in the the viewer, all lines in this artistic
exhibit face each other. People even look universe are spiritually parallel, even if
away from mirrored reflections. For they appear to intersect.
unfair. The state sales tax and income
tax were rated the most fair. Nearly two
thirds of those surveyed believed taxes in
general are too high.
The survey showed that race and
region produce different perceptions of
taxes. Southeastern Pennsylvanians
consistently said that taxes are less fair
than did residents in other parts of the
state. About 1 in 10 whites said the
sales tax is unfair, while 2 in 10 blacks
Bronner from page 1
called Bionner a "multi-talented guitarist,
folklorist, and basketballist." But
Barton said there is a dark side to
Bionner that few know about.
"Simon's virtues are so blatant that
we tend to overlook his dark side. His
shirttail is often out, he takes to junk
food like a sourbug, and his apartment is
condemnable," Barton said.
"Brenner's new car is a mess, and
Nixon doesn't shave as much (as
Bronner)," Barton said. "However,
Simon laughs at any jokes and appears
to be politically incorrect, but you have
to say the guy’s a pro, really."
Bronner, who spent the first six
years of his life in Israel, said he never
planned to teach folklore at the college
level. "Actually," he said, "I kind of
liked politics, but I'm an immigrant, and
I came from old folklore roots."
Bronner received his doctorate in
Folklore and American Studies from
Indiana University in 1981, the same
year he arrived at Penn State Harrisburg.
said it is unfair.
"People rate taxes on being fair
according to how taxes affect them,"
Yost said. He pointed out that people
with the most money and education
tended to rate taxes as being fair more
often than lower income people.
Yost said the survey report was sent
to all the legislators in the state, and that
budget planners have called and requested
copies.
THE BOOKS OF SIMON BRONNER
* Piled Higher and Deeper: The
Folklore of Campus Life. Little Rock; August
House Publishers, 1990.
* Consuming Visions; Accumulation
and Display of Goods In America, 1880*1920
(ed.). New Yoik: W.W. Norton, 1989
American Children's Folklore. Little
Rock: August House, 1988.
* Old Time Music Makers of New York
State. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press,
1987.
* Folklife Studies From the Gilded Age
(ed.). Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1987.
* American Folklore Studies: An
International History. (Lawrence: University
Press of Kansas). 1986.
* Grasping Things: Folk Material
Culture and Mass Society In America.
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky,
1986.
* Folk Art and Art Worlds (ed.). Ann
Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1986.
* American Material Culture and
Folklife .(ed.). Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press,
1985.
* Chain Carvers: Old Men Crafting
Meaning. Lexington: Univer-sity Press of
Kentucky, 1985.
* American Folk Art: A Guide To
Sources, (ed.) . New York: Garland Publishing,
1984.