A closer look: 'Urnes Cicada' by Patrick Willett
Artist: Patrick Willett // Title: "Urnes Cicada" // "Currents: Recent Watercolors by Patrick Willett" // Through March 31 in Studio Hart
The cicada is a creature imbued with all manner of ancient meanings, an insect that becomes a periodic fascination when it emerges toward the end of its lifespan for a few weeks every 13 or 17 years. It also fascinates the painter Patrick Willett, who produced a series of watercolors of cicadas in the midst of a recent illness. (Three of them are now on view: One in Studio Hart, one in Buffalo Arts Studio and one in the Benjaman Gallery.) He painted the piece while listening to the distinctive chirp of a cicada in his yard, and it seems the act of painting it served to distract and comfort him in a time of personal distress.
During his recent opening in Studio Hart, Willett said that the cicada simply seemed like an ancient creature to him -- something that spoke to old traditions and cultures mostly unknown to us today. If you peer closely at his cicada's anatomically accurate wings, you'll see strange swirls and filigrees. They are embelleshments in the "urnes" style, a kind of Viking art that also bears a resemblance to Celtic decorative patterns. The wings of Willett's ancient cicada are filled with ancient references, a fact that imbues this painting with a kind of comforting heft. It's at once classically beautiful and freighted with ancient meaning -- just like a the cicada itself.
Here's an even closer look at the wings:
--Colin Dabkowski
