Adele Wayman

Greensboro

After seeing images of striking new outdoor work created as a wedding present, Curator Edie Carpenter invited Adele Wayman to create similar objects for WINTER SHOW. The 36-inch diameter circular paintings entitled Night and Day are vibrant examples of the artist’s work and are conceived to be outdoor installations. Described by Wayman as “a cross between Pennsylvania Dutch barn art and Tibetan Buddhist mandalas,” the paintings may easily be installed on a barn or garden shed.

Wayman has long been interested in the circular tondo or mandala format in her exploration of different cultural and religious traditions through art. In 2018, she painted a series of watercolor mandalas.  She describes the origin of Sparks here:

“My middle brother is Bob Freedman, a Rabbi and Cantor. In a study session he told me about the creation story in the Kabbalah (a famous mystical Jewish text). It is said that at first the world emanated as light from the Source, but there was a cosmic accident and the vessel holding the light of God was shattered and scattered into an infinite number of holy sparks. Life’s purpose is to uncover these sparks and restore the world to its wholeness through compassion.” (adelewayman.com)

Other watercolors were inspired by barn stars and hex signs displayed on the sides of Pennsylvania Dutch barns:

Using the watercolor as a starting point, Wayman enriched an earlier design to create the large painting entitled Day on view in WINTER SHOW. She notes that to “intensify the sense of movement," she employed gradations of colorful painted dots. Concentric circles in blue, green and gold contain eight points that appear to rotate around the axis of a central bright, quilted star. 

Night, also on view at GreenHill, at first appears to be an elaborate version of the traditional “compass rose” motif with each petal of the flower aligned with a compass point. Wayman notes that the painting was “inspired by a 12-foot moonflower vine” blooming in her garden. Shifts of color and brushwork depict the nocturnal bloom of the flower. As opposed to the depiction of sunlit energy in Day, the symmetry of Night is meditative. It evokes the origins of the term ‘Mandala’ which is Sanskrit for 'circle' or 'completion'. The act of creating a mandala is thought to be a window for exploring one's inner self, and the circular design is thought to reflect the wholeness of the person creating it. The iconic designs of these two works reflect the artist’s deep connection to the observation and representation of nature.