Saturday, September 12 was the official opening night for the Longwood Center for Visual Arts’ (LCVA) current running exhibition, “The Quickening Image: The Wax-Resist Drawings of David Dodge Lewis and Ephraim Rubenstein /A Twenty Year Collaboration.”
Although the exhibition has been on display since June 20, the opening reception that was attended by both artists, David Dodge Lewis and Ephraim Rubenstein from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. was a time for food and drinks as well as to discuss the art displayed.
The exhibition, that according to the artists themselves, features large-scale, complexly layered, collaborative wax-resist drawings, a multi-media technique that utilizes wax as a resist for subsequent ink and charcoal washes, will run until November 22.
Lewis and Rubenstein began their collaboration after Rubenstein attended a wax-resist process workshop at the University of Richmond. From there, Lewis shared his creative wax-resist process and knowledge with Rubenstein and it soon led to years of collaboration.
Lewis said this about how he got the concept for this unique process, “In graduate school I had seen another graduate student working with wax-resist a little and she never went very far with it. I thought it was very interesting. Then I developed and starting talking about what if I put water above charcoal and it worked very well!”
According to the artists, “The Quickening Image” is not only a way for them to share their work with the Farmville and Longwood community, but it is also a way for them to share Lewis’ wax-resist process and tell the story of a cultivated friendship.
With displays on both the top and bottom levels of the LCVA, “The Quickening Image” takes over the lower-level with its black and white wax drawings and paintings. The pieces range from being historical all the way to more modern pieces that even feature Rubenstein’s own beloved dog.
There are also a lot of pieces that feature mechanical objects, flowers, statues, and cameras. Lewis said that these objects are interesting to use because they allow him to transform regular objects into something more. Lewis also says that one way he differentiates his pieces from Rubenstein’s is that his wax is more splashy, as well as more free-flowing, looking like accidents.
Lewis said, “I like to liven them and just kind of make them into an expressive object and not just a frozen object and the splashes help animate them that way.”
Lewis will be teaching a workshop similar to the one that brought him and Rubenstein together at the LCVA on Sunday, November 1 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m that is free and open to the public if registered.
