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Arts & Entertainment

Integrating the Dark and the Light

Shrub Oak Custom Framing is honored to announce “Integrating the Dark and the Light”… an exhibition of original artwork by John Bartolotta and Bruce Wichtendahl in the DeWindt Gallery at Shrub Oak Custom Framing October 23, 2011 through November 27, 2011

with a Veterans Weekend Meet the Artist Reception on Sunday November 13, 2011 between 1pm and 5pm.

 

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John and Bruce are Vietnam War Veterans who served our country honorably and with distinction. John served as a U.S. Marine and Bruce as a Sergeant in the U.S. Army 1st Calvary Division.

Words are inherently limited, although the following may express the integration of experience in the lives of John and Bruce subsequent to Vietnam: 

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“Society teaches us that suffering is an enemy.  We are constantly encouraged to reject what is unpleasant, disappointing or difficult.  “What’s all this suffering?  Let’s be happy!  Have fun!”  But our suffering is not our enemy.  It is only through a relationship with our pain, our sadness, that we reach the other side, that we truly can know and touch the opposite, which is our pleasure, our joy and our happiness.

“I often relate to my emotional suffering as though it were a physical pain.  When I feel physical pain, society pushes me… to relieve it, not to touch it, not to explore it or seek to understand it.  I am conditioned to make every effort to avoid discomfort.  I went through a long period of my life living from this conditioning…  I couldn’t feel my physical pain or my emotional or spiritual pain - at the same time, it was also impossible for me to touch genuine joy, or healing, or anything at all.  It was just impossible.

“My body is covered with scars from my wars.  Every time I look at my body, touch one of these scars, I touch against the reality of war, and when I touch the reality of war, I touch all the suffering that is intrinsic to war.  In the past, when I felt pain from a scar, I tried to repress it, to hide it from myself.  But the physical wounds are not the most significant wounds of war.  The wounds of the soul, the spiritual wounds, the emotional wounds – they are far deeper, though less obvious.  And they are much more unpleasant to look at.

“Can I imagine a time in the future when these scars and these experiences will dissolve, drop away, so that I will finally be free? 

This is not actually a condition of freedom.  I’m free right now.  Because I can acknowledge that the scars are there… I no longer wish for them to be any different from what they are.  Don’t get me wrong.  I spent a long time wishing that the scars of my life would just go away.  But the more I wished for this, the crazier I felt.  Because the reality is that my scars are part of me, like my own hand.  I needed to learn to acknowledge them and to live with them in peace and harmony.”       At Hell’s Gate: A Soldier’s Journey from War to Peace, by Claude Anshin Thomas.

 

Bruce and John are involved in the Veterans Administration Montrose New York Art Program and they gratefully acknowledge the exceptional guidance of Art Therapist Rosemarie Rogers.  “She encourages us to continue our artistic endeavors by inspirational and enthusiastic example. We grow in appreciation… the joy of art, the joy of life.”

                                                                                             Artist Statements 

“My paintings reflect feelings about life and the endless search for inner peace. The artwork series “Chasing the Sunset” is action to escape hidden demons so that I may live a life of love and happiness with my family.”    

John Bartolotta

 

“My artwork in various mediums including pen and ink, acrylic, and graphite is intrinsically surrealistic with a touch of whimsy and playful cynicism.”   

Bruce Wichtendahl

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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