The Independent Collegian
The Student Publication of the University of Toledo
July 31, 2006
Space 237 and Art on the Mall flourish
Local artists get in touch in the Glass City

Written by Andrew Maurer
Two Toledo artists are providing some summer fun with their show at Space 237 Gallery downtown.

The Schultes and Dubreuil Show features the glass objects of Robin Schultes and the paintings and drawings of Patrick Dubreuil. Each of Dubreuil's paintings starts with a single line drawn by Schultes, Dubreuil's wife, on a small square paper. From that line, Dubreuil elaborates a cartoon-like drawing, often absurd or grotesque, and creates a short poem or phrase of explanation, like "When the witch had ceased her chant/Those who thought they could, now can't."

Though originally intended for presentation as a book, these small black-and-white drawings have been turned into large color paintings, with the drawings of the original line and the completed small-scale sketch hung next to each painting in the show.

The works succeed as a creative exercise, providing a forum for the viewer to consider the imaginative leaps by which the original drawn line led Dubreuil to a finished image.

Several of the paintings are also very funny, like "Masquerade Ball," which depicts a tardy snail wearing a horse mask, and "Bigalow ...," a painting about a sad-sack farmer stuck in the mud on his tractor.

However, though he is a superb draftsperson, Dubreuil doesn't seem completely at home with painting.
One painting that defies this trend is "Bobby Wouldn't Listen ...," in which a vaguely boy-shaped bundle of blankets is lashed to the top of a family's desert-bound station wagon.

The paintings tend toward illustration anyway, so this moralizing picture about a little boy who wouldn't be quiet and thus got relegated to the roof is especially appealing, like Edward Gorey's alphabet of bad children's fates ("A is for Amy who fell down the stairs," etc.).

Additionally, Dubreuil seems more confident with color and composition in this picture than in the others on display, its dramatic perspectiveencompassing everything from the interior of a blue station wagon to a ridge of purple mesas in the background.

The sense of humor that permeates Dubreuil's work is also present in Robin Schultes' blown and flame-worked glass sculptures. About half of her part of the show is composed of pieces which look like they came from a head shop on Mars, all big, trippy, wavy bubbles of glass and colorful baubles, several illustrating stories of invented mythical beings, like "Flora, Fauna, and the Imprisonment of Cloud Boy."

There's an interesting tension in these pieces between her use on the one hand of seemingly drug-related imagery, and on the other her technical mastery of glassworking, a very complex skill. The other half of the show is composed of glass vessels with a cityscape theme.

Especially beautiful are pieces like "Lowbrow City Blues," in which Schultes has drawn on frosted glass pieces with colored pencils, yielding interesting textures as diffused light shines through the glass and the transparent pencil marks.

This technique is also used to excellent effect in Glass City, for which Schultes enlisted Dubreuil to draw the outlines of Toledo buildings and bridges around a series of brown squares in a blown glass vase.

Critic's Conclusion: Throughout, both artists' sense of humor predominates, making the show lighthearted fun.

Intrinsic Location/Contact

Space 237, 237 N. Michigan, Toledo, OH 43604, 419-255-5117