Five months into their highly successful Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition throughout the community, Public Art Bridgeville is sponsoring a second local event, the First Annual Bridgeville Library Sculpture Exhibition, at the Bill & Grace McDivitt Center for Lifelong Learning throughout the month of October, 2022. The show is the result of a partnership of the Pittsburgh Society of Sculptors, Public Art Bridgeville, and the Bridgeville Public Library.
I was fortunate to receive an invitation to the reception at the Library on Friday, October 7, officially kicking off the exhibition. It turned out to be a very well attended event, with the visitors properly impressed with the quality of the works of art and with the tasteful way they were displayed.
Sixteen of the indoor sculptures were placed on top of the transverse bookcases in the library, each accompanied by comments by the artists on their work. The first one I inspected was “The Weight of the Ocean”, by ceramicist Amy Short. It is a very appealing rendering of a winsome young boy, holding a small whale. The artist explained that it symbolized our responsibility to reduce plastic pollution in the ocean. I was not surprised to see this work had won a “Judges’ Award” in this exhibition.
The prime movers in Public Art Bridgeville are Guy and Bitsy Bellaver. They both grew up in this general area – Guy in Beadling (the Mt. Lebanon part) and Bitsy in Upper St. Clair – and have recently moved back to Bridgeville after living in St. Charles, Illinois, for many years. Guy has worked as a sculptor since 1975; Bitsy was the owner of a small business consultancy. St. Charles, located thirty-five miles west of Chicago, prides itself on being “a treasure trove of public art”, largely as a result of the efforts of the St. Charles Arts Council, an organization the Bellavers helped found in 2010.
Guy was represented by three impressive works in this exhibition. My favorite, of course, was “Citizen Soldier”, a bronze bust which is a duplicate of part of a marvelous larger-than-life size statue of a GI beneath a large flag, commissioned by the Kane County, Illinois, Veterans Memorial. It is an excellent example of an artist’s ability to portray something realistically. The other two works, “Quarks I” and “Quarks III”, are the other extreme, the artist’s ability to communicate abstract concepts effectively. Quarks are sub-atomic particles with no discernible physical appearance; these sculptures are credible representations of them.
Another favorite was Dino Delulliis’ majestic “Wire Horse”. This was a large wire-frame depiction of an equine, an imaginative skeleton without skin. I was surprised to learn from Bitsy Bellaver that the entire sculpture had been produced from one continuous aluminum wire! Apparently I wasn’t the only who liked it; she informed me someone had purchased it that evening.
Ronald Nigro describes his genre as “the assembly of materials that are out of place with each other — technology hardware salvage combined with wood, metal, and found objects”. His “Rainmaker” and “Totem” were perfect examples of a genre that does not particularly appeal to me. Nonetheless he also won a Judges Award. So much for my opinion!
We have been enjoying Dan Droz’ “Remembering Youth” as part of the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition all Summer. He also has three memorable pieces in this exhibit. Mounted directly above the fireplace (someone commented that it looked as if it belonged there) was “All Tied Up”, a colorful suggestion of a large wrapped present. On the patio outside the Library were two other impressive works, “Inside Out” and “Interior Reflections”. Droz works with two-dimensional metal sheets, incorporating “folds, reflection and artificial glows to draw attention to the limits of perception”.
I also liked the other outside sculpture, “Achromatic Modules on Polished Aluminum Platform”, by Howard Goldfarb. Does its title suggest it has no hidden meaning, and is merely a very appealing design? I am not sufficiently experienced in art appreciation to understand why certain things appeal to me – this one does. Ditto for Isaac Bower’s “Saprotroph”, an indoor exhibit. Incidentally, a saprotroph is an organism that feeds on decaying organic matter.
Every visit to the Library reminds me how fortunate Bridgeville is to have such a fine facility. Everything about it is well conceived and implemented. It is indeed a perfect legacy for Bill and Grace McDivitt.
The show includes nineteen indoor sculptures and three outdoor ones, as well as Sarah Simmons’ “Bookbed” (actually part of the aforementioned Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition). The nineteen indoor sculptures can be viewed during normal library hours (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.) in October. The show’s four outdoor sculptures are available for viewing during daylight hours. The Bridgeville Public Library is located at 505 McMillen Street.
We encourage everyone to make it a point to stop in the Library and take advantage of the opportunity to see a wide variety of excellent sculptures. The folks behind this initiative would be happy to receive your feedback regarding this effort as well as the Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition. They are planning a completely new outdoor exhibition for next summer, hoping to expand it to twelve pieces.
Kudos to everyone involved with Public Art Bridgeville. It is important that we continue to enhance the cultural assets of our community, whether it be art, music, drama, literature, or brick collecting. There is more to life than watching crime shows on television and complaining about the Steelers.