Painter, sculptor show work

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Two strong, talented women. Two distinct artistic styles. One gallery.

The latest show at Gallery 621, “Life on Earth,” features paintings by Lee Wilder Snider and sculptures by Lisa Reinertson. But while the artists and their mediums are different, both display a deeply felt awareness of the delicate condition of — and imminent threat to — the environment.

“The land is beautiful, and if we’re not conscious about it, we’re going to lose it,” Wilder Snider said.

A founding member of the Benicia Arts and Culture Commission and former board president of Arts Benicia, Wilder Snider has a strong connection to nature, going back to her childhood. She’s also drawn to understanding the gulf between individuals’ interpretations.

Born in Sacramento to a West Point father and a Berkeley mother, she grew up in “seven different places by the fourth grade,” giving her “a very eclectic understanding of different people’s points of view.”

She said growing up as a tomboy led to her fascination with the structure of things, especially of the human form. “Michelangelo was probably the first artist that ever knocked me off my feet. I couldn’t believe how he could depict the human figure with such strength and beauty at the same time,” she said.

Though she paints a wide range of subjects, from everyday life scenes to humorous subjects, “this (exhibit) I picked primarily because of my environmentalism, nature and the outdoors.”

Her work at Gallery 621, a series of acrylics, calls on viewers to reflect on the repercussions of the diminishment of nature — “an attempt to say, ‘Wait, wait, wait! This is part of who we are on Earth, and we don’t want to let it go.’”

Sculptor Lisa Reinertson, working in clay, often creates feminine images. But her art has both a feminist and an environmentalist side — “especially this new work. I’m really concerned about endangered animals. Some of these are really more literally about that issue.”

A University of California-Davis graduate, Reinertson worked out of the ceramics studio known as TB-9 under the tutelage of Robert Arneson, the late sculptor perhaps best known for his bust of assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone. “I was very much a part of this whole ceramics sculpture gang that was happening at that time,” she said.

Though her subject matter was very different from Arneson’s, she was influenced by his large-scale works and “some of the ideas of working with pedestals, incorporating into the sculptures that he would do,” she said.

She is also fascinated by mythology — a love of ancient tales and beliefs that has long informed her art.

“I think human beings have had more of a connection with nature throughout our existence on Earth. There were more animals around, we had to deal with them more than we do in this day and age,” she said.

“I think myths and stories that have the human-animal relationships have always resonated with me. There’s something about that that enters my work. Sometimes I’ve said it is a seeking of a more primal side of our nature.”

Lee Wilder Snider said it was very fortuitous that she and Reinertson would do a show together.

“For me it has been very magical. We both have a real love of the environment and the Earth,” Wilder Snider said. “So we pretty much centered it on that.”

IF YOU GO
A reception for “Life on Earth,” featuring the work of Lisa Reinertson and Lee Wilder Snider, will be Saturday from 5-8 p.m. at Gallery 621, 621 First St.