Stake Your Colours to the Mast!

In a PC world, where folks are often reluctant to state what they really believe, it is refreshing to encounter the "stake your colours to the mast" boldness of the Brydie Baxter exhibition, This is What I Know, at The Bank Art Gallery, on the roundabout at Dee and Tay in Invercargill. Baxter's exhibition unabashedly, unashamedly showcases her Christian faith. Even her artist statement proclaims the exhibition as her "way of sharing the gospel message, as I know it...take it or leave it. This is what I know. ...As you journey through the works displayed, my hope is that God will speak to you and encourage you...and that you will be challenged..."

With 37 works in an amazing array of styles, materials, and techniques, this is an ambitious first exhibition for Brydie, which took two years to complete. There are figurative offerings such as I am Free and To Dance, as well as more abstract ones, such as the tender hearted Grace. I find Reality at Twenty Two an intriguing collage of cardboard and other applied materials with hand painted inscriptions created to explore her response to challenges to her faith and beliefs as a younger woman. Other pieces are crafted from found items, such as a copper tray and even a clock, both with significant words and images carefully brushed on by the artist. My favourite is Alpha and Omega and Everything in Between a colourful acrylic on canvas tryptiche. The Beatitudes, a close second, and fashioned out of pieces of well worn denim jeans mostly likely worn to paint a house, presents the famous words of Jesus from the gospel of Luke in the Message, a popular Bible paraphrase publication. All of Baxter's works have words. Words in the artwork, and words on the title labels explain the artist's journey of faith taken with each creation.

Asking Brydie which one of her works she wants to be photographed with, she walks straight to I am the Way, explaining this is the keystone piece giving rise to the idea for the exhibition. Brydie Baxter is an artist who has taken her faith, done a lot of soul searching, as well as a lot of hard work, and presents her colourful variety of art with a clear cut message she is keen to share.

Phone The Bank Art Gallery, phone 3-218-6634 for hours and dates of this exhibition.