Date: Fri 10-Jul-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Bailey-artist-Pratt-Java's

Full Text:

A Young Artist Poised To Explore A New Facet Of The Art World

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

A shy girl by nature, Karen Bailey is about to take one of the most public

steps of her life. For the next three weeks, the Newtown artist will be

featured in a one-man art show -- Karen's first -- at Doctor Java's in Bethel.

On Friday night, Karen will have to face her public, when Java's hosts an

opening reception for "Images of Color."

"I'm extremely nervous," she admitted last week. Karen is home for the summer

from Brooklyn. In the fall she will be returning to Pratt Art Institute for

her sophomore year. She is studying art education and hopes to become a

teacher one day. That decision was years in the making, but much of that

probably had to do with the art teacher who left a permanent impression on

Karen while she was in high school.

Last week, Karen was been making the final selections of which of her works

will be presented in "Images of Color"; she wanted to have everything ready to

go for July 9, when she was planning on having the show hung.

Karen was planning to have 22 works on view, and all will be available for

sale. One watercolor, she pointed out during the interview, may have already

been purchased, but she wanted to include it in the show.

"Images of Color" will include acrylics, watercolors and charcoals by Karen.

Some are new, some are works that were assignments from her years at Newtown

High School, and a few others are assignments from professors at Pratt ("the

Ivy League school of the art world," she calls it). A few of the high school

pieces were actually in Karen's portfolio during high school, and were used

during her interview process to get into college. Some of the works still have

their grades and teachers' comments on the back.

Many of the pieces, regardless of why they were created, will be difficult for

Karen to sell.

A lot of thought has gone into deciding the prices for the work in "Images of

Color." After her father saw some of the initial prices she was considering

and told her to think harder about what she was offering (she was undermining

her own work, pricing well below what her time and efforts were worth, he

indicated) Karen said she had to sit down and fully reconsider what she was

selling: pieces of her.

"Some are going to be very difficult to part with," she confided. "Some are

memories. All have some sort of meaning to me."

What is more important to Karen, however, is not how much someone pays for a

piece of her artwork, but that viewers enjoy what she has created.

"I just pray people like them as much as I do, that they see something in

them," she said.

It's a big step for any artist, the first public exhibition. For someone who

is naturally quiet and fairly shy, the step can even be somewhat painful. Her

first year at Pratt has helped Karen adjust to the sometimes harsh world of

art. Art, says the honors student (she made Dean's List both semesters last

year), makes up a lot of what New York City is. "Everyone, it seems, is an

actor or a singer or a dancer or an artist," she said. "The city is very

art-oriented. "That was one of the reasons I wanted to go there."

New York may be full of artists, but Karen quickly learned at Pratt how

cut-throat the art world can be. Television and films tend to gloss over much

of what goes on for young artists. While professors talked about English

skills, psychology or painting, it was the behind-the-scenes goings on that

were more educating for the Newtown native.

"There are a lot of talented people, but it's also very competitive, even in

classes," Karen said. She saw and heard about many students who were stealing

supplies from others, or students who had had their work purposely destroyed

by a competing student.

"You have to be very careful," she said.

Karen does not pretend to have a certain style to her painting. Like much new

music today, her work falls into a number of descriptive categories. There is

some hint of Abstract Expressionism seen, but nothing that clearly stands out

as a solid form. The works she was sorting through last week were an array of

not only different stages in her career, but also different media. There were

piles of charcoal drawings, some multi-image acrylic paintings, and softer

watercolors.

"I've always been an artist," she said recently. Karen remembers watching her

grandfather paint all the time when she was a young girl. Her grandfather got

over the toughness of having to part with his paintings by never selling any

of his work.

"His walls are covered with his work," she laughed. "I don't think he has ever

wanted to sell a single one."

The hardest part for Karen during the opening at Doctor Java's this week will

be determining what people are really thinking about her art. She attended a

number of openings during her first year at Pratt, and said she overheard some

conversations between critics that were downright brutal.

Karen isn't going into the Doctor Java's show with thoughts of changing the

art world with her work... yet. This is just the first step in what will

probably become a long staircase the young artist will take in her career, so

she shouldn't be too concerned that harsh words will come her way. Her work is

impressive, and creative, and the collection going on view for the Bethel show

is a good representation of what she has accomplished so far.

Karen is nervous about Friday's opening, and at the idea of being in a large

gathering with so many people looking at her work, but the artist also knows

it needs to be done.

"I really think if you have a passion to do something," she said, "you have to

bite the bullet."

"Images of Color" opens tonight at Doctor Java's with a reception from 7-9 pm.

The exhibition will remain on view through August 3. Doctor Java's is at 114

Greenwood Avenue in Bethel.