Words About
An interview with a famous art critic Peter Frank about the results of the “Rediscovery of Wonder” competition. Peter Frank’s critiques “The Young Boy’s Fancy” and “Hello Kitty et al Lost in Nivernais”.
LARK: “Let’s proceed to the Third Place winner – Michael Chomick”.
PETER: “He is an assemblagist. I appreciate his heraldic compositions, which are very amusing — all these little toys and figures placed in architectural constructions in a neo-classical style.”
LARK: “Is it also his sense of humor that attracted you to his works?”
PETER: “Yes, although this aspect of his work is secondary for me. I most appreciate his ability to put things together, how he puts all these very different objects into harmonious compositions.”
Lark Online Art Gallery, West Hollywood, California
“Michael Chomick’s paintings are figurative, expressionistic, referential and definately not meant to hang comfortably over your couch, unless you happen to be Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung…. Are we bearing witness to the artist’s vision of some Dantesque Hell that is humanity’s destiny? Or a view of the “dog eat dog, chew’em up spit’em out” world that is our own modern reality?”
Jeffrey J. York, former Executive Director of the Art Museum of S.E. Texas, Beaumont
“Chomick doesn’t paint a pretty picture…Michael Chomick likes to poke at people’s glazed-over eyes, his own included. His subject is the human psyche, and it’s not a pretty sight.”
Joan Altabe, Art Writer, Sarasota Herald-Tribune Newspapers
“One of the most compelling works in the show is mixed media artist Michael Chomick’s Skylark. Using items found at a junkyard – aged wood, yearbook photos dated 1952-53, the letters “Skylark” from an old Buick – he suggests the futility of yearning for the past. As the viewer resolves the diverse elements, some remain illusive, their inclusion intuitive.”
Mary Ann Marger, Times Art Critic, St. Petersburg Times Newspapers
“Artist finds spiritual bliss in challenging viewer…Confrontational. In your face. Michael Chomick’s works don’t hang over the couch in silence. They grab you, ripping you apart.”
“Chomick has recognized that in order to go on explaining himself to those who would listen, the art must be more than a sophisticated, cathartic roar. He understands that timeless, formal concepts of beauty are what keeps an audience engaged with illusions.
Kevin Costello, Art Beat Critic, Pelican Press Newspapers, Sarasota FL
He knows that private and public emotions, in particular with sculpture, have to be equalized into each other in the object’s construction. What holds sculpture to a higher level of accomplishment is the silent progress it exhibits toward a plastic (three-dimensional) resolution of the inner heart and external mind.”
Steve Dildy, Feature Writer, University Press, Lamar U., Beaumont TX
“Skylark” – mixed media – 46 ¼” x 35 ¼” x 6” – 4/1996