Feature in the Flagstaff Live
Passing Through the Portal
Reflections on time and experience by Leancy Rupert
By Stephanie Flood
Published on 06/12/2008
The sun is a bright orb of light suspended in an azure sky. People are relaxing at the picnic tables in front of Macy’s, sipping coffee. An older gentleman in sunglasses smiles and waves me over to a table dimpled with shade and sunlight.
He is a local multi-media artist named Leancy Rupert, who recently opened his bachelor’s of fine arts show at the Beaver Street Gallery called “Portals and Passage: a Journey.” He introduces himself with ease.
“Most people know me by just Leancy,” Rupert says as we sit at the picnic tables. “I’m trying to utilize that more and more. It’s an old family name. I’m the fourth.”
A slight breeze pushes past us, and he leans over to pet his old black lab who sits patiently at his feet. He begins to talk about his show, a mixture of large and small organic and manmade installations that abstractly symbolize concepts of time, life’s influences and passages that lead to destinations unknown.
“A portal is a threshold, signifying an important and momentous change,” Rupert says in his artist’s statement. “A passage is the culmination of events and influences. A passage leads up to and through the portal, and includes dramatic changes. My current body of work is an exploration of the importance of the portal, the significance of the passage, and the relevance of time—past, present and future.”
He takes off his shades to look me in the eye as he begins to talk more about his show, and how his life has led up to this new transition.
“I think something that’s important to remember is that this is a relatively new event in my life,” Rupert says. “I’ve been in construction or some type of construction most of my life, always with a photography background—always doing photography but not doing art.”
Rupert was born in Philadelphia in 1950, and grew up in North Carolina. In 1968, he was a photographer for the U.S. Coast Guard. Afterward, he spent about 20 years busy with woodworking, photography and construction. Then in 1998, circumstances led him back to school where he received three associate degrees in construction management, alternative energy and technology, and fine arts.
“What happened was I experienced a debilitating injury that resulted in a disability.” Rupert says. “And so I went back to school at a late age, at the community college, and that’s where I got the three degrees.”
Throughout his exploration of the arts, Rupert dabbled in various media. He painted brightly colored landscapes in oil after receiving the encouragement of impressionist painter Wolf Kahn. Coconino Community College even purchased one of his paintings for their permanent collection.
“This made me feel really good,” Rupert says. “That was a very positive affirmation on the work that I was doing. We as artists in whatever temperament thrive on positive feedback and positive critique. It’s important to me.”
After receiving his degrees from CCC, he continued his education at Northern Arizona University where he graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in May.
“What this show is about,” Rupert says, “is a celebration of what brought me to this point of my life—the door has opened, and the fact that I was encouraged to walk through the door and continue on.”
Rupert looks across the street to the Beaver Street Gallery and gestures for us to walk inside—to the portals and passageways that wait.
The first installation we see is titled “Bondage of Self.” A silvery steel ball appears suspended—imprisoned—within rusted steel bars. A redwood sphere encapsulates it with smooth symmetry. Rupert lowers his voice, which echoes in the gallery regardless, as he explains what the piece means. “What I was trying to represent here,” he says, “is how we as individuals—as we’re growing up—we are subjected to less than positive input … so this has to do with that bondage that is created by negative messages. This series will become a liberation of this sphere within the sphere … gradually it’s going to come out and be elsewhere, outside the sphere that imprisons this entity.”
We wander to a row of rectangular pieces lined parallel on the wall reflecting movement or inferred time with a combination of 2-D and 3-D contrasting textures and formations. This continuity of rhythm and repetition that is identified within most of his abstract pieces conceptually represent divisions from his past through the thresholds of his future.
As we travel throughout the rest of the gallery observing tree trunks and huge steel installation pieces, I recall more of Rupert’s artist’s statement as it is demonstrated through his work.
“Of equal importance to me, along with the concept, is the process of the work itself, the ‘passage’ of a work of art from initial concept through interpretation, to execution to completion,” Rupert says in the statement. “The process of any given piece of art is as important to me as the completed work. With and because of the process, each work of art has traveled its own singular journey. The process makes the work whole!”
We end the tour looking at his favorite installation piece, which is a collection of branches from each place he has lived. Each branch stands as a metaphor of the way environmental influences surround a person’s experiences. The phenomenon in this piece is the fact that the journey never ends; a central theme in Rupert’s artwork.
“The journey isn’t over yet,” Rupert says, “there’s still choices that we must make ahead of us.”
See “Portals and Passage: a Journey” at the Beaver Street Gallery, 28 S. Beaver, until the end of June. For more information, call 214-0408 or visit www.beaverstreetgallery.com.
Reflections on time and experience by Leancy Rupert
By Stephanie Flood
Published on 06/12/2008
The sun is a bright orb of light suspended in an azure sky. People are relaxing at the picnic tables in front of Macy’s, sipping coffee. An older gentleman in sunglasses smiles and waves me over to a table dimpled with shade and sunlight.
He is a local multi-media artist named Leancy Rupert, who recently opened his bachelor’s of fine arts show at the Beaver Street Gallery called “Portals and Passage: a Journey.” He introduces himself with ease.
“Most people know me by just Leancy,” Rupert says as we sit at the picnic tables. “I’m trying to utilize that more and more. It’s an old family name. I’m the fourth.”
A slight breeze pushes past us, and he leans over to pet his old black lab who sits patiently at his feet. He begins to talk about his show, a mixture of large and small organic and manmade installations that abstractly symbolize concepts of time, life’s influences and passages that lead to destinations unknown.
“A portal is a threshold, signifying an important and momentous change,” Rupert says in his artist’s statement. “A passage is the culmination of events and influences. A passage leads up to and through the portal, and includes dramatic changes. My current body of work is an exploration of the importance of the portal, the significance of the passage, and the relevance of time—past, present and future.”
He takes off his shades to look me in the eye as he begins to talk more about his show, and how his life has led up to this new transition.
“I think something that’s important to remember is that this is a relatively new event in my life,” Rupert says. “I’ve been in construction or some type of construction most of my life, always with a photography background—always doing photography but not doing art.”
Rupert was born in Philadelphia in 1950, and grew up in North Carolina. In 1968, he was a photographer for the U.S. Coast Guard. Afterward, he spent about 20 years busy with woodworking, photography and construction. Then in 1998, circumstances led him back to school where he received three associate degrees in construction management, alternative energy and technology, and fine arts.
“What happened was I experienced a debilitating injury that resulted in a disability.” Rupert says. “And so I went back to school at a late age, at the community college, and that’s where I got the three degrees.”
Throughout his exploration of the arts, Rupert dabbled in various media. He painted brightly colored landscapes in oil after receiving the encouragement of impressionist painter Wolf Kahn. Coconino Community College even purchased one of his paintings for their permanent collection.
“This made me feel really good,” Rupert says. “That was a very positive affirmation on the work that I was doing. We as artists in whatever temperament thrive on positive feedback and positive critique. It’s important to me.”
After receiving his degrees from CCC, he continued his education at Northern Arizona University where he graduated with a bachelor of fine arts degree in May.
“What this show is about,” Rupert says, “is a celebration of what brought me to this point of my life—the door has opened, and the fact that I was encouraged to walk through the door and continue on.”
Rupert looks across the street to the Beaver Street Gallery and gestures for us to walk inside—to the portals and passageways that wait.
The first installation we see is titled “Bondage of Self.” A silvery steel ball appears suspended—imprisoned—within rusted steel bars. A redwood sphere encapsulates it with smooth symmetry. Rupert lowers his voice, which echoes in the gallery regardless, as he explains what the piece means. “What I was trying to represent here,” he says, “is how we as individuals—as we’re growing up—we are subjected to less than positive input … so this has to do with that bondage that is created by negative messages. This series will become a liberation of this sphere within the sphere … gradually it’s going to come out and be elsewhere, outside the sphere that imprisons this entity.”
We wander to a row of rectangular pieces lined parallel on the wall reflecting movement or inferred time with a combination of 2-D and 3-D contrasting textures and formations. This continuity of rhythm and repetition that is identified within most of his abstract pieces conceptually represent divisions from his past through the thresholds of his future.
As we travel throughout the rest of the gallery observing tree trunks and huge steel installation pieces, I recall more of Rupert’s artist’s statement as it is demonstrated through his work.
“Of equal importance to me, along with the concept, is the process of the work itself, the ‘passage’ of a work of art from initial concept through interpretation, to execution to completion,” Rupert says in the statement. “The process of any given piece of art is as important to me as the completed work. With and because of the process, each work of art has traveled its own singular journey. The process makes the work whole!”
We end the tour looking at his favorite installation piece, which is a collection of branches from each place he has lived. Each branch stands as a metaphor of the way environmental influences surround a person’s experiences. The phenomenon in this piece is the fact that the journey never ends; a central theme in Rupert’s artwork.
“The journey isn’t over yet,” Rupert says, “there’s still choices that we must make ahead of us.”
See “Portals and Passage: a Journey” at the Beaver Street Gallery, 28 S. Beaver, until the end of June. For more information, call 214-0408 or visit www.beaverstreetgallery.com.