<< Back 6/19/02 A story to be told Artist Jimmy McDonough explores a mysterious world through his media By Michael Beadle There are haunting figures in Jimmy McDonough’s paintings. Figures of young men staring with their darkened eyes like war veterans, figures who gather together but do not dare speak of the agony they have endured, figures who live in a world of hollow hells and dizzying light. There is a Flannery O’Connor feel to some of his paintings. They are like Southern gothic short stories, universes unto themselves, full of characters from half a century ago, though as familiar as the fireman and the janitor, the salesman and the mechanic, the garbage collector and store clerk. McDonough’s artwork, his first solo exhibit ever, features recent works of figurative and landscape oil paintings, batiks on paper and fabric and decorative pocket shrines of the Virgin Mary. This widely eclectic show is now on display through July 7 at the North Main Street Studios and Gallery, located at 591 North Main Street in Waynesville. The self-taught 29-year-old Raleigh artist has developed his own style and moods in various experiments of color and form. There are two paintings of Linville Falls, which depict in an almost animation detail the peaceful views of this camper/hiker paradise. McDonough’s batiks, some of which are framed and some available as prints, are spectacular. Some of the best batik pieces are presented with the illusion of a shadowbox. For “Sax Sampler,” the batik includes an assortment of squares and rectangles that frame different parts and perspectives of a saxophone. There are notes and keys dancing in some of the boxes and the batik is actually done on music paper. Another batik, “Violin Sampler,” does the same thing with a different instrument and the results are like a classical composition coming to life. These batiks, though light and lively, involve intricate details and depth into two incredibly complex instruments. The vibrant colors and earthy tones. McDonough enjoys old photographs that offer a glimpse of rural settings, and that really comes alive in the oil painting, “Hanging Out in the Backyard,” a country scene out of the 1950s or ‘60s. A group of men sit around in a side yard near the driveway as one tells a story. The rest look on, some resting on crates, while a couple of younger boys are in swings. There is a poverty shared among them, though two at the far left wear dressier clothes (they might be visitors from the city or nearby town). The youngest of the boys, who we may assume are children of this home, are barefeet and one is shirtless. A dark-eyed man rests on a swing between the two boys. A dreamy gauze of sunlight shines in the trees above them while a barn just behind them contains nothing but darkness in it. Symbolic perhaps, for those who play the riddles of symbolism, but the piece is compelling. There is an unmistakable pull into this scene, whether one seems attracted to the dark mood of the picture or the interplay of the people brought together on what might be a lazy summer afternoon. In “The Sitting Room,” McDonough repeats his gothic theme once again using well-dressed characters with grim facial expressions sitting in various chairs of a reading room with no apparent communication between them (even the newspapers some of them read don’t have any legible words on them). The gray, amorphous ceiling reflects the uneventful mood of the room, though they seem to share some sad secret. Again, there’s an odd story flowing out of that painting. McDonough’s exhibit shows a marked maturity as an artist in both his choice of subject matter and the variety of well-thought-out pieces in widely different mediums. For more information about the current exhibit or about the artists involved with North Main Street Studios and Gallery, call 456.4652.