Studio 53 Fine Art Gallery has brought many an interesting exhibition to the region – rich in content, complexity and creativity – and the 2018 season promises to keep those “three C’s” alive. Gallery owners Terry Seaman and Heidi Seidelhuber, start things off with new works on the first floor May 8-20 with an artists’ reception May 19 from 5-8 p.m. 

Heidi’s new, light-filled, rich watercolors will include her continued exploration of the “Footbridge Relic Y” series that you may have seen last year. Heidi’s use of color is a delight. In the Footbridge series, Heidi paints from the vantage point of the water line, and utilizes subjects common to the world of work. For example, in “Built On Granite,” light is everywhere in the color, in the rays of sunlight finding their way through the openings of the dock at Port Clyde, reflections of the buildings on the water are bold; this is not a painting to dream in, it depicts a very real world and the energy is palpable. “Footbridge Relic” is a strong, vivid image of a deteriorated footbridge, the red strokes of paint on sections of its surface could reflect the blood, sweat and tears of its original builders or, could be making a statement about the footbridge’s condition: a code red, if you will ...

Terry’s work is uniquely his own. He works in watercolor and graphite. In the five years I’ve been writing about art here in the region, Terry’s stuff is the most mind-bending and I’ve described it that way from the beginning. He’s fascinated by, no, make that obsessed by, quantum physics – and Bach, particularly the Fugues. As he’s explained to me (in his usual enthusiastic and intense manner once he gets going on the subject), and I’m going to let him say it: “In quantum physics there is stuff moving around all the time AND it’s moving so fast that often the same particles are in half a dozen places at once; literally running into themselves at times.  And, Bach, what I like about Bach and quantum physics is neither one is visible and as a visual artist my work attempts to visualize things that are simply not visual.”

Hmmm ... visualizing the things that aren’t visible. Gotta love it. I think many of us have done that in certain circumstances – just not with watercolors and Bach.

Terry’s new show, “The Sub-Atomic/Cosmic Hash Theory of Everything” features  new drawings that are “ ... about four parts quantum physics to one part Bach” that explore the fields in quantum field theory. So, pretty heavy stuff, right? If you’re seeing things like Terry does, all those invisible things – subatomic particles or waves darting to and fro form “a lively and splendid hash.”

To explore one of his new works, “Empty Space,” a 20” x 30” watercolor on mixed media paper he sent to me, I decided to plug into Bach’s “Great Fugue in G Minor BWV 542” on YouTube. And then I just zoned out on the image. The deeper notes became the white rings – white rings of sound that appeared to echo throughout creating smaller circular bodies solid, opaque and  patterned  to life; fluid lines writhed, with the straight lines keeping time. See, that’s what’s so cool about classical music to begin with: It stimulates the subconscious. It gives you permission (if you’re a person who needs it) to let your imagination run free. 

When I was growing up, my dad nurtured a love of classical music and had a huge collection. Every Sunday after the high noon meal, we would retreat to the living room where he’d put the needle down on an album of say, Mozart’s, say the “Adagio,” or Debussey’s “Prelude to The Afternoon of A Faun” and crank up the old Hi-Fi Stereo. Despite the volume level, it was  Zen surround sound – I would sit back in a chair, close my eyes and drift away on the notes, the melody, to a secret place only I could see, hear, smell;  a forest with river, a glen, a meadow. But, I digress. Yeah, I know. Big surprise there.

Anyway, back to Terry’s “Empty Space” in which he “... attempts to depict a mere wafer thin layer of the subatomic hash that occupies all  ‘empty space,’” ... Remember the original Star Trek intro, the bit that went, “Space. The final frontier ...?” I do believe that through his art Terry Seaman demonstrates that space is, without a doubt, the infinite frontier. 

Studio 53 is, appropriately enough, at 53 Townsend Ave. in Boothbay Harbor. 

Bend your mind with some subatomic hash. It’s where it’s at.

And don’t forget the Bach.