Diane Feught: Cautionary Tales and Johann Feught: Minding...

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Johann James Feught, "minding…Meditation," 2019

inkjet on aluminum, 56 x 86.5 cm

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Diane Feught, "Samsara," 2019

gouache on Stonehenge paper, 28x45.7 cm

A frame provides not only a separation from extraneous matter but also contextualizes the content within the frame. It serves to organize and focus the attention, drawing it away from myriad alternate possibilities. It is a form of dictation. Diane Feught and Johann Feught, each working on separate bodies of work from respectively secluded studios, bring attention (frame) illuminations of the mind. Johann clusters, combines, encompasses: Diane Feught, orders, beautifies and presents. Each offers a wealth of visual information accomplished within practiced disciplines so that the results are impactful yet respites against the overflow of stimulus that life brings. Each offers personal insights.

Johann Feught has titled this new series of prints minding … and the naming furthers the impact; he has managed to conquer a startling array of contesting factions and bring forth a collection of individually cut gems. Feught uses two mediums, each with very different processes. The digital prints are made on a computer and require hours of selection, importing, sizing and assemblage. These prints are colored and Feught has been permissive towards his palette showing his command of a range that is often denied by the traditional printmaking processes. The marmoleum-cut prints are black and white and show his command of a skill practiced over decades.

With gouache on paper and with consideration, Diane Feught’s series Cautionary Tales sets a complete stage. She has designed the proscenium to each act through a wide patterned border that compliments the subject. The work is polite; it is introduced by a patterned prologue in preparation for reception. With formalist dignity, each piece is also ruled by black lines, the sheen of the paint slightly reflective. Led into the central imagery by this visual ritual, the exquisite-ness of the subject gains rapt audience, one that is primed to be receptive, and alert to intriguing nuance. She has allowed room to wonder and despite the relatively diminutive size of this window, each work is completely unalterable.

And although Diane Feught and Johann Feught had no awareness of the body of work the other was completing during their respective processes, like osmosis, messages drifted between the two studios in a way that validated equanimity yet sustained individuality.