Understories by Meg Lagodzki at Harrison Center

Storm Damage #30, Meg Lagodzki

The Green, Green, Green of Home.

Continuing through March in the main Harrison Gallery of Harrison Center, is Meg Lagodzki's interesting two-fold exhibition depicting the marvelous orderly chaos and awesome intrinsic beauty of nature, Understories.

The show consists of an ambitious primary body of work, created from acrylic paint on collage paper, which seems a botanist's survey of a variety of trees, bushes and particularly wildflowers seen on a hike in a woods.  

Each picture, a jam-packed, organic macrocosm. Each a daunting, visual  jigsaw puzzle.  A quilting together of a myriad of woodland species, jostling amid the shade, overlapping each other for the sun. A cacophony of plants species dynamically enmeshed and intertwined. 

The second distinct group of works – an ancillary series of about 30 small oil paintings – neatly arranged along a wall of the gallery. In contrast to the collage works,  they appear more empty, more abstract. They are almost minimal in comparison to the wildly busy forest pieces.  

Each picture,  arranged in a symmetric long row, shows a young tree, presumably broken by strong straight-line winds.  Each slender trunk destroyed and fractured. Painted images that are at once awful and transfixing, and executed with a deft touch of jagged perfection.

Understories, as a  group, shows an artist's reverence for a forest at a human scale, to a nature undersky and at times underfoot, at ground level, where the wood meets the dirt.  

Seen up close, in the painted collages, you see the method of Lagodzki's magic. At a distance, you are lost in her exuberant forest. She achieves an exotic yet familiar arm's length landscape vision, as innocent as a childhood drawing, and as bountifully fertile as Mother Nature herself.   

Earth-tones, only, in Lagodzki's Gaia of mainly green. 

The piece Northwoods, Banshee, a large acrylic and collage, is a tour de force of a composition. A white willow's tendrils flow sideways across the picture, screaming in the wind. A close inspection of the painted paper show the care of Lagodzki's technique in imbuing all the different textures on the surface of her many papers with the paint. She achieves an overall richness through these various marks. Her hatching, spotting and slight variations in the layers of her color tones, create a tactile sensation on the eyes of the viewer.

Northwoods, September by Meg Lagodzki

Northwoods, September, in the same series and at the same scale, is more colorful, with blue sky peeking at the top, and gold and copper ferns and fronds at the foreground. 

The gray and skeletal dead limbs of a tangled pine forest inhabit the picture's center with a porcupine army of quills, working their way up the trunks.   

Bluebells, Meg Lagodzki

Some smaller collage works serve as a homage to individual flora species such as in Jewelweed, Gladeferns #2,  Bluebells and Pokeweed, and are touchingly observant in their execution. 

Fallen Trees, Collateral Damage.

The linear presentation of the smallish oil on canvas works, Storm Damage (# 1 through 30), (top and bottom of page) creates an impression of somber edification, not unlike the military section of cemeteries and their solemn marked rows of the fallen. 

Young trees, mainly, snapped much too soon, are the remembered heroes of Logodzki's tribute. 

We see what they shared, these victimized trees. The splintering trauma of an almighty power.  And we see them portrayed as the individual miracle machines of growth that they were, that all trees are, and all seeds have the potential to become, if only for a little while.

Storm Damage (various #'s 1 - 30) , detail of installation, Meg Lagodzki

Mark Diekhoff, March 2026 

The material used in this article is being used under the fair use provisions of copyright law. The content is being used for educational purposes only, and all rights to the original content are held by their respective copyright owners. We do not claim ownership of any copyrighted material used in this work.

Forgotten Graces by Kevin West at Harrison Center

City Boys, Kevin West

Just ended in the large central gallery of Harrison Center, was a dynamic display of Kevin West's portraits and figurative works. In the artist's words accompanying the exhibit, he explained the overall theme of the show, 

 “(Forgotten Graces) is a reflection on the quiet, uncelebrated  gifts that shaped my childhood – moments so gentle and ordinary that I did not recognize their significance until I was grown.”

The works, numbering about fifteen, mostly oil on canvas and many quite large, are evidence that the graces were not forgotten forever. The pictures are packed with personality and story – memories of a youth populated by an engaging cast of characters.  People, mainly children, but not always, that seem relaxed, guard down –  like family and close friends –  who allow West the privilege of the close proximity of their eyes and essence. 

West's compositions have a sculptural presence – as monumental snapshot  or epic tableau. Several styles seem apparent among the works, though without date on the title cars, the variation among the pictures may represent either recurring styles or an evolution from one to the other.

Grannies Rocking Chair, Kevin West

City Boys, (top of page) is one such style, also seen in Grannies Rocking Chair. A looseness pervades the execution of these pictures. 

In City Boys,  the trousers are drawn in with a few strokes of the paintbrush, and an archetypal city skyline is sketched overhead. The individual portrait faces of the four youngsters possess the most detail and, like most of West's paintings, is the focus that beckons most. 

More narrative in design are the paintings such as Proverbs 22, 6 and Matthew 4, 19 Fishers of Men.

In the Proverbs piece, a grandfather attentively buttons the shirt of a grandson in what must be a routine and recurring morning ritual. They look across a distance of mere inches, not quite at each other. The grandfather is weary but devoted, while the grandson seems compliant yet preoccupied, perhaps already anticipating his school day.  They are in a room with a dresser and a little still life of Murray Pomade in an orange tin and a black comb.

Proverbs 22, 6, Kevin West

In the Matthew, Fishers picture, a group of four boys and a young man, stand surefooted on a small fishing boat, their city a sunlit sea, a ways offshore. Complimentary hues of orange and aqua on the boat, the bow pointing upwards in the picture, as the does the overall pyramidal grouping of the fishermen. The water must be full of fish, they must be thinking, looking out upon the vast water.

Another style is seen in a few large paintings, almost pop art in the brevity and punch of their imagery.  The backgrounds lack any identifiable place, just a line of horizon between two color fields. In these,the minimization of space serves to maximize the presence and attitude of the subject. One such of this style is The long way home. The painting shows an innovative pose of a close up of a girl atop her bicycle. Her arms are crossed, forming a V shape, that projects like the unseen front tire toward the viewer. It's a relaxed and casual leaning onto the shining handlebars. But the wedge of her elbows together gives the impression that nothing in front of her can stop her.

She wears an almost impossibly large white hat, that she tilts in a way that hints at a nonchalant confidence. If the way home is indeed long, and maybe even windy, there is no doubt she will simply tip her head down, and peddle forward, and she and her hat will make it, no problem. 

Matthew 4, 19 Fishers of Men (left) and The long way home (right), Kevin West
in detail of installation at Harrison Center in February

Mark Diekhoff, March 2026

The material used in this article is being used under the fair use provisions of copyright law. The content is being used for educational purposes only, and all rights to the original content are held by their respective copyright owners. We do not claim ownership of any copyrighted material used in this work.

India Cruse-Griffin – Exhibits in Richmond and Indianapolis

Keys for My Son, India Cruse-Griffin

With two solo shows, as well as additional works on current or recent display, the artwork of Richmond artist India Cruse-Griffin was available in abundance to view in Central Indiana in February.  

Her Love Letter in Blue show at Harrison Center in Indianapolis provides a large body of mixed media collage works, as does The Unpaved Road, her exhibit at I.U. East in Richmond. And an introduction to her three-dimensional work can be seen both at the I.U. East show and in a piece on display at the Richmond Art Museum. Finally, a large work can be seen in the art gallery area of the Reid Hospital, on the second floor above the main  entrance. Recall also that she was recently seen with her major work Snow Queen, a winner for first time exhibition, at the 101st Hoosier Salon in Indianapolis last fall.

Her Art Origins of Teaching and Mentoring, Volunteerism and Donation.

India Cruse-Griffin has an earned reputation in the fields of art and education over the past number of years since concluding her art education and establishing herself as an art teacher in Richmond.

By the late 1990s, she was beginning her career as a high school art teacher, winning awards in local art and regional shows, instructing youth art camps and curating youth art shows. As reported in the November 19, 1998, Richmond Palladium-Item, her artwork Wading in the Water Under the J Street Bridge was listed as winning two awards, one for merit and one for originality, at the 100th Richmond Exhibition of city and area artists. Many additional award winning works would follow, including a merit award for There's No Place Like Home, in the 101st Richmond the next year, a show curated by Indianapolis Star art writer Steve Mannheimer. 

In August 2000, the Palladium-Item reported that India Cruse-Griffin was appointed by Indiana Governor Frank O'Bannon to a four-year term with the Indiana Arts Commission. 

A May 31, 2001 edition of the same paper reported that Cruse-Griffin coordinated many activities for the annual Children's Day event at the Richmond Art Museum. Her wide range of art making methods and styles can be imagined in examining the many arts and crafts she coordinate that day, including “candle making, bead art, tile painting, Matisse collages, origami, block painting, sand painting and finger painting.” 

Cruse-Griffin would often donate artworks for fund-raising events, such as the work Good Times, Special Friends and Times That Never End that was provided for the 10th annual Art to Heart event in support of the Richmond Art Museum and Reid Hospital Foundation in 2002.

Fourth Street, India Cruse-Griffin, from her show
A Dream Shared at Richmond Art Museum, 2004

The rich and varied active involvement of Cruse-Griffin in her community at the beginning of her art career is mentioned here as it seems this love of children, of people and place, appears a primary subject of her colorful, upbeat works of art, and is perhaps a driving force in her amazing productivity.

Methods and Motivations.

In a March 23, 2003, Richmond Palladium-Item column by Millicent Martin, an art show at the Whitewater Gallery at I.U. East is described. The show, Women: Mind-Body-Soul, included the participation of India Cruse-Griffin, and a host of additional woman and girls aged 3 to 83.

The article is interesting in that it describes Cruse-Griffin's technique and motivation in creating her work, reading

“India Cruse-Griffin of Richmond uses a collage painting technique to reflect a woman's multi-textures, multi-layered life. Griffin seeks to express how a woman feels and the undefined meaning behind common tasks.” 

Cruse-Griffin discusses her use of mixed media and her move away from realism in a January 8, 2006, article in The Times of  Northwest Indiana. The column by Tim Shellberg covers the artist's current exhibit, A Common Thread, at Muster, Indiana's Atrium Gallery.  The article explains that the “switch from realism paintings to mixed media came...out of necessity.” It describes, in the artist's own words,

“I made the change about 10 years ago when I had my first child. I realized that I didn't have enough time to be a perfectionist...that's when I kind of came up with the style that I'm creating now.”

It is a style richly colorful, figurative and narrative, and somewhat nostalgic and heartfelt. The works are often expressive in the mannered representation of the people, with the exaggerated size of hands and feet, and other visual tricks that counter classic perspective such as a soft and luxurious cubism not often seen. 

There are recurring motifs such as white picket fences and bright white dresses or clothes that make the works almost dream-like at times, a feeling emphasized by her materials as well. Her peopled landscapes and portrait studies are not realistically defined, but rather infused, created from the collage of layers of paper, and washes of paint, and a tapestry of memories, it seems. Her style is signature and immediately recognizable in works throughout her career and up to today.  

To See Her is to Know Her.

A large number of works by India Cruse-Griffin were on exhibit in February. The Unpaved Road at the Tom Thompson Gallery in Whitewater Hall at I.U. East in Richmond has just ended.  The show contained about twenty works, many in large scale, and a couple that have introduced three-dimensional assemblage and/or sculptural elements.

Three large works, about four foot square each, made a stunning showing hanging together, a winter time triptych of sorts. Snow Queen has been covered earlier in this blog, last fall when it appeared at the Hoosier Salon at the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis. Next to it in this hanging was Winters Symphony, 2025. Three musicians, not playing, but holding their stringed or wind instruments, bundled up for the frigid outdoor weather, in outfits of black, white and baby blue. They are dressed in a most amazing array of sumptuous attire; hats, scarves, fluffy cozy coats. The musician in black wears white gloves in stark contrast atop the viola-type instrument. A few large, decorative snowflakes float about the picture to emphasis the wonderland the three inhabit. 

Winters Symphony, India Cruse-Griffin

Hanging beside is Winters Day, 2025.  Here, three figures again, a snowman looking forward at the viewer, and two attendants flanking the snowman on each side. They are in profile, eyes closed as if building and tending to the snowman by heart and feeling alone. The composition reminds of a religious altarpiece with its symmetric solemnity. Again, the clothing is lavishly warm-looking, and out-of-time in the fashionable beauty it conveys.

The picture Backyard Balling, 2025, is a warm weather scene of two young women playing basketball, one actively central to the composition, and one more passive and on the edge of the game. 

The action of the main figure is emphasized by the perspective plunging forward and the wildly rippling clothing as she grabs for a basketball that seems to be exiting the picture plane and dropping into the gallery. The hands reach forward in a massive grasp toward the viewer, not quite touching the ball, but close enough to cast shadows. The rendering of the socks and basketball sneakers of the main figure possess a sculptural quality at the bottom of the painting that anchors the centrality of the view.

Street Life, India Cruse-Griffin

As mentioned earlier, Cruse-Griffin is introducing a third dimension to some new works as seen in the mixed-media sculpture Street Life, 2025. The head, shoulders and torso figurative piece is covered in collage and paint, and is positioned in front of her two-dimensional, color balanced urban landscape by the same name, Street Life. The streetscape on both the picture and the sculpture is of a densely packed urban idyll; colorful, buildings of varied and interesting types, green trees and blue skies.  The sculpture is of a woman whose foundation is of river rocks and the neighborhood described, and who wears a blouse or shirt emblazoned with her own portrait as logo. She, as sculpture, as an artistic creation, made up of her river, her street, and herself.

Also in Richmond, but at other locations, are an early large picture Dancing in the Street, 2002, along with a sculpture, not labeled, of a dancing woman in an orange dress and shoes, are displayed in the front hallway of the Richmond Museum of Art. And the large work Healing through Friendship, showing a woman and three girls enjoying a day in the park. Reid Hospital is in the background of the picture, and is where it is located on the second floor gallery area of the hospital. It portrays the four woman in a balance of colors, one dressed in white, and the other three in primary hues. The subjects are the artist, her two daughters and a niece, according to the title card for the piece. 

India Cruse-Griffin works at Richmond Art Museum

Love is Blue.

Cruse-Griffin's Indianapolis exhibition that continues into March is Love Letter in Blue at Harrison Center. She presents a body of work, both large and small, inspired by her father's war-time letters home to her mother. The letters were always on blue stationary and greatly anticipated and appreciated by her mother. 

According to the gallery notes, and in Cruse-Griffin's words, the works are “intended to evoke emotion through the various meanings of coming home, love, family, and a commitment to connection.”

Prayers under one roof, India Cruse-Griffin

A meditative state is once again portrayed in the portrait of three female figures with eyes closed and embracing as a single unit in Prayers under one roof. The harmonious and warm-colored dresses (or gowns) of the figures and the open window with curtains blowing in a breeze, create a calm and soothing image of household, or mind, at peace.

In the circle-shaped work, The Clouds and the Rain, a sole figure in a space undefined –  it's not apparent whether the limited drama portrayed occurs inside or outside, whether it's an expression of reality or dream. In the circular perfection of its outline, the picture invokes the feeling of a clock and yet timelessness too. The gleaming blaze of sun the figure holds, caught in a frozen moment, curving round its recurring path, promising the return of light, even amid any mind storm, or any actual clouds and rain.   

Sunday and the Piano shows the ability of the artist to always invent anew, even withing the confines of her settled upon methods and techniques. Even within a repeating realm of favorite motifs and the  subject matter of family, life and street. 

Sunday and the Piano, India Cruse-Griffin

In this picture, a woman at the piano in a church setting. The song is playing and she leans back at the keys, glancing up in the direction of a cross. Four others behind surround her like an archway. Just the tops of their heads visible above the songbooks they hold. 

The eight hands holding the music books are just a hint of the mostly hidden people behind the music, of the song in four voices and the fingers on the piano keys. A symbolized song of church – the harmony and synergy of its steeple, and the people inside. 

Mark Diekhoff, March 2026

The material used in this article is being used under the fair use provisions of copyright law. The content is being used for educational purposes only, and all rights to the original content are held by their respective copyright owners. We do not claim ownership of any copyrighted material used in this work.