Lexington, KY
Art, despite what certain folks in the White House and on Capitol Hill would have you believe, is not elite. It is created by people of every age, of every level of education, of every occupation, and of every nation. Even war fails to stop it: it gets made in the trenches. Calvin R. Geist, who has worked in the oil fields of Grand Isle and painted houses in Lexington, loves nothing more than to put brush to canvas. He makes sincere pictures of horses and flowers and reproduces the still lifes and garden scenes of professional artists he admires. Geist’s paintings evince less a love of their subject than of painting itself: as a world of color and touch and attention to get lost in, for hours, days or weeks at a time. That’s as valid a way to expend energy as any other, perhaps much more.
—Lori Waxman 3/25/17 12:01 PM