Betty Ragan brings ‘Folk Tales’ to PLU gallery

Photo courtesy of artist

“ANCIENT COLUMN” BY BETTY RAGAN

In pre-modern Europe – the Europe of the Gothic, the Baroque, the Rococo, and the Classical eras – architects and artisans encrusted their buildings with all manner of fascinating flourishes. Often taken in as a grandiose whole, the architectural details are usually lost to the casual eye, becoming part of an overall ambiance. When one pauses to take a closer look, however, one finds a wealth of intriguing detail in those architectural decorations. A whole heraldic language of symbols and stories are at work making the edifices of old Europe as lively as the temples of Aztec Mexico, Hindu India or Buddhist Cambodia.

Betty Sapp Ragan, a now retired faculty member of University of Puget Sound’s (UPS) art department where she taught photography and printmaking, has long been fascinated by these architectural details. During a cultural exchange to Germany, Ragan photographed the architectural decoration of buildings there and in Austria. These images became the basis of her “Folk Tales” series of works, some of which are currently on display in Ingram Hall at the Pacific Lutheran University (PLU) Art Department Gallery.

In 15 large-scale works, Ragan has enlarged and isolated decorative architectural elements and, via collage, combines them with photographic portraits of women. Many of these collages are hand colored using Prismacolor and oil pigments. The entire process is cumbersome, expensive and very technical, but the end result is undeniably striking: a hybrid of photography, collage, painting and drawing that comes across as a whole.

A grand example of Ragan’s “Folk Tales” series is “Gloriette,” a large, hand-colored photograph of an architectural warrior figure. The figure, part of a fanciful railing or alcove, is fantastically ornate from its plumed helmet to the pile of gorgeous weaponry at the figure’s feet. A shield is fixed to each of the figure’s shoulders. A pair of heraldic, three-dimensional lions flanks the figure. Ragan has cut out the stone face and replaced it with that of a real person, one of the models who sat for portraits in Ragan’s studio. The elaborate statue with its human face is hand colored. The application of the face of a unique individual combined with the magic of color seem to breathe a spark of life into the cold, stone warrior. In all its elaborate finery it now gazes out at the viewer like a martial angel alive with calm vigilance.

Ragan’s “Ancient Column” is a hand-colored photographic collage of a cracked and cobwebbed Gothic column. Distorted faces are carved into the column’s capital. One face, however, has been replaced by that of one of Ragan’s models.

The models, the quiet faces of mysterious women, appear in each of the compositions. Often, as in “Gloriette” and “Ancient Column,” the superimposed face is prominently placed upon the object of interest. In many other pieces, however, elements of the architectural decoration are cut away and the woman’s face is placed within the architecture. The woman is thus beheld as if through a window or through an ornate screen. Along with the application of color, these demure female faces enliven the otherwise somber architectural configurations.

Ragan’s monumental compositions are distinctive: decorative at the same time as they hold depth. The show at PLU runs through Oct. 29. A simultaneous show of Ragan’s work opens Oct. 16 at Sandpiper Gallery in Old Town. For further information on the PLU exhibit, call (253) 535-7573 or visit http://www.plu.edu.

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