The exhibition opening of The Fantasy Art of Josephine Wall was a huge success during our Celebration of Ceramic Art weekend, so much so that Dr. Pat Sager Lane will be returning for our Sensational Saturday program on October 12. In the run-up to Halloween, she will focus on the surreal aspects of Jo’s work, in particular, all the hidden faces.

Throughout her career, Josephine Wall has been influenced by surrealist artists such as Magritte and Dali. The title of her fantastical painting Cirrius Tales Parade is an anagram of surrealistic and features a strange parade through enchanted woods during a full moon. A stag has candle antlers and a giant snail morphs into a bird. A fish swims beside a hummingbird and even the trees come to life with lots of hidden human faces. Another surreal painting was inspired by the hallucinatory imagery of the swinging sixties and the chart-topping song MacArthur Park. In the center, we can see where “Someone left the cake out in the rain” with all the “sweet, green icing flowing down.”

Josephine Wall first began to hide faces in her work when she painted Mystical Tree. The idea took root and became one of her trademarks. Now the vast majority of her paintings have hidden faces, regardless of the subject matter. Kids of all ages are having great fun hunting for them at the WMODA exhibition.

Read more about Josephine Wall