Delightful Appropriations The works of Paul Arensmeyer and Jeri Ledbetter. by DAVID HALL Enough, a mixed-media piece by Paul Arensmeyer At the opening for his exhibit "Meditations" at Ledbetter Lusk Gallery, I was having a conversation with sculptor Paul Arensmeyer about his art, which is constructed from common junk found in scrap heaps, architectural remnant graveyards, and even the side of the road to create stunningly elegant works that belie their humble materials. Up strolled a well-dressed gentleman, pointing to the slight "S" curves in the 2-by-4s of Path II, asking "How did you bend such large beams of wood?" Arensmeyer replied, "Um they're balcony rails." Without saying a word, the either embarrassed or disappointed fellow slinked away as inconspicuously as he had appeared. People still feel cheated when they find out an artist has appropriated some aspect of their creations, thinking that it is indicative of slovenliness or of a poor work ethic. The use of objet trouve was spawned by the readymades of Marcel Duchamp, and they took many forms throughout the movements of Dada, Surrealism, kinetic sculpture, assemblage, and pop art. Found objects are widely utilized by contemporary artists, often badly, the result of an "anything goes" relativism and creeping subjectivity that seems to have infected the art world in general. Given this abuse, it is no wonder that the use of found objects or images is often greeted with cynicism by the public. But one should not throw out the baby with the bathwater. Arensmeyer's works tickled my jaded fancy in a way it hasn't been tickled in a long time. The artist sure pulls off some heady formalism to be using the aged flotsam of pitted and rusted metal objects, yellowed and battered wood, not to mention a retired croquet ball. The minimalist constructions impart a Zen-like quietude and a passive artlessness; this ambiance is a function of his understated handling of the materials. The artist says that when talking to students he encourages them to "have the confidence to know when to stop," that their touch will come through, no matter how light. The work of Robert Herdlein, a Seattle artist, strongly influenced Arensmeyer in this regard, in which objects are only slightly manipulated or sometimes not altered at all. Arensmeyer's title for Enough, a mandala assembled out of eight staves salvaged from some whitewashed gazebo or trellis signifies this aspiration to succinctness and deliberate resolution. It is the history implied by the patina of decay that prevents these stoic works from sinking into mere decoration. The objects are living their second life (or third or fourth) as art, and every pockmark, stain, and rusty nail from their previous incarnations is gloriously brandished. In the series titled Self Reliant, half-inch-thick metal plates, rectangular in shape with some rounded corners, are assembled and combined into prim celebrations of pure form. The irony is that the elements for these works, regenerated from discard, are much as they were when they were found. A red ochre-hued primer subtly interacts with the ribbon of orange rust that frames each shape in a manner that screams "slick modernism," their brutish commoness notwithstanding. But not every distressed surface present happened by chance. In Paths II, Arensmeyer pointed out a section in which its blemishes are a bit of fiction. Feeling that it required some bolstering, the artist scraped off the peeling paint from a white weathered window and glued the crumbling slough onto some of the balder 2-by-4s to match the decrepit surface of the other wood in the sculpture. Arensmeyer is rather new to art, having started out in business. He is self-deprecating about "not knowing how to draw"; but on the contrary, it could be said that his sensitive appropriations of objects are a refined, if not traditional, form of drawing. Ultimately his work is about seeing. Says Arensmeyer, "Consciously I work from a purely visual place. I'm looking for combinations and manipulations of shape and texture that excite me visually." At Ledbetter Lusk through March 25th. If Arensmeyer finds the raw material for his art among common refuse, Jeri Ledbetter mines the traditions of late modernism for her deftly painted works. Her images and manner of picture development have their precedence in the work of Richard Diebenkorn, Francis Bacon, and any number of abstract expressionists. To be in an era in which painting in this style is considered old-fashioned, Ledbetter must have incredible tenacity to have cultivated it to this level of sophistication. There is a real passion for paint exhibited here, and a no-holds-barred confidence in the handling of the brush. Her works divide themselves into two categories: purely abstract paintings and vaguely figurative ones that exploit the same ab-ex vocabulary of washes, drips, scratches, and doodles. In works such as Red Man, the figure invokes a chilling terror akin to Bacon's sinister ministers. In other works, the figures embody an anonymity like those in the paintings of Larry Rivers or Diebenkorn. I much preferred the abstract explorations because the investigations of pure painting, with the subtle nuances of color and composition, seem to be what all of Ledbetter's work is about. And this quality is less fettered in the abstract works. The artist is especially gifted in the department of color. The use of neutral colors in work like Passage Dusk and Nightman, with their mottled variations of tobacco, asphaltum, cool sum-i blacks, and earthen blue hues is intoxicating. Ledbetter shines when she uses white as a glazing color, a pitfall for most painters since it's likely to become an awkward, chalky mess. Some may see these works as derivative, and though one cannot deny their ab-ex roots, this seems to stem more from Ledbetter's similar approach to the process of painting, rather than from imitation. There is an intuitive give and take taking place, as she says "allowing the unexpected to occur." No, this is not ground-breaking stuff; but very few develop expressionist painting to this level of skill. Also on view is the work of Pamela Hassler. At Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects through March 31st. David Hall is a local artist. You can e-mail him at letters@memphisflyer.com.