Local artist's visit to former Nazi stronghold inspires latest exhibit

Artists are inspired by all different sources. Sometimes it's an unconscious process and, other times, they are keenly aware of what triggers their creativity.

For Westport artist and author Judith Orseck Katz, it was a trip to Lithuania that compelled her to produce the stark black and white ink drawings currently on display at the Nylen Gallery as part of duel artist exhibit, called "Two Forests."

"I didn't want to go, I fought going, and I wasn't supposed to go," Katz said, emphatically, standing in front of a large eight-foot-by-nine-foot, enlarged image, comprised of six individual images, that she drew following a tour of the Lithuanian forest outside of Vilnius where more than 100,000 people were murdered by the Nazis between 1941 and 1944. Before leaving the United States, Katz learned that this region was once the center of Jewish life and, in fact, was called the "Jerusalem of the North." Today there are few Jews who live there. "These are the ones who are too poor to move," Katz added.

Katz's extensive knowledge of this area comes from a background in studying Judaic history. However, despite her scholastic understanding, she admits to "not looking too closely" at the horrific atrocities against Jews that occurred in the World War II era.

With great ambivalence, Katz set out on her journey to Lithuania and returned with overwhelming emotions that she channeled into her art work. "On the plane coming home, all I could think about was black," Katz noted. "It had to be black."

Black was, indeed, a part of her work. However, Katz also juxtaposed images of white alongside of the darkness in a series of abstract images that several people have said resemble a Rorschach ink blot test.

"Each person who comes into the gallery says that the images look like something different," said Wendy Nylen, owner of the Nylen Gallery.

A native of Westport, Nylen received a bachelor's degree in art history at Harvard University. She is also an artist. "When I first saw them, I thought were beautiful images that had a lot of emotion to it. As abstract pieces, they are very strong."

Katz's show at the Nylen Gallery also includes ceramic sculptures she created 15 years ago. Although they were made before her trip to Lithuania, the stark sense of decay that they evoke uncannily fit perfectly with the Panerai images, and Nylen thought they, too, should be part of the exhibit.

"There is an implication of decay and ruined burnt quality that implies injury and also rebirth and recovery," Nylen explained.

Overall, visitors to the gallery have mixed reaction.

"Someone came in and said that they loved it but that the images gave them the shivers," Katz said.

This is, however, exactly the response she is looking for. She wants people to not forget the inhumane actions of the Nazis and the thousands of people who perished during the Holocaust. Accompanying the exhibit are a few words written by Katz that beautifully describe her feelings. She writes, "We cannot change what happened. We can raise our voices and let it be known. Take a piece of the memory and tell the story."

As an artist better known for her haiku-like watercolor paintings and pen-and-ink sketches of nature's bounty -- including cascading waterfalls, flowing streams and exquisite beach scenes, such as Westport's own Old Mill Beach area -- Katz could not use color in her work for almost a year after her return from Lithuania.

"I was so overcome when I visited the forest that I couldn't wait to leave Lithuania," she admitted. "On a little piece of paper that I still have, I wrote `How could I put anything on paper that's not solidly black?'"

However, when she began this project, Katz chose to do her work not in a more traditional art studio setting but rather at one of her favorite local sites, Old Mill Beach. "I wanted to be somewhere I loved," she said.

Also featured at the Nylen Gallery is another exhibit which demonstrates the reaction of artist Ernie Grevers, also of Westport, to forests. Inspired by Connecticut's woods and hills, Grevers creates stylized, two-dimensional images that take on a three-dimensional aspect without being a sculpture, explained Nylen.

"She paints trees in a very literal and also a very abstract way," Nylen continued. "Using a molding paste, she seems to build her tree so that it looks like it comes right off of the canvas."

The exhibit "Two Forests" will be on display until Sept. 25 at the Nylen Gallery, located at Picture This, at 606 Post Road E., Westport. For more information, call 203-227-6861 or e-mail nylengallery@gmail.com