Forbidden Fruit

After leaving the “x-rated” Corrigan Gallery exhibit on Tuesday, I walked around the corner to the Circular Congregational Church on Meeting Street to see another exhibit entitled She Shall Be Called Woman. I felt it was interesting, but not outstanding. Most of the paintings were allegorical and, to my taste, most erred on the side of being either too direct or too vague. One painting, however, stood out.

Pear by Lisa Shimko

This “Pear” by Lisa Shimko seemed the most subtle, symbolic, and sensual (and smallest) work in the show. Had it been at the Corrigan Gallery, it would have surpassed everything there in terms of its vivid, tactile sexuality—and in this case its femininity.

More than that, it heightened my awe of the designs of Nature and whoever or whatever is behind those designs. The more I looked at it, the more beautiful it became. One of the signs of good art. •