About three months ago I was asked to design a flyer for Jim Costello’s retrospective show at Burwell-Morgan Mill. Over these months I not only designed the flyer, but also this web site as well as other pieces to promote the show. In working on these projects, I have become very familiar with Jim’s paintings and drawings, but only as images on a computer screen. In fact, up until yesterday, I have only seen three of Jim’s paintings in the homes of friends.
Yesterday the show organizers and a volunteer crew (husbands and sons) began hanging the show in the second floor gallery at the mill. They spent the morning clearing the space of temporary walls and began organizing the placement of the paintings in the afternoon. I arrived early afternoon and was treated to the sight of all these paintings that I have become so familiar with in a large informal setting, leaning against walls and stacked in groups. They fit comfortably in their surroundings, not yet formally hung on the walls. It gave me a sense of what it must be like to have one of these paintings in your home where it becomes a familiar presence.
The paintings are beautiful — mostly landscapes and nudes — and make an immediate impression. They are simple and complex. Simple in the sense that they are easy to relate to on first viewing. Complex in that they are deep and rich and layered. I suspect that if I got to live with one in my home it would become a friend, one that I got to know better over time, revealing its secrets and surprises, slowly, day by day.
I am very grateful to have been involved in this endeavor. I have never met Jim Costello — surprising, since we have many friends in common and have lived in the same area for many years. But I feel that I know him at least a little bit, having seen the landscapes of my adopted home through the unique lens of his paintings and drawings. So, not only I am looking forward to the opening of the show and the sight of all the paintings and drawings displayed in a room that compliments them so well, but I will also get to meet Jim for the first time, which will be a real treat.
Jeff Lefkowitz