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"Welcome to the weird" could be the theme of the most recent Lakeland Art Center exhibit.
What's weird - Don Swartzentruber of Winona Lake calls his style pop-surreal - are the images the painter presents for inspection.
The artist is used to the term "weird" as well as "strange" and "disturbing" and other words used to describe things that just aren't normal.
On exhibit is a very personal, autobiographical show. Welcome to Don Swartzentruber's imagination.
Swartzentruber uses religious, cultural and sexual icons in a straight-forward manner to present his thoughts on these issues.
Along the right side of the gallery is the "Totem Triptych" collection - 101 6 x 8 inch pieces are rendered in shades of brown.
Stacked in groups of three, each top piece has a head, each middle piece shows the figure's chest and belly and the bottom piece has legs and feet.
They could be mixed and matched to make new images.
The idea, Swartzentruber said, comes from children's card game where animal parts can be inter-matched - a pig's head on a cow's belly on dog feet.
Since they're small and displayed on the Art Center's peg board displays set in a zig-zag fashion, the viewer quickly becomes engulfed by the paintings.
It's easy to get lost in these triangular spaces.
Titles include "Testosterone," "Maternal Sin," "Carnal Casino," "Commercial Art" and "Estrogen."
"Each piece has its own theme. As a group there is an unlimited potential for narration," the Warsaw Community High School art teacher said.
In the "Schoolmaster Says ...," the lizard-eyed figure in a bowler hat flips little human figures from his hands up around his head. He blows a party favor. At his feet is an apple core and textbooks.
In "Pacifism," a bearded fellow in an Amish hat wears a military uniform with sergeant's stripes. He holds the handles of a horse-driven plow in his hands. At his feet is a Wall Street street sign.
Using ancient and modern symbols, the exhibit stirs up emotions - the ones locked in the belly.
In the detailed-filled works, several stories are being told - like a strange conversation.
They're surreal, remember.
On the other side of the entrance, Swartzentruber tackles the theme of marriage and puts color to the canvases in the "Heterosexual Monogamy" series.
"This became an opportunity to explore the mystical, passionate and violent process of two individuals becoming one," he said.
In "Organically Entwined," a couple is wrapped around and growing together like a lush vine. The only indication something is amiss is the pinched expression on one forest green face.
Another work, "Flesh of One Flesh," two figures face each other with huge open mouths - the better to obsess over and consume one another. They're crowned with Calla lilies.
The exhibit is one of the most interesting presented by the Art Center in a while. It may also be one of the most controversial.
"A mystical belief in Christ is at the root of my craft," the Grace College graduate said. "With spiritual faith guiding me, an uninhibited and sincere discussion takes place.
"The work is deeply intimate because it represents no institutional view but rather a personal exegesis and autobiography."
It's easy to leave a still-life of flowers behind.
Swartzentruber's paintings hover after the viewer who is then left to ascertain these themes alone.
The artist provides plenty of written explanation about his work. Swartzentruber swears he's conservative in his thinking.
However.
He is explicit in his drawings.
Figures dance, twist and gaze out of their settings colored with purple, green and orange skin. They may sit on the head of or in the mouth of another creature.
Painted toy soldiers line one frame while silk flowers are wreathed around another.
Paint oozes past the usual boundaries just to create new borders.
A set of black stained, hand-carved frames from Peru, used in South America for religious images, present themes of a different nature in Swartzentruber's exhibit.
This is where he exorcises his personal demons.
Some of the devils are quite apparent. Others are hidden in shadows or shadowed in humor.
It's all a sight to see.
An artist's reception will be Sunday from 1:30 to 3 p.m.
The Lakeland Art Center, 116 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw, is open Wednesday through Saturday 11:30 to 4:30.
On the net: www.fp,kconline.com/artsreach and www.swartzentruber.com
