Merle Citron blends outrage and inner peace in an exhibit with Stacie Speer Scott in Lambertville.
By: Susan Van Dongen
The rock group The Pretenders had a great song in the ’80s called "My City Was Gone." Lead singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde wrote about returning to her hometown in Ohio and finding that everything had been torn down, paved over and developed and not in a positive way.
Artist Merle Citron has her beloved city of Lambertville to rely on. But she has been concerned that her country is gone, that the essence of America has been whittled away by an unfeeling administration.
"I’ve been outraged since we were railroaded into the Iraq War," she says, not mincing words. "For a while I felt like we were living in a fascist regime. There was this sense of ‘if you say something critical about this war, you’re not a patriot.’ In truth, Lambertville signed a ‘no go’ statement before the war. And as it unfolded, we felt like our country was being seized.
"I grew up believing we were the good guys, so this makes me mad," she continues. "To go to Iraq with this paper-thin excuse. We’re sacrificing not only our lives but now (with the sectarian fighting) the lives of thousands of Iraqi civilians… I thought of Picasso and his ‘Guernica’ came to mind. I visited his studio and touched the gate outside his house. I wondered if through osmosis some of the outrage he felt painting ‘Guernica’ breathed into me."
One of her most successful ways of channeling this outrage is to paint. She was being playful, experimenting with clay, and realized she had begun to shape faces of men. Ms. Citron then gessoed a medium density board and epoxied those faces onto it. Without any planning the work started to tell Ms. Citron what it wanted to be. Pretty soon, the men had dark suits on.
"After the suits went on them they became Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush," she says. "The leading figure is Cheney I’ve always known that. He’s the ventriloquist. I was also thinking about the way when they talk to us, they’re surrounded by American flags. So we have three pasty white men wrapped in patriotic vitriol."
She called the mixed media work "The Deciders," an homage to the title the president gave himself.
"But we’re the friggin’ deciders don’t you take our country away from us," Ms. Citron says. "An artist has to speak out. It’s not just about red barns and pretty landscapes. You just can’t be quiet. Art has songs to sing and visuals to sense and feel."
"The Deciders" is a new piece among a variety of Ms. Citron’s paintings on display at the Artists’ Gallery in Lambertville through April 1. The exhibit also showcases work by Stacie Speer Scott.
Ms. Citron tipped her hat to Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report) when she titled the show Truthiness. Mr. Colbert coined the word on the debut episode of the show in October 2005, poking fun at President Bush. It was named word of the year for 2005 by the American Dialect Society and for 2006 by Merriam-Webster and is defined as "truth that comes from the gut, not books."
But Ms. Citron didn’t just title the show Truthiness for giggles.
"It really captures the quasi nature of truth," she says. "An artist has to tell the truth and so does a human being with any morals. I believe there’s no basis to our perceived reality if truth is lacking."
She goes on to reflect that when our country’s leaders evade the truth it’s like being in a relationship with someone who is a liar. You never really feel like you’re on firm ground.
"I don’t believe the president or Congress or the Supreme Court anymore," Ms. Citron says. "There’s been a politicization of institutions that were supposed to be neutral."
On the lighter side, has Mr. Colbert mentioned the exhibit on his show?
"I went online to try and message him," Ms. Citron says. "He loves to hear that this or that is named after him. And he loves that he’s coined a word."
Ms. Scott’s works vary in theme, and are not as political as "The Deciders," although "Child Running From the Guns" certainly taps into a global crisis of children being caught in the crossfire.
"My works also address the issues but on a more global, socio-political scale," she says. "’Child Running from the Guns’ was created from a piece of found barbed wire which forms the head and arms of a child fleeing gunfire. The child for me represents all children who are victims of wars beyond their control."
She adds that themes of loss and change run through the work she’s showing at the Artists’ Gallery. There also are references to personal, family and domestic issues of the home.
"In the painting, ‘Kedian selling Flowers,’ I look back on a time of innocence and purity in a young boy’s life," Ms. Scott says. "For me, the image has a sense of calm earnestness, a natural positivity that is tested as the young boy confronts the world outside the home."
Both Ms. Scott and Ms. Citron reflect on how alone we can be, especially in an age of technology and a society that stresses independence. For Ms. Scott, this issue is addressed in "The Lone Wolf."
"He’s outside in the snow, in the full moon," she says. "His face is laughing but alone it’s about the vulnerability of parts of our individuality."
Ms. Citron who is known for painting "her people," usually seated on benches is astounded by the phenomenon of cell phones and text messaging. Humans seem to be walking around talking to themselves, but then you look closer and they’re plugged into a cell phone. Unfortunately, they’re not observing the world around them or interacting with folks right next to them.
"Disconnected" addresses this circumstance.
"There are 13 people sitting on five park benches that have no base they’re not attached to the earth," Ms. Citron says. "There are three trees which have no shadows. All the people are on cell phones. That came from one day when I was pulling into a supermarket parking lot, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. People were coming out of the market and they were all on cell phones.
"We’re disconnected," she adds. "The irony is that technology has made it instantaneously possible to quasi connect. But e-mail and text messaging is not being connected there’s no depth. People are longing for that deeper connection. That’s why Lambertville is so delicious. We truly are a town."
In contrast to both pieces, Ms. Citron created "Silence" for the show. We see a Buddhist monk in a saffron robe, bathed in light, standing still in the hallway of a temple. She says a friend retired and moved to Mongolia, but returned this summer with magnificent pictures.
"She passed the photos around and there was something about this photograph," Ms. Citron says. "I said, ‘Oh, this one is for me.’ It translates to the tranquility that we could have in contrast to the craziness that’s going on in this country. (The monk) is aglow, with this inner and outer light, which represents not only the sunlight but also the peace within him. It’s very important and anyone who meditates knows this that you have to balance your outrage with inner peace."
Truthiness, featuring works by Merle Citron and Stacie Speer Scott, is on view at the Artists’ Gallery, 32 Coryell St., Lambertville, through April 1. Gallery hours: Fri.-Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m., or by appointment. For information, call (609) 397-4588. On the Web: www.lambertvillearts.com

