Cynnie Gaasch Exhibitions

Kindred Spirits - Olean Public Library with Ani Hoover - January-February 2004


Whipsmart, acrylic and oil on canvas
2003, 38" x 36"
in the collection of Helga MacKinnon		 Young artists often search for key mentors to guide and motivate their development. Also important in the maturity of an artist are inspiring peers. Cynnie Gaasch and Ani Hoover met as students at the Chautauqua Summer School of Art in 1992; they came there from Massachusetts and Missouri, respectively to spend a summer totally immersed in paint. As undergraduate students, they were working through traditional subjects: landscape, still life and portraiture. The summer brought outstanding faculty and peers - and their friendship - this has provided camaraderie in the serious pursuit of their art individually.

This exhibit is the first to feature their work side by side, an occasion to look at influences and compliments. Both artists eventually attended American University in Washington, DC, at different times, to study further with some of the faculty they were introduced to at Chautauqua. Both of these programs emphasize the work of being an artist, focusing on making over theory. This, as well as the color school, based in Washington in the 60s, and the teaching of Josef Albers, translated through his students to this generation of painters comes through in both bodies of work.

"Cynnie was my first friend who was my friend because of being an artist," explains Hoover. "I found a kindred spirit in Ani, it was hard to find other young artists who were clearly committed at that young of an age," remembers Gaasch, "I think we were both already fairly confident about our future as painters, and we challenged each other and the people around us."

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