"Red Barn" by Jerry Pisani

By Peta Jinnath Andersen

Tucked away between Kirkland Village and Union Square, the Washington Street Art Center is an unimposing box of a building. The dusty white, red-doored gallery is also the perfect spot for Jerry Pisani’s Unstructured, a show that begins with architecture, and ends with an exploration of character and identity.

Ten years in the making, Unstructured is Pisani’s first show, a short run from Dec. 10 to 29, with showings by appointment. The show begins with several pieces from Pisani’s early years: “First Love,” a sketch of the student center at Ithaca College in New York, is probably his first building sketch.

“I spent a lot of time in that building, which is probably why I felt compelled to put it down on paper before I left campus,” Pisani says. The drawing, which he describes as “haphazard” and “quick” has an immediacy that captures the eye. But despite the piece’s slightly chaotic nature, Pisani has no plans to rework it.  “I felt like there’s something about going back and trying to do something else with it that didn’t feel natural. I did it when I was there and  that felt right, so I’ve left it that way.”

This genuine, open approach to his work, is what makes Pisani’s show so captivating. On the opposite wall to “Student Center” is “Little Red House,” a soft slightly haunting piece, also from Pisani’s college days. “It’s just this little house…very cute, very quaint, but I was really struck by the fact there was this little tiny cottage house… that looks like it was just tucked in and forgotten about. It just kind of always looked like it needed a friend. I love it.”

Jerry Pisani with Little Red House, first serious painting and old favorite.

Although the 33 year old artist and kindergarten teacher isn’t new to art, he has little formal training. “I unofficially minored in it, in college, but it’s not written down anywhere…When I started playing with the pastels, I took a class at the Boston Center for Adult Education, a seven week pastel workshop,” he said. The Red House, he says, was his first serious piece of work–the painting that made him feel he’d crossed the line from interested in art to artist.

On another wall are photographs and sketches, the early design work of a chalk pastel, then oil, commissioned piece; beyond these is “Red Barn,” a chalk pastel of a barn in Ithaca, near a bed and breakfast Pisani stayed at several years ago. “Out of the whole show, this one is [probably] my favorite,” he said. “It’s the first chalk one that I felt really really successful with. My intention was to move this, what I’d call sketch, to something a little bit more refined, to get ready for an oil painting and it just felt really good when I finished that drawing. It didn’t feel like I needed to move to the next step.”

Is it difficult when a piece doesn’t go where it’s supposed to go? “I love [experimenting],” Pisani says. “And that’s a little bit about the unstructured title I feel, because I can. Especially when i put the newsprint on the wall I don’t feel like it’s anything permanent, like I can just put something on newsprint and try it again. I’ll  tape over it a lot of times if I don’t like it I have big fat masking tape and I just tape over the first drawing and keep drawing. So it feels free, you know? Like I can try something out, knowing there’s no consequence.”

Asked about what he’s looking to show, Pisani is thoughtful. “I think the most important thing is putting a personality into the place. I’d like [people] to find someone in there. Someone they can see, or believe is there. I don’t know about really seeing the person there, it’s more about believing that that spirit is there.”

Unstructured is open until December 29th, by appointment. For details, contact the artist, Jerry Pisani, at jerrypisani@comcast.net, or the Washington St. Arts Center at 617-623-5315.