Chalet Comellas opens art exhibit in Eustis

Christine Cole | Special To The Sentinel

July 24, 2008

EUSTIS - In an effort to find a shorthand that everyone can read, Chalet Comellas uses cultural symbols delivered in oil, acrylic and watercolor paints, ink, colored pencil, photographic prints and, well, anything that speaks to her.In "Pre-Planning," she used rulers that were donated to her art classroom when she taught in the Tampa school system. Nearly 40 pieces by the Tampa-based artist will go on view when "Chalet Comellas: Visual Vocabulary" opens at a free reception from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Lake Eustis Museum of Art and at the Eustis City Hall Gallery across the street. Comellas was in Eustis on Monday to help hang her art in both galleries.

Question: In the large-scale photographs, you make a house shape of connected numbers, with an orbit of dots inside it. What are you trying to say?

Answer: Houses represent the self. The dots are events, memories and dreams. I aspire to get a clear picture of myself. It's like a conversation with a friend, when you realize little bits about yourself. It helps define you. The whole show is a comment on the systems people use to create a whole self.

Q: You use symbols that have meaning for everyone, such as gold keys, a green snake, a flying moth or a sitting bird, often using more than one in a single piece. How do you hope people will react?

A: In one series of work, I use many symbols on a background of a house or an altar. I call them charms. Then I add another idea, like the diver in "Taking the Plunge." Like him, you choose which set of symbols you want to dive into. I want to make something people can viscerally connect with. People can walk up and say, "I like that, but I don't know why."

Q: Your family originally came from Spain to Cuba and then to Tampa, but you did not grow up speaking Spanish. Do you think most people feel disconnected today?

A: We have all lost our truth-tellers, especially women. Our wisdom-tellers are not our great-grandmothers anymore, but the media, the magazines.

Q: So the immediate family and a sense of place become more important?

A: I have painted my grandmother. And "Grandfathered In" is also about my family. My grandfather practically raised me. He was a big fisherman and he raised bunnies, but he had a sharp edge. I use cigar images, coffee beans and palm trees in front of a Hav-A-Tampa sign. I really am a Tampa girl.