PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART FEATURES
PIONEERING POLARIZED LIGHT ARTIST
[see images from the exhibit]

Pioneering kinetic light artist Austine Wood Comarow (who goes by her first name) is currently having her art featured in the Philadelphia Museum of Art December 18, 2001 through March 18, 2002 in the Restaurant Gallery.

Austine invented a completely new medium she calls Polage art with which she creates metamorphosing paintings. Austine began inventing the medium in 1967 using polarized light and special "optically active" materials such as cellulose to extract pure color from white light. Her first show was at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile in 1973. Since then, she has shown in museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Boston Museum of Science, and la Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in Paris.

The Philadelphia show chronicles Austine’s journey of discovering the natural world through the process of exploring her new medium. Her views of how her art fits into the art world reveal her sense of an emerging post-September 11 trend.

"Creating beautiful images has been taboo throughout most of the 20^th Century," says Austine. "Using contemporary industrial materials has allowed me to keep a balance between the formal requirements of modernism and the urge to break free of the unspoken rules of the art world. I have been increasingly ignoring the little devils on my shoulder whispering in my ear that if it looks too lovely, no one will take the work seriously," she said.

Now Austine views overcoming the "beauty taboo" as an important next chapter in the continuing art dialogue. "After September 11^th, the urge to create more reverence for beauty in the world around us has been overwhelming," she says.

Titled "Earth: A Polarized View," the Philadelphia show features 18 individual kinetic back-lighted works inspired by ocean, desert, and forest. Several of the pieces include human figures which blend in and out as just one more component of the natural environment.

"After an initial period of paralysis and depression following the September tragedies, I found that I needed more than ever to look at life-affirming images of beauty that the earth has to offer in order to counter the suffocating reports of evil in the world," reflects the 59 year old artist/inventor. "One of the pieces I made for the show in the last three months, titled The Path Beyond, represents comfort and security." In that piece, a giant maple tree slowly changes color as the seasons change. Austine says it reminds her of the timelessness of nature. A brick path leads beyond it into, what Austine calls "a hidden distance," past a trace of a white picket fence. "To me the brick path and picket fence are American icons, reminders that we can have faith in ourselves and in the path of history," she says.

Austine’s unique studio is in the desert on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada where she creates her art using clear, colorless materials such as cellulose and polarizing filters. Some of her work is only visible when viewed through polarized sunglasses. This has led to a major commission from Maui Jim Sunglasses to create interactive Polage art for sunglass stores throughout the world.

"My relationship with Maui Jim has allowed me to create the art I love most, exploring a new way of creating images," Austine says. "It lets me represent changes in nature that occur over minutes or millennia."

It is the dimension of time that makes Austine’s art unique. "In essence, light is my paint and time is my canvas," says Austine. "The light coming through a Polage gives it a spiritual dimension akin to stained glass. The slow changes give it life."

Austine’s unique Polage art can be seen on her website at www.austine.com. She and her husband David Comarow, a patent attorney, divide their time between their homes in Maui, Hawaii and Las Vegas, Nevada.