IT’S OK TO LAUGH – O’Hanlon Online Gallery Show

Art: M. Louise Stanley. Design: Jeremy Thornton

Download Artwork List + Artist Comments (PDF)

April 15 – May 31, 2022

Juried by M. Louise Stanley

Deep thoughts by Stonefox

HUMOR IN ART

As a child I had two jokes from Mad Magazine on my wall that both confused and entertained me “all that glitters is not gold said the camel urinating in the moonlight” and “Rome wasn’t built in a day, it just looks that way”. They both are visual puns that question the literal. It is dangerous to make art that is humorous. People may not take you seriously. When humor works it often rides a precarious line between the sublime and the downright silly and is often not funny at all. The humor in my paintings comes about unconsciously… it is always there in some form. Humor is the camouflage for the ‘real’ subject and a catalyst or bridge to the darker, more disquieting side of the story. Major influences have been Jacques Tati, Lucille Ball, George Cruikshank and Marcel Carne’s les Enfants du Paradis.

– M. Louise Stanley

Click on thumbnails to enlarge / Haga clic en las miniaturas para ampliar

Humor is a funny way of being serious

Tom Gehrig
Awaiting Enlightenment

Performance (documented with photography)
15 x 11 in. $800

Walter Askin
Clobbered in the Cotswolds

Acrylic on Canvas
48 x 48 in. $8,500

Walter Askin
Learning to Recognize the Skivies of Several Notables …

Charcoal on Paper
32 x 40 in. $25,000

Mike Yachnik
Breugel Invades van Eyck

Acrylics
20 x 16 in. NFS

Amy Wendland
Vanitas: Thistle in Fancy Dress

Thistle herbarium sample, graphite
24 x 18 in. NFS

Lev L Spiro
Palmistry

Digital Print
22 x 17 in. $750

Gordon Wilson
Assisted Living Partners

Oil on canvas
24 x 24 in. $800

Margaret Noble
Beasties

Watercolor, ink
12 x 9 in. $300

It can be the shortest distance between two people

Smiles are curved lines that set things straight

April Gavin
Coyote Flings the Stars

Watercolor
10 x 8 in. NFS

Susan Dukow
These Frogs

Acrylic
14 x 14 in. $650

Karen Schwartz
Goats Gossiping

Mixed Media on Yupo Paper
14 x 11 in. NFS

Jan Dove
Man With His Mountain on His Shoulders

Pigment print on archival paper, found objects
30 x 20 in. $500

Jeff Lieppman
Non-Fat Gluten Free

Oil on Canvas
20 x 16 in. NFS

Fay Golson
Balancing Act

Oil on Panel
26 x 18 in. $575

Marcia Scanlon
Worry Bird

Mixed media: lamp shades, hangers, crab claws, watercolors
39 x 14 x 17 in. $3,000

If it gets a smile, it’s worthwhile

Heidi Rufeh
Love Crazy

Encaustic, Oil and Collage
12 x 12 in. $450

Suzy Radonsky
WOOF!

Acrylic on canvas
8 x 10 in. $210

Gigi Woodward
Call Me Al

Acrylic, Charcoal Pencil, Crayon
60 x 60 in. NFS

Peller Marion
Snoozers World

Mixed Media
19 x 25 in. $1,000

Glenyse Henschel
Jack Straight Up

Acrylic on canvas
24 x 12 in. NFS

Carolyn Holden
White Alligators

Oil on canvas
30 x 42 in. $2,500

Nori Thorne
Tea for the Toad Prince

Pastel on Panel
11 x 14 in. $1,000

Robert Rosenthal
Peaceable Kingdom

Etching
15 x 22 in. $460

Smiles can extend our laugh expectancy

Theresa Giammattei
Praying Mantis

Acrylic Gouache and Ink on Paper
10.5 x 8 in. $145

John Wehrle
Saint SebastianTV

Painted Wood, light, Plexiglass halo
36 x 12 x 12 in. $5,000

Sarah Rieser
Saint Lawrence

Mixed Media Soft Sculpture
12 x 26 x 18 in. $830

Karen Kjell Rothman
Clicking Heels

Gouache on canvas
10 x 8 in. $2,000

AnneKarin Glass
Wild Umbrella

Oil/canvas
24 x 12 in. $2,400

Donna Maselli
She Cut Down Beautiful Tree

Mixed Media (watercolor and photograph)
14 x 18 in. $1,000

Curtis Settino
The Tech? No!-Crat

Acrylic paint on recycled wood
11 x 11 in. $500

Richard Schramm
Blessed Are the Indecisive (or Maybe Not)

Digital photograph
12 x 16 in. $300

A laugh is just a smile that breaks

Earl Grenville Killeen
Facing the Day

Watercolor
20.5 x 15 in. $3,600

Suzanne Eller
Buzzed

Assemblage – 3D Sculpture
13 x 7 x 8 in. $800

Sandy Huse
Where They Came From, How They Got Here

Bowling ball, wire, polymer clay, glass beads, polychrome
24 x 20 x 18 in. $1,800

Linda Fitz Gibbon
All That Glitters is Not Gold

Ceramic
3.75 x 11.5 x 7.25 in. $550

Lindsey Morrison Grant
All Our Burden

Found-Reclaimed-Mixed Media/3D-Sculpture
12 x 4.5 x 5 in. $400

Emily Rensink
Never Say Never

Clay, underglaze, fake fly, gold paint
9 x 5.25 x 4.5 in. NFS

Christina Ellis
Wanda

Hand Sculpted Concrete
14 x 9.5 x 6.5 in. $1,800

Donald Fodness
Soldier Stack

Bronze encased ceramic mugs
28 x 8 x 8 in. $3,500

The best time to laugh is anytime we can

Foad Seyed Mohammadi
ON

Digital Art
24 x 36 in. $800

Nikyra Capson
2-Ply: The Sh!t Show that was 2020

Printed Cotton
4 x 4 x 3.5 in. $413,969

Leslie Miller
School Pic

Ink/paint
10 x 10 in. $150

Gael Fitzmaurice
Karen

Gouache and ink on paper
14 x 20 in. NFS

Kwei-lin Lum
One Evening

Digital
26 x 26 in. $65

Laughter prevents psychosclerosis – a hardening of the mind

Richard Helmick
Hot

Wood and paint
8 x 13.5 in. $400

Susan Finer
Smoke and Mirrors

Mixed Media: paper, fabric, acrylic paint, thread
19 x 25 in. $800

Carol Babington
Flock of Cocks

Acrylic
12 x 12 in. $200

Maruška aka Ellen Wood
Sacred Geometry Stork: “It’s YOUR turn to deliver.”

Acrylic Painting on Canvas
24 x 30 in. $1,200

Sally Cruikshank
Kellyanne

Gouache
9 x 11 in. $1,000

It also helps prevent osteoporosis of the funny bone

Steve Dayton
You don’t know the half of it.

Wood, laser cut MDF, plaster, acrylic paint, paper, graphite
8 x 11 x 3.5 in. NFS

John Langdon
Ceci n’est pas un oiseau

Digital image
5 x 8 in. $100

John Langdon
Turn The Tide

Acrylic on canvas
26 x 28 in. $4,000

Ida Picker
Maytag

Acrylic on canvas
18 x 14 in. $1,000

A smile increases our face value

M. Louise Stanley
Self Portrait, 2018. Sketchbook #35

Gouache
9 X 6 in

Linda Mucha Karns
Pleased To Meetcha!

Ink and Colored Pencil
12 x 9 in. $110

Corey Weiner
Corey to go

Oil on gesso board
25 x 19 in. $350

Sylvia Aruffo
Need a Potion, Dearie?

Watercolor
14 x 11 in. NFS

Margo Palmer
IVY

Acrylic mixed media including puzzle pieces
36 x 36 in. $3,500

Corey Weiner
Morning Face

Oil paint
24 x 18 in. $350

Allen Schmertzler
Egon Schiele’s Espresso

Acrylic on birch cradle board
12 x 12 in. $400

Allen Schmertzler
Too Much Fado

Acrylic on side by side cradle board
12 x 24 in. $450

Allen Schmertzler
Mark Twain Meets Alice Neel

Acrylic on birch cradle board
12 x 12 in. $400

James Hartel
Genetics

Watercolor
36 x 24 in. $3,000

It is OK to smile and laugh more than once

Marcia Scanlon
Lysistrata – We’ll burn your beans!

Watercolor and collage on paper
22 x 30 in. $1,000

Dobee Snowber
WE’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE

Mixed media on board
8 x 10 in. $400

Richard P Stevens
Bluelight Special

Digital photographic art
22 x 14 in. $200

Alice Stewart
All The World’s a Stage

Gouache
18 x 24 in. NFS

Patricia Stine
It’s All Fun and Games Until Someone Loses an Eye

Oil
48 x 60 in. NFS

Czeslawa Wojtkowski
Anti-Christ Bitch Slut Blues

Digital images
12 x 18 in. prints $20

Siana Smith
Devirtualization

Oil on canvas
24 x 48 in. NFS

So. . . don’t play serious – seriously play!

Karen Burns
Aunt Bernice’s Pickle Fork

Oils
20 x 16 in. NFS

Many thanks to M. Louise Stanley for her time and selections.

A NOTE FROM THE JUROR

My task was daunting, choose around 79 images out of 425.

I approached the jury process as a teacher, looking for the salient bits first, while forgiving the rest out of a desire to be all inclusive.

But in approaching humor first, I was missing the nuance and ignoring the whole. The humor didn’t come first, it was a result of all the other parts ‘working’. So the dilemma wasn’t just craft versus punchline, but all the poetry that goes into making a piece of art relevant. I looked for work that bothered me and made me question, and that was often a bit anxious. But ultimately it had to be authentic.

Disclaimer: Though I have used humor in my own work for many years, I find I’ve become a bit of a prude and rather thin-skinned when it comes to body parts and feminist issues. I am not taken in by cuteness and over-indulgent surfaces.

M. Louise Stanley 2022