Table for Two: Harriet Moore Ballard & Patricia Zinsmeister Parker

The Video Story: In the Spring of 2020, the Artists Archives of the Western Reserve filmed this video to document Table for Two: Harriet Moore Ballard & Patricia Zinsmeister Parker, a satellite exhibition at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland Art Gallery.

At the time, we hoped show and Center would reopen soon – little did we know it was only the beginning of a history-breaking year spent in lock down. Shortly after filming, we received word the Convention Center would be closed indefinitely. The exhibition was quietly de-installed, and the video was shelved as dealing with the new realities of Covid took center stage.

Here we are a year later, still traveling through the pandemic, but now with a light at the end of the tunnel as mass vaccination sites surreally mirror the Convention Center itself. Though the exhibition was woefully under-viewed, the surviving video captures what was truly at the heart of the show: the enduring friendship between two remarkable painters.

The Archives decided to release the video not only to mark the year anniversary of the pandemic, but to close out Women’s History Month. Featuring interviews with artists Harriet Moore Ballard and Patricia Zinsmeister Parker, as well as the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland’s Director of Public Relations and Marketing Dave Johnson, and Art Source Inc. Owner Eileen Roth, the video shows how far we have come and points to a brighter future.

Under the steadfast leadership of Dave and Eileen, we hope to see the Convention Center Gallery open once again. Their commitment to local art was laudable, and we look forward to great things to come. Here’s to the future! From all of us here at the AAWR!

Credits: Filmed by AAWR Collection’s Registrar Kelly Pontoni. Editing by AAWR Marketing & Programming Manager Megan Alves, Directed by Megan Alves & Kelly Pontoni.

Featuring: Harriet Moore Ballard, Patricia Zinsmeister Parker, Dave Johnson, Huntington Convention Center’s Director of Public Relations and Marketing, and Eileen Roth, Art Source Inc. Owner

Location: Filmed at the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland Art Gallery and Patricia Zinsmeister Parker’s Studio in Canton, OH

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Satellite Exhibition at The Cleveland Convention Center Art Gallery, 1 St. Clair Ave. NE., Cleveland (door is labeled Global Center for Health Innovation).  The Gallery is located in the C2 Concourse  Attendees can also enter the Gallery using the tunnel from the Huntington Self-Park Garage, located off of West Third Street (1141 West 3rd, Cleveland, OH 44114)

CAN Winter 2019 Article by Mindy Tousley:

The Huntington Convention Center is pleased to continue its partnership with The Artists Archives of the Western Reserve through 2019 and into the spring of 2020 In February, The Foundations show will be replaced with Table for Two: Harriet Moore Ballard and Patricia Zinsmeister Parker.

Parker and Ballard have long enjoyed a friendship which began long ago. Their common bonds, combined with their mutual respect for the others artistic abilities and achievements, has served to strengthen the ties between them. This will be the first time that these two talented women exhibit a number of their works together, and while their creations are individually distinctive, their paintings mesh together visually like two old dancing partners routines. As each artist utilizes her sensitivity to surroundings as source material, trips together to Ballard’s home in San Miquel de Allende, Mexico has inspired both of them. Table for Two, as the title implies, focuses on still lives that each has periodically produced, both past and present.

Ballard, for her part, employs all of the objects around her as well as impressions and references to her life, all become fodder for her paintings. To quote Douglas Max Utter,” There is no clear division between the past and the present, things underground and those built on top. This melding of dimensions became the central content of her work”. She then uses color and line to typically flatten, and either negate or pull together these apparently disparate elements. “Pressing multiple planes into one ambiguous surface and crossing planes with lines that deny the third dimension is central to my work” writes Ballard.

As an artist Parker continually challenges herself. She is equally at ease creating the beautiful, expressionistic still lives showcased in Table for Two, as she is making nonrepresentational abstractions. Mundane objects, phrases, political views and bits of contemporary fashion are items that also creep into Parker’s paintings. These items do not create a flowing narrative but rather surprise us and force us to reengage with the painting under new terms. In her words, Parker is motivated to ”seek new and original means of expression that will convey a unique response not only to the environment which we inhabit but to the world in general.”

As a mutual experience the love of painting that both these artists share is clearly expressed in their work and visible to the viewer in all the ways that count.