Matheny Artists Head to the Big Apple

Chet Cheesman is an artist who loves doing splatter paint and enjoys watching the colors mix right in front of him. Ellen Kane creates artwork that is highly personal. Andy Lash makes paintings with a purpose. That purpose, usually revealed in the title of the painting, can range from commentary on sports and society to more personal matters.

Cheesman, Kane, and Lash are among the visual artists from the Matheny Medical and Educational Center’s Arts Access Program whose work will be exhibited from December 9-23 at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts, located at 520 West 20th Street in New York City.

Matheny is a special hospital and educational facility in Peapack, NJ, for children and adults with medically complex developmental disabilities. Arts Access provides individuals with disabilities the freedom to create in the visual, literary, and performing arts, assisted by professional artists who act as facilitators. Since 1975, Kathryn Markel Fine Arts has exhibited a diverse group of artists united by hard-won craft, compelling intellectual framework, and a love of the artmaking process.

As one of the first artists to join Arts Access when the program was created in 1993, Cheesman, who lives in Matheny’s Franklin Township community residence, has produced a diverse portfolio of work. “All my paintings are in my head before I do them,” he says, “but I don’t know what I want to do ahead of time. I decide on everything at once. It’s much more fun that way.” His facilitator, Stephen Haluska, points out that Cheesman “catapults paint onto his canvas in large globules and leaves it to the randomness of his technique to guide the outcome. Amidst this chaos, he will introduce an orderly pattern as a point of contrast.” Cheesman says he “loves painting because it relaxes me and helps me to clear my mind.” His work has been exhibited at ABC Headquarters in New York, the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, NJ, and the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark.

In 2009, Kane was featured in a News 12 New Jersey TV feature, “The Art of Possibility”, that won a New York Emmy Award. John Bathke, host of News12’s On the Scene program, pointed out that Kane and other Arts Access artists “will find a way to express emotion on canvas that they can’t express any other way.” Like Cheesman, Kane, a resident of Matheny’s Basking Ridge group home, has participated in Arts Access since its beginnings in 1993. According to Haluska, Kane “will often incorporate complicated, seemingly meandering lines among her work, with which she then experiments. Ellen isn’t shy about mixing media. She will use paint, markers, pencils, crayons – basically anything she can get ahold of – and apply them to her work.”

Kane describes her own work as “stylish and dramatic and original.” With every painting, she says she is looking to do something different. And, she “thinks it’s cool how the colors flow together. I use old memories as my inspiration.” Her work has been on display at the Monmouth and Morris museums and the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn. One of her paintings is permanently exhibited at the Johnson & Johnson Headquarters in New Brunswick.

Shortly after the tragedy of September 11, Lash completed a painting entitled, “I’m Sorry New York” as a tribute to New York City. His messages are often communicated through the use of geometric forms, specifically the circle. According to Lash’s brother, Justin Lash, a resident of Randolph, “Arts Access has given Andy another way to express himself that he otherwise would not have had. Art often tells us a lot about the artist, and we’re happy Andy has this opportunity.”

Kathryn Markel gallery hours are, Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; and Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.