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Walking through
and around Jacqueline Lagakos' house and surrounding grounds
in Lindenwold, NJ is a rich and memorable experience. Immediately,
it calls to mind memories of the Watts Towers in south central
Los Angeles, put together decades ago by the incomparable self-taught
American artist, Simon Rodia. In both cases, decorative embellishment
is everywhere in evidence. It consists of assorted bits and pieces
of glass, stone, tile, mirror fragments,building construction
left-overs and odd souvenirs from different places, all firmly
embedded in mortar and held together with a grout compound made
of waterproof mastic. Together, they lend an amazing ornamental
presence to the property, inside and out. It's as if the setting
extends a friendly handshake to whoever may chance to enter.
Without hesitation, one would say it's unique and nothing short
of spectacular.
The floors and many of the walls in the 150 year old structure
are all en-hanced with the mosaic elements. Even the music room
on the second floor, used principally by the artist's double-bass-violin
playing husband, is adorned with her version of that instrument,
given shape in an original style that Is magnetically appealing.
All of these decorative factors reflect Lagakos'personal individuality
of spirit and unique outlook on life.
As a complete entity, the home is an exceptional environment
in which the art and the artist's independent personality are
fused and intertwined. This explains why her approach to making
art is so marvelously unconventional and free of any stale, academically
trite, pre-conceived mannerisms.
Like her residence, Lagakos' framed mosaic compositions transport
a viewer to a delightfully surprising universe of colors and
a sincerity of expressive content, all their own. Above all,
her sensitive feeling for the subtle hue and shade relationships
is supremely tasteful, never garish.
This month, an exquisite selection of her small scale, frame
enclosed artworks, rendered in the mosaic technique, is on view
in the College Center Gallery of Gloucester County College in
Deptford, NJ. It is interesting to see how completely Lagakos
is in command of her medium, whether in large out-door designs
or in a related but considerably reduced size.
All of the pieces in the exhibition manifest a distinctive potential
for making an interior setting such as a professional office
or a home living room vibrate with a rare combination of esthetic
energy and studied control.
Exercising a disciplined
touch in the pursuit of her vision, she never introduces an unduly
heavy hand into the process.
Like an ancient philosopher, intent on giving voice to a reach
for wisdom, she brings understanding into focus that are illuminated
by an unusually poetic approach. For those able to respond to
her vocabulary of form, the insights she offers are far-reaching
conclusions on the nature of tranquility, mystery and eternity.
What might be dismissed
at first merely as eccentric decoration is gradually seen to
be a series of windows into enduring states of timeless wonderment.
All of her images transcend the dull, ordinary appearance of
the tedious calendar illustrations one sees all too frequently,
in and out of the gallery scene. Instead, these artworks present
spectators with a challenge to study them with patience and concentration.
While the rewards for doing so can go deep into the heart of
a viewer's being, the essence of their content can neither be
measured quickly with such criteria as feet and inches nor be
simplistically explained or described in words.
Lagakos became involved with making mosaic forms in 1998 when
she attended a workshop on the subject conducted in his studio
by the eminent Philadelphia artist, Isaiah Zagar. This was followed
by a one year period as an assistant on several of the master's
projects. Today, as she proceeds with the work of her own, he
must surely be very proud of the achievements wrought by his
exceptionally talented protegé.
Clearly, she has found the process of mosaic-craft ideally suited
to helping her articulate what she feels where all her nerve
endings come together. What she has discovered by studying life
in general and Zen Buddhism in particular has become the non
verbal substance of her personally invented grammar and vocabulary
of visual form.
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