The Art of Bev Doolittle

Popular printmaker/painter Bev Doolittle employs a visual equivalent of magic realism to capture fleeting dramas in nature: a fox darting from an arrow, an owl's encounter with a beaver, a hare escaping a coyote. Often, key elements, such as horses (her favorite subject) or a grizzly bear, are cleverly camouflaged, adding to the pictorial interest. Yet, notwithstanding this biographical-critical tribute to the California-born artist, her pictures are frequently sentimental, her celebrations of American Indian life approach kitsch, and much of her work seems closer to illustration than to serious art. Maclay, a poet, provides informal commentaries as well as short, lyric poems that mirror the pictures' spirit and their quest for spiritual meaning. (Oct.)