The Cerebral Dichotomies of The Boerne Dyad

The Cerebral Dichotomies

Of The

 Boerne Dyad

Bill Scheidt and Sidney Sinclair

Curatorial/ Gallery Statement:

In preliminary discussions with Sidney about a spotlight showing of her new artwork for our monthly events, we began to explore the new series she was working on. The most recent material she had was from a recently attended workshop by a prestigious mentor. However, Sidney was undecided in how to continue to create work using her abstractions vs. the traditional genres of her comfort zones. This created the conceptual basis for her part of the spotlight exhibition.

As I thought about her work, another Boerne artist, Bill Scheidt came to mind. Bill and Sidney had been showing in the same gallery for decades until it closed and then J.R. Mooney Galleries brought both aboard for representation. Their connections were like sister and brother; it would be like splitting up the family if one was brought to the forefront and not the other. If we showed them together we had a pair of local artists who have been working on their own projects, their own commissions and other institutions exhibitions outside the gallery. By bringing them back together we were bring a history, a dialogue, an interaction and I felt “Dyad” as a noun was perfect for a good description of the action itself.

However, we ran into snags along the way. Life took its toll on the production of the artwork, the little things added up; the holidays, sickness, other shows, etc. After following up with Sidney on the prospect of a highlighted collection of new work the material had changed. She was back exploring old sensibilities with new eyes. She was drawn back into her comfort zone with new ideas; working in a traditional sense with abstract concepts.  Struggling to gain a foothold on an overall cohesive body of work, we decided together that the exploration of her abstracts, the landscapes and everything in-between was a healthy decision, and not to edit in the studio – paint as she felt fit. 

Now, we were no longer dealing only with two artists as a dyad, but now one artist was dealing with two genres- the abstract and traditional. It was a dichotomy of sorts with conceptual and contextualized explanations for both ways of working and her need to continue to explore aspects of each. In her statement we see into her thoughts and begin to understand a new beginning of an old way.  The thoughts that linger, but driven ahead by the new, the new styles she wants to paint, the new images she sees that influence her work and the new experiences of the world around her that play a role in her paintings.

For Bill, large private commissions dominated his studio time; recent accolades in other cities spurred a rekindled interest in his work. A new body of artwork was out of the question.  So it was decided older work from his private collection would be swapped out with previously exhibited paintings already at the gallery, and we would show ones new to us, new to our clients and patrons.  Now we had a dyad for Bill, two categories of work, new to us, old to him and a swap of the old to the gallery and new to his private collection; a dyad: an interaction in a physical sense and a conceptual sense. More artwork would be supplemented by private consignments, giving our viewers opportunity to view aftermarket originals, fitting into Bill’s stable resale rate.  Our intent is to show how relevant older work can be in comparison to newer work, and the desire to project a cohesive variation of subjects, including wildlife, western, and Native American. Old and new for Bill was his dichotomy, time was the agent, and the visual connection of this span of work was the cemented and contextual analogy of thoughtful representations – hence the cerebral, or mind, brain, or intellectual connections throughout his work.

-Gabriel Diego Delgado

Gallery Director

J.R. Mooney Galleries, Boerne