Mike Giuliano
Howard County’s rural landscapes and the Columbia cityscape have long served as subject matter for local artist Mary Jo Tydlacka, whose exhibit at the Bernice Kish Gallery at Slayton House is tied into the ongoing celebration of Columbia’s 50th birthday.
Tydlacka, who has lived in Columbia since 1970, has frequently exhibited at Slayton House. It’s fitting that the current show is a mini-retrospective of her work.
An early work gives a sense of what has remained the same and what has changed for her over the years. The 1973 acrylic painting “Clarksville Farm” features rural subject matter that she has known well over the years, but it’s stylistically distinctive for the relatively thick paint application and extremely vigorous brushwork.
Although assertive colors and expressive brushwork have remained a constant throughout her career, the brushwork generally seems to have settled down a bit since her very loosely brushed “Clarksville Farm.”
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