Opening Reception
MOON

The Modern Art Meets Chamber Music series presents MOON, a violin recital by Peiwen liao and an photography exhibition opening by Peter Andrew Jeschke.

Come join us for the Mid-Autumn Festival/Moon Festival with our artist and musicians as we honor this holiday with music of celebration, love, and nostalgia. You will be treated to music by American female composer Amy Beach, German composer Johannes Brahms, and a selection of treasured Chinese songs. The charm in Amy Beach’s Romance is perhaps one of its greatest assets as it tugs away at your heartstrings throughout the work. Brahms’s passion, fueled perhaps by his forbidden love for Clara Schumann, is on full display in his Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor. And lastly, this medley of Chinese pieces takes the listeners deep into the themes of homecoming, community, and love – all of which are central to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Perhaps, at the end of this concert, you will come away with a bountiful “harvest” of music and enrichment. Throughout it all you will be surrounded by exquisite artworks by Peter Andrew Jeschke that tell stories behind the meaning of the Moon Festival.

Modern Arts Meets Chamber Music 1920x740

About the Exhibition

188, 2021, 36"x36"

Digital Photographic Image, Color,

Printed on Metal semi-gloss

Peter Andrew Jeschke presents an exhibition of photographs themed upon the Mid-Autumn/Moon Festival celebrated in East and Southeast Asia. This important festival coincides with the full Harvest Moon occurring in mid-September to early October. Festivities can include moon worship, giving thanks for good harvests, releasing paper “wish” lanterns, and enjoying moon cakes with family. Peter has created a celebratory mood honoring the full moon and the Autumn harvest with these 24 evocative photographic prints.

Included in the exhibit are images of moons and mooncakes, scenic vistas under the full moon, a series from Northeast India celebrating the rice harvest, and several Autumn scenes to evoke feelings of the season’s passing as Autumn harvests make way for Winter. Peter’s artwork titled “188” contains many images of the moon taken over the years. His near-devotional act of photographing the moon can take on the appearance of a man serenading his lover in the moonlight. This artwork is his ode to the moon.

I have been capturing images of frost on my windows for the past six winters. Warm moist air escapes from my old house and forms crystalline frost compositions on the windows. The millions of individual crystals diffract and refract colors from the outside world in remarkable ways. In the spirit of the Moon Festival, I present a series of eight images of frost on my windows, paired with haiku, which I hope the viewer sees as something more than just ice crystals. Study the images, read the haiku and be transported to special moments in celebration of the moon and of the harvest.”

Harvest Moon shines down
On fruit laden trees. It’s time! Tomorrow we pick.

Ready to Harvest, 2017, 20"x20"

Digital Photographic Image, Color, Printed on Metal, semi-gloss, Black American Statement frame

Peter also created something unique specifically for this exhibition. He has been capturing images of frost on his windows for six winters. Warm moist air escapes from his old house and forms crystalline compositions on the windows. The millions of individual crystals diffract and refract colors from the outside world in remarkable ways. Peter says, “In the spirit of the Moon Festival, and in recognition of the importance of bountiful harvests, I present a series of images of frost on my windows, paired with haiku, which I hope the viewer sees as something more than just ice crystals. Study the images, read the haiku and be transported to special moments celebrating the moon and the harvest.”

Golden Hunter’s Moon
Shining through frost-covered window
Heralds harvest’s end.

Harvest Moon, 2017, 16"x24"

Digital Photographic Image, Color, Printed on Metal, semi-gloss, Flush Metal silver Frame

Also included in the exhibition are five new pieces from his evolving “Frost on My Windows” project. It is important for the viewer to understand a bit about the content and the context of these artworks produced over the past six winters. Peter says, “The picture frame (the window), the canvas (the glass) and the medium (the warm moist air which freezes upon contact with the cold window) are all provided by humans. The compositions and the crystal shapes, and the color choices and the final work of art, however, are created by nature in its own particular style and technique. The artwork is of pleasing compositions, and the content has powerful meaning to me - Nature does create art! In the context of my 200-year-old house on bitter cold winter mornings, looking out the antique windows as the ice crystal colors change with the sunrise, this ephemeral natural art provides a singular viewing experience. The images I capture before the artworks melt and vanish is my way of sharing this experience.”

This series includes five new “Frost On My Windows” images. It demonstrates the full range of the images I capture, from the most delicate ice flowers, to a full window exploding in color at sunrise. These lovely crystal shapes resemble "fiddleheads," like the young ferns harvested as a source of nutrition the world over in the Spring.

Crystal Fiddleheads, 2021, 12"x12"

Digital Photographic Image, Color, Printed on Kodak Endura Metallic paper with thin white border containing Title, date, signature, numeration, Black French large Frame, Acrylic, brown and white double Mat

Those parts of the human brain involved in emotions are stimulated by viewing art or viewing something the viewer thinks is art. Architectural contemplation has the same health benefits as meditation, and the viewer’s experience gazing at pleasing architecture is clearly similar to what is experienced in an art museum or gallery. Peter’s newest artistic endeavor to be shown to the public is titled “Abstract Reflections” - photographic images of reflections in glass-clad buildings - his personal architectural contemplations. Five pieces from this collection are on display. Due to the physical properties of the window glass, unlike mirrors reflecting reality, glass-clad buildings reflect abstractions of the surrounding world. Each building reflects differently, and the abstractions change during the day and night with the changes in atmospheric lighting. Often, from afar these abstractions are recognizable as buildings, but upon closer inspection, portions of these abstractions can have artful and appealingly complete abstract compositions. Peter says, “I like the rigid constraints of the manmade building rectangles that control the abstractions. It is like how we are all consigned to a societal box, but within each box we display our own unique individuality. Groups of these individual boxes can fit together nicely into pleasing compositions, like orchestras making music.”