May 2017 - Daryl Ann Dartt Hurst

Daryl Ann Dartt Hurst is making her eighth appearance at the Rochester Public Library. Her work is featured on the first floor and will run through the month of May.

The body of work on display is composed primarily of pieces that have been completed since Hurst was diagnosed with cancer. These works explore, in abstract terms, various emotional responses to the disease: the “Holding It Together” works have to do with feeling torn apart and yet managing to hang onto daily life, routine, and normalcy; the “Imperfections” are the abnormal cells that are being challenged by therapy; and the “Real” series works, the earliest of the work in the show, are coping with the diagnosis.

Hurst says she has always used art as a way to make sense out of her life. When life has had rhythm, she has expressed her surroundings in large gestural canvases. When things are less in control, she reverts to realism. The “Imperfections” allow for very little that is unplanned or accidental, demonstrating that this is her place to absolute control.

Hurst was born in southern California in 1955, relocating to New England in 1986. She holds a BA in Art from CSUN, Northridge, CA. She was awarded the Achievement in the Arts in Visual Art from the City of Rochester in 2014 and she was nominated for the Seacoast Spotlight Award the following year. She has had many solo exhibits in New England and has been included in group shows nationally since 1978.