Documentary, exhibit impresses audiences at Blyth Festival Art Gallery
BY SCOTT STEPHENSON
On Sunday, June 28, visitors to the Blyth Centre for the Arts were invited to a second viewing of Cory Bilyea’s remarkable new documentary - The Creation Story of Michael ‘Cy’ Cywink.
Before the documentary began in Memorial Hall, audience members were able to spend time in the Bainton Gallery amongst the selection of works Cywink chose to represent his life as an artist.
For this first trip through the gallery show, each participant brought with them a different lifetime of experiences that shaped what they saw. Some arrived already familiar with the celebrated artist and his unmistakable style. Others, encountering his work for the very first time, might feel an almost cartoon-like influence in some pieces.
From the moment you walk into the gallery, Cywink’s work feels like it is happy to welcome all these differing perspectives - that there are no wrong interpretations. Rather than telling us what to think, we are being invited to form our own impressions, to add yet another layer to a story still being told.
On Sunday, those lucky enough to attend the second screening of The Creation Story of Michael ‘Cy’ Cywink got to experience even more of that story. To call Bilyea’s film an artist biography hardly feels sufficient - while The Creation Story is partially a semi-straightforward bio, it’s also a meditation on the very nature of creativity. It is also, at times, a striking, simple, one-on-one art class, unlike any other.
Bilyea herself is almost invisible throughout the film. Occasionally her voice drifts into a scene with a question or brief comment, but she largely steps aside, allowing Cywink as much time and space as he needs. The film jumps back and forth - between countries, between decades, between studios, between scenes. As the audience becomes familiar with the artist, it slowly begins to feel as though Cywink is speaking, not to the filmmaker, or the camera, but directly to each viewer.
The effect is striking in its intimacy - rather than watching an artist explain his process, it is as though Cywink is speaking directly to you as he shares stories, ideas and moments of discovery. He radiates a warmth and kindness that gradually becomes just as compelling as the work he has created. In the gallery, one can see that the artist is a creator. In watching the film, we also begin to know him as a teacher, as a mentor and as a friend, because that is what the filmmaker has captured.
Nowhere is this rare intimacy more obvious than during the scenes where Cywink walks the audience through the on-the-spot creation of three paintings that are currently on display in the gallery under the titles Documentary Demo 1, Documentary Demo 2 and Documentary Demo 3.
When seen before the film, these three pieces still stand comfortably alongside the gallery exhibition’s other captivating works - enjoying them in their own right requires no additional explanation. But something happens after watching Cywink create these works in the film. He brings the audience along on a journey that begins with a blank canvas and ends wherever he feels like stopping.
Bilyea’s documentary makes it clear that Cywink had a rare gift for making art feel accessible. His tutorials are almost Bob Ross-esque in their quiet, digestible joy. But instead of showing us how to use a fan brush to depict a happy little tree, Cywink is shown using dollar store paint to manifest a powerful vortex, and employing the power of gravity to bring an ethereal landscape to life. He illustrates that great art doesn’t require expensive materials or formal training. He invites the audience to create with whatever is at hand and to trust the process.The effect is surreal - simple, straightforward instructions for engaging with the abstract.
Returning to these pieces in the gallery after the film feels like an impossibility has taken place - that time has somehow turned in on itself. The finished pieces become inseparable from the quiet conversation audiences have just shared with the man who created them. We know we have seen these paintings previously - we know they already exist when the film begins. But then, in the documentary, we also see the man himself, Michael ‘Cy’ Cywink, bringing these works to life for the first time, right in front of our eyes, as he demonstrates for us that making art is all-too possible. In returning to those same pieces after the film, it feels like we were right there with him, years ago, in the moment of creation. It feels like time travel.
“The Creation Story of Michael ‘Cy’ Cywink” remains on display at the Blyth Centre for the Arts until July 11, while future screenings of Bilyea’s documentary are now available for booking.