Visitors to the Middle Earth Gallery of the Jenks building on February 11 witnessed creations of new and old blended together as sculpture, paintings, and historic cartoons encompassed the basement space. “Strange Happenings,” is a new show featuring art from Luanne Bole-Becker, Andy Tubbesing, and the late Bob Tubbesing, which runs through June 11. Truly, it can only be summed up as its titular “strange,” with each piece being different in many ways from the others, yet nonetheless all bizarre.
Bole-Becker’s centerpiece in the show is “Miss Lily’s Fabulous Flying Machine,” a steampunk-style mobile created from various parts, including buttons, keys, fans, and more. “I’ve been creating assemblages like that, using and modifying vintage objects, for a little over three years,” she explains. “‘Miss Lily’s Fabulous Flying Machine’ was inspired by a variety of Leonardo da Vinci sketches and a lot of steampunk imagery. It’s great fun to combine old objects in new ways and create some whimsy.”
Andy Tubbesing takes the strange storytelling aspect of the show to a different level, introducing low-brow animated video to his sculptures which represent unseen worlds which, from the looks of the physical media, may have traversed paths similar to the animated series Invader Zim.
This isn’t the first show on which Tubbesing and Bole-Becker have collaborated. The artists have worked together on gallery projects since 2020 with work shown in various Cleveland locations. “While we create our art independently, I think our pieces dovetail well because of their unique, quirky perspectives,” Bole-Becker remarks. “We both create slightly offbeat worlds to examine and immerse yourself in. Our works definitely ‘play well’ together.”
While Bob Tubbesing, Andy’s father, passed away in 2015, his work as a painter and cartoonist continues to attract art lovers. In life Tubbesing was a display designer at Higbees and the May Company, and interior designer, a muralist for Malley’s candy stores–where his work is still seen throughout Northeast Ohio–and an editorial cartoonist with the Newspaper Enterprise Association, just to name a few of his diverse career paths. His framed paintings and inked newspaper cartoons expand the strange atmosphere that fellow artists create in this show, introducing the bizarre from outside and right under our noses, such as the Peninsula Python, a famed snake found the Cuyahoga Valley in 1944 rumored to be nearly 20 feet long.
“I hope people will notice the details and unusual connections around them, and stop and see life a little differently. I want to spark people’s imaginations and encourage them to appreciate the ‘magic in the mundane.’ It’s all around us, just waiting to be recognized,” states Bole-Becker.
“I love that the Jenks is full of surprises. Visitors are encouraged to explore areas at their own pace. Every turn poses a surprise! You can wander, sit, listen, eat, talk, read, or just get lost in all the great music and visuals and local offerings. It’s such a great getaway – both a home-away-from-home and a community treasure. I wish we had someplace like it in Seville, where we live.”
“Strange Happenings” is on display in the Middle Earth Gallery of the Jenks Building through June 11. The Jenks Building is open Tuesday-Saturday 11am-7pm.
