Colorful collages, nature coexist in BR Gallery show

• By ROBIN MILLER
• Arts writer
• Published: Jul 6, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:05 am

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Paul Dean speaks first.

No, his artwork isn’t rated higher than that of the other artists scattered throughout Baton Rouge Gallery. It has nothing to do with the alphabetical listing of his name, either.

For if that was the case, Anne Boudreau would be speaking first.

Dean just happens to be closest to the front door, hanging his collages on this Saturday afternoon.

Oh, everyone’s here, Boudreau, Mary Lee Eggart and Michaelene “Mikey” Walsh. They’re the Baton Rouge Gallery’s featured artists for July, each with his or her own titled exhibit.

And Dean’s dad inspired the title for his.

“I’d already use every analogy for diamonds,” Dean said. “I was trying to think of something when my dad suggested the Beatles’ song, ‘Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.’”

Dean sings a verse, the one referring to the “girl with kaleidoscope eyes.” And there he had it — the title for his exhibit.

Visitors to the front gallery immediately will be reminded of kaleidoscopes found in the toy aisles of their childhoods. Colors here twist and blend without moving. Which is where the imagination begins working.

The eye can somehow see cheese cracker box tops melding into those flashing the Perrier name. Maybe it has something to do with the diamond cut designs.

Well, there’s no maybe about it. The diamond cut definitely creates the effect here, just as they did in those old twisty-turnsy toy kaleidoscopes.

And the diamond cuts that make up the collages’ designs are what really matter here.

“This is the way diamonds actually grow, with eight sides,” Dean said. “I’m fascinated by that. And the brilliant cut is the most popular, because it reflects the most light.”