Skywriter paints lofty visions

By HELEN L. KOHEN
Art Critic

he Germans have a wonderful word for it - himmelsschreiber-skywriter.  At one time military personnel, pilots of tracking planes, skywriters went to work for advertisers in the '30s and '40s, spelling out brand names.  They were heroes of summer, daredevils with loops and crisscrossing streams of white smoke, sky-struck acrobats edging out that last letter before the first disappeared from the blue.
  Though the thrill's not gone, there are few skywriters left, and only one around here - Jim Butler of Pembroke Pines.  If the weather holds Sunday, Butler will fly his single-engine "Old Smokey," though not for some product and not for money.  He'll fly for art at 3:30 p.m., painting mile-high designs in puffs of vapor over the beach outside the Art and Culture Center in Hollywood.
  It is the second time Butler has cooperated with the center to turn artists' proposals for Sky Art into live performance pieces.  Photographs of his flying feats from the first art-in-the-sky show in 1983 form part of a current exhibition at the center, which showcases new project designs by 10 artists.
  Sky art is a tricky business, not just for Butler, but for the artists as well.  It takes in four dimensions, and the time factor is crucial to the outcome.  That sky art has no fixed vantage point, that no two viewers see the same work of art, is another fluke of the medium.  Solving these problems and yet making the most of them means keeping things simple.  Alas, the point was not always taken seriously.
  It's odd, but the artists who submitted the most elaborate presentations for sky art pieces have the least chance of having one successfully executed.
  Which doesn't mean there's no merit to their ideas as conceptual works of art, it's just that (forgive me) they won't fly.
  At the other extreme is the one true professional sky performance artist showing in the group, Steve Poleskie, an artist and skywriter who flies his own biplane.  Chairman of the School of Visual Arts at Cornell University and author of Skywriting:  Dimensions of a Fleeting Medium, Polesdie is poet and pilot.  His plans for a work on the notorious Bermuda triangle include instructions to do it in black smoke - thus keeping the sense of mystery and peril intact.
  Other artist, though firmly earthbound, seem naturals for this project just the same.  Susana Sori's proposal for Stream of Being includes an untitled abstract drawing made well before it became a candidate for an outdoor art piece.  All her work is about movement in space, requiring only this particular application to make it look tailor-made for the sky.
  Another work that seems perfect for the job of skywriting, a dreamy depiction of the intersection of two orbs, is by Garth Witcoski.  In contrast, Sal Zagami's projects are mannered, sky specific, lighter than air.  He did seven blueprints, all related, to simulate the fleeting quality of the skywriter's stream of smoke.
  For all the extravagant dimensions of its ambition, the exhibition portion of the Sky Art project takes up no space at all inside the center.  Most of that has been given over to Expressions!  The Community Art Alliance 8th Annual Competition and Exhibition, the sixth to be mounted there.  Open to all Florida artists, this competition is not yet attracting the strongest.
  Only 274 entered, of which 50 were accepted.  Those are not the kinds of statistics that build good shows.  Even so, there are surprising inclusions amid the dross, most especially good work by Nancy Richter and Mace Drouillard, who make even this effort worthwhile.

  Sky Art:  Paintings in the Air and Expressions!  The Community Art Alliance 8th Annual Competition and Exhibition, through June 25, can be seen 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 4 pm Sunday, at the Art and Culture Center, 1301 S. Ocean Dr., Hollywood.  Regular admission is $2.  Call 921-3274.  The outdoor sky writing performance, during which the artists' proposals will be drawn in the sky over the center by Jim Butler, begins at 3:30 pm, Sunday.  In case of rain, it will take place at 3:30 pm Sunday, May 21.