Seeing the Forest Through a Lot of Trees

I would give Howard Fonda's exhibit at Mixed Greens gallery an A for consistency. Fonda can paint a mean pine tree, again and again and again. Perhaps the artist stuck to this subject because he didn't work on one painting months at a time. According to the gallery, instead of building colors up with layers, the painting is done in a single session while the paint is still wet. This sounds a little like Jack Kerouac's automatic writing and is the most intriguing part of the show. The paintings are somewhat mesmerizing, if not dizzying, with their repetition.