Houck is the recipient of the 2014 Coggins Award, an annual grant of money and a solo exhibit awarded to one special person who has done outstanding work or service for the Yocum Institute.

 

The award was given in December, with a catered presentation ceremony held at the Stirling Guest Hotel on Centre Avenue. Testimonials were spoken, with the artist receiving an original Jack Coggins watercolor to honor his achievement.

 

Jack Coggins (1911-2006) was a well-respected teacher for the institute whose tireless educational efforts of more than 40 years had set many a young painter on the road to being an artist. Houck, a husband and father of three, appears to be of the same stalwart demeanor.

 

The exhibit itself could qualify as a retrospective, although it is not listed as one. The 50-plus artworks on display look back on at least 10 or more years of production, with the overall show hung salon-style in the order of the time they were made. A few pieces were barely finished a day or two before the opening.

 

A dedicated painter, the  artist has exhibited multiple times throughout the area in group shows and solo exhibits. Most of the works on display are moderately abstracted landscapes or cityscapes that transform their available light to manifest interplays of depth perception and example how blurs, flashes, silhouettes and backlighting cause what we look at to be abstracted in optical illusions or visual exaggerations. Many of the paintings have the quality of being seen in a glimpse, or a moment before one can focus one’s vision.

 

Lush color and free-form brushwork are also characteristic of his paintings. Typically, his method avoids strict realism, being more invested in his use of light, glare and retinal effects, such as how light wraps around objects from behind and the color one may see when eyes adjust to light changes. These elements all figure into his painting and activate the artwork’s painterly strength.

 

A large untitled piece from 2010 depicts foliage, possibly a dogwood tree in bloom as seen from below. Brilliant sunlight from somewhere off-canvas imbues the leaves with an internal light, as if the tree itself was glowing from the sun’s unending gift of light. A stunning cerulean blue sky steadies the image from behind.

 

His later images of Reading row homes and architecture are more straightforward. The sky is mostly dark or in late afternoon with lighting from the side or behind. Suggestions of auto headlights and street lamps can be seen piercing the dark to offer a dramatic narrative.

 

Aside from his doubtless skills as an artist, he received the Coggins Award for everything he has done as a friend and employee of the Yocum Institute for Arts Education. From teaching art to young children to building stage sets or performing general maintenance, as well as any other task that came along, it seemed that nothing was beyond his eager capability. Well-deserved.