Exhibit Brings Scenes of Normalcy and Noir to Port Chester

Like many who view Kristen Schiele's work, fellow artist Paul Brainard didn't see a still image – he saw the first parts of a scene.

"It's eerie," Brainard said Friday at Port Chester's Nelson Macker Fine Art, "and you don't know what's going to happen next."

Schiele, a New York City artist whose exhibit premiered last week in Port Chester, renders scenes reminiscent of styles like film noir with mixed media, creating multi-layered pieces that combine the sketched and the clipped.

Her collection, CinemaScope, is on display at Nelson Macker Fine Art until mid-June.

Schiele said she favors using a variety of materials to invite the viewer to take a closer look where they might only have given a cursory once-over. And like their film counterparts, her scenes employ narratives that leave onlookers wondering what happens next.

Pieces like Pool House and The Move, for example, set a scene and make you "really feel like you're in it," Schiele said.

Others, like The Move, capture quiet scenes or moments, like the inside of an aging suburban home, with soft yellow light seeping in from the curtains.

Did someone grow up in that house and climb the decaying wooden stairway every night?

"You can almost feel what it would be like to walk up those stairs--they seem like they would be creaky," joked spectator Kim Noto.

Kristen Schiele's collection, CinemaScope, will be on display until June 15 at Nelson Macker Fine Art.