By CONNIE MEARS

Staff Writer

Dick Weiss and Bob Carlson are on the same page.

Sort of.

Use of line factors heavily in the two accomplished artists’ work, but it’s the line down the middle of the page that matters most.

In Double Vision, their exhibit of collaborative monotypes showing at Arts Studio Gallery from May 8 through June 19, Weiss and Carlson worked on either side of a line that delineates each other’s creative territory.

“You’ve heard the saying, good fences make good neighbors,” Weiss said. “Bob is a great guy, he’s a very intelligent person, but I make sure he stays on the right side of the page.”

Border skirmishes are quickly suppressed, with each artist protecting his turf with a vengeance.

“He’ll say, ‘Oh, let me work just a little bit over here,” Weiss said. “’Get off my side,’ I tell him.”

“Every time we get together, he’ll try to fix something on my side,” Carlson said.

Their synergy is a bizarre combination of finishing each other’s sentences followed by contradicting the other.

They can’t even agree on how they met.

“You said, ‘Hey, come up,’” Carlson said, embarking on a narrative that is quickly challenged.

“You called me!” Weiss said.

What could be awkward tension is filled, instead, with vigorous bouts of laughter. It’s hard to tell what is schtick and what is fact, but they compliment each other in conversation and complement each other in collaboration, or, as Weiss likes to call it, “clobberation.”

“What blows me away about Dick is, you can study, practice, train all you want, but at the moment of creation, you have to bring your being to bear to make something happen. His focus is so intense. Dick Weiss is genius,” Carlson said.

“You can see why I like this guy,” Weiss said, bursting into laughter.

Weiss called Carlson “duktig,” which is actually a compliment in Swedish, meaning clever.

“I liked Bob a lot. He had a great line (in drawing). Anytime you admire someone, right away you want to work with them. I said, ‘Let’s do some line work together.’”

Initially, the two started doing portraits of each other.

“Because no one wanted us to do theirs,” Bob said.

Carlson drew one of Weiss, using his signature strong line. Weiss did one of Carlson coming at it from a different direction, laying down a heavy coat of ink, then scratching off, or “pulling away” the ink. It’s not so much yin-yang as apples and oranges, but somehow, it works.

This mutual admiration society, a two-person movement, as Carlson called it, will give a talk on May 12 at the gallery, which Weiss likes for its “slightly underground quality that appeals to artists.”

BFun with Dick and Bob

Dick Weiss and Bob Carlson, whose collaborative monotypes are on exhibit from May 8-June 19 at Arts Studio Gallery, 7869 Fletcher Bay Rd, (four driveways south of High School Rd.), will give an artists’ talk May 12 at 7 p.m. Info: 842-1294.