No wrong answers in the Carmel Art Association’s group exhibit.

This month, the Carmel Art Association asked its members to wrestle with Picasso’s precept that, “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”

The group exhibit Above and Beyond – made up of 21 painters, a number of sculptors, and two featured painters including Heidi Hybl and Barbara Kreitman – presumably frees the artists from the constraints of reality.

Erin Lee Gafill submitted a painting (pictured) of cross-hatched strokes of blue, green, cream and orange, layer on top of layer that suggest anything the viewer wants – though her painting is named “I Searched For Him and Found Him Nowhere.”

Melissa Lofton’s painting “Ascending” takes a more definitive shape, evoking the stalks of flowers or pond reeds; Lofton conceived of this show.

“Some of the artists in the show don’t do abstracts so it’s a good opportunity to try something different,” she says.

She could be talking about Belinda Vidor. She previously painted local scenes and landscapes that sold well, but was looking for a challenge in trying her hand at abstract work. She made two paintings she deemed too representational before she made a third that, like Picasso advised, had been removed of enough reality for her liking.

“I think abstract art should have a statement to make,” Vidor says. “I try to show an energy. I can’t wait to get up in the morning to try out some ideas I had during the night.”

Though the forms might be abstract, this show could contain enough of that kind of energy to power the viewer’s imagination.

ABOVE AND BEYOND 5-7pm Sat opening reception at Carmel Art Association, Dolores between Fifth and Sixth, Carmel. Free. 624-6176, www.CarmelArt.org