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Stutz Art Space Preview: Sight/ Insight: Artists & Places of Inspiration

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Sight/ Insight will be at the Stutz Art Space from November 6-25, 2009.  The show incorporates a variety of styles ranging from abstract slashes of paint, abstract quilted fabric, exaggerated recognizable forms, jewelry, and paintings and photographs that display clearly recognizable subjects.  The artwork is juxtaposed leading the viewer to flow back and forth between the styles creating a dialogue amongst this diverse set of visual ideas.  It is a conversation between eleven different artists, with different modes of visually communication, and different perspectives on the same subject.

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The curator, Carol L Myers, chose artists whose work fit the theme of ‘inspired places’.  Carol herself has lately focused on drawings. She states that her “vocabulary is natural form, but inspired place happens between pencil and paper.”  She finds that drawing is a form of praying.  I was attracted to one of her quilted painting pieces entitled, Boardwalk.  The painting in the work gives the piece a sense of space and light.  On top of the painting, sewn rectangular shapes overlap and break up the space, while the process of sewing the material draws the fabric and adds slight texture.

Below I’ve chosen a few of the types of work represented at the show:

South Stairwell

Photography: Ginny Taylor Rosner speaks through her abandoned building photos in South Stairwell.  The stairway leads upward from the bottom right side of the page.  Light is entering from the landing at the top of the stairs in the upper left corner.  The image beckons the viewer to enter, walk up the stairs and into the light.

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Abstract: Kate Oberreich’s collage, Map of New York, (on right above) is about repetition.  There is a small section of a city map in the piece.  The map contains repeated rectangular city blocks.  There are repeated circles in the upper left part of the work.  Simple vines with repeated leaves flow around the map.  Even a few drips in the piece seem to repeat themselves in color and shape.

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Surreal: Home, by Lydia Burris, is a collage that juxtaposes a home and a tree in a forest with the light shining through the trees paralleling the warm light shining out of the windows of the home.

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Landscape: The gallery also holds a collection of landscapes that are produced with varying levels of abstraction.  These invite the viewer to walk into nature in a place of trees, water, and immense skies.  At least one of the landscapes is a piece of jewelry by artist Leigh Dunnington-Jones entitled Sunrise on Central Avenue.  Look at both the front and the back of this piece.

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Other artists who are not previously mentioned:
Susan Brewer
Karen Land
Colleen Lauter
Susan Mauck
Jerry Points
Martha Vaught
Julia Zollman Wickes

Join the conversation about inspired places starting this coming First Friday November 6, 2009.

Works at Oranje: Contemporary art & music event

oranje

My three latest butterfly works, After Thistles, Fluttering Cosmopolitan, and Cynthesis will be on display this Saturday, October 19th from 8pm to 2am at Oranje, a contemporary art & music event. Wug Laku of Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is representing my work at booth 17.

Wug will be displaying his drawings, digital art prints, light boxes, and furniture along with the jewelry of Nancy Lee (I’m sure she’ll be there, too!) and the mixed media of Cagney King –among others. They will be recreating the feel of his gallery in their 22′ x 24′ mega-booth for an intimate discussion with the artists. This past weekend, they were practically living there getting the space ready.

Tickets to the event are $20 and is only open to 21 and older.

Oranje
Wug Laku / Booth 17
2323 North Illinois
Indianapolis, IN 46208

Paintings at Indianapolis Visual Fringe 2009

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I have three of my butterfly paintings in the 2009 IndyFringe Festival. Thistles, Fluttering Cosmopolitan, and Cynthesis were mentioned in my prior post, Trio of Painted Lady Butterflies. You can see thumbnails in that post. These works can be seen at Henry’s on East, 627 East Street, Friday, August 7, 5 – 9 pm.  Cafes, theaters and spaces along Mass Ave. have been transformed into art galleries for the IndyFringe Festival. Add it to your usual IDADA First Friday Art Walk on August 7th. I hope to see you there, but if you can’t make that Friday, then the work will be on display until August 30th.

You can vote

Make sure to stop by the temporary galleries to vote for your favorite piece of art to become one of those “Be Indypendent” stickers you have seen on your neighbors’ cars. Complimentary Barefoot Bubbly champagne cocktails will be served at each Fringe gallery, too.

The 2009 VisualFringe galleries are: Mass Ave Wine Shoppe, Theatre on the Square, Franklin Barry Gallery, Henry’s on East, Hoaglin To Go Café, Herron School of Art and Design at The Earth House, and the Fringe Gallery. Visit IndyFringe for more info and full gallery addresses.

Opening Quick Facts

August 7, 5 – 9 pm
Henry’s on East
627 East Street

May shows: Eye Music, Spring, and Yarn Burners

yarn4First Friday for May is quickly approaching and there are several places around town that my art work can be found.  I have one piece each in three group shows.

Wug Laku is hosting his retrospective show Eye Music in his gallery, Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage.  This show will include artists that have been featured in the gallery during the last two years.  You can see one of my first butterfly paintings in my upcoming series at this show.  I have included Wug’s poster promoting the event.

The official hours for this event are 6 – 9 p.m. on May 1 during the IDADA First Friday Gallery Tour. The following artists’ works will be on display: Bernadette Ostrozovich – Patrick Flaherty – Eric Jones – Rachel Steely -Mark Pack – Jim Gerard – Pam Fraizer – Nancy Lee – William Ray Denton – James Ratliff – Wug Laku. This gallery is located just above Massachusetts Avenue at 1125 Brookside Avenue C7.

Also, I will be showing one of my studies of Asian Lilie’s, Three Stages, in the Athenaeum ArtSpace’s “Spring” exhibit.  The Athenaeum ArtSpace is located in downtown Indianapolis on 401 East Michigan St, 2nd floor.

The Yarn Burners are “bombing” the Harrison Center for the Arts with knit graffiti on May 1,2009.  I look at my piece as a type of art instillation that I made out of yarn for one of the stairwell railings.

Holiday Group Show: Brown Paper Packages

The Harrison Center for the Arts is having its annual color-themed holiday show, this Friday, 6 to 10pm. This year’s show is brown, so you know that I would want to participate. Gone to Pieces, (titled Eggshell in the Portfolio) has been selected for inclusion in Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String . The Harrison Gallery boasts monthly show focusing primarily on Indianapolis artists. The gallery provides an entertaining atmosphere that is welcoming to the seasoned gallery hopper and the novice alike.

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String opens this Friday, December 5 and runs through December 27. The show opening corresponds with the Harrison Center’s First Friday artist reception and open studio night and with IDADA’s First Friday Gallery Tour.

The Harrison Art Gallery
1505 North Delaware
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317.238-0998
December 5, 6 to 10pm

If you are unable to view the gallery on the opening night, the gallery is open Monday-Friday 9-5pm and Saturday 12-4pm.

I have always been drawn to natural, organic objects and choose to portray them with oil on textured surfaces. Often, I present my subject in "dynamic still life" with a shift of time through movement or growth-decay. I am originally from the rust-belt city of Rockford, Illinois. I left the manufacturing town to study fine art at Asbury College and find inspiration among the rolling hills and forests of rural Kentucky. Although consistently representational, I strive to create subtlety layered visual and philosophical metaphors. In 2005, I returned to the country's heartland where I am active in the local art community of Indianapolis, Indiana. Next to oil painting, my greatest passion is helping others appreciate art by teaching private classes.