In ’Waterworks,’  Paul D’Andrea presents photographs that are loosely connected with the theme of water.  Here are a few examples of the variety in which water is treated in these photographs.  Above, water is used as a reflector taking on the colors of a sunset.  Below water is used as a surface and then as a form created from physical impact.  The images demonstrate D’Andrea’s technical skill while at the same time grabbing the viewer and speaking to him or her.

‘Waterworks’ will be at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage through December.

If you were unable to make it in August, you have another chance to view the Patterns in Flight butterfly paintings art show. This Friday the butterfly series, Patterns in Flight, will be on display at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. The series opening will be September 3, 2010 at 6pm-10pm during the IDADA’s August First Friday and the series will show through September 25. Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is located at 1125 Brookside Ave #C7 Indianapolis, Indiana.

If you cannot make it to the opening, Wug’s gallery hours are 12-4pm Friday and Saturday or by appointment. To make an appointment, call Wug Laku at 317-270-8258.

From the gallery owner:

This exhibit is a spectacular display of freedom in motion. Spend enough time in the room with these paintings and you’ll feel the air begin to vibrate and move about you. Although the nominal subject is butterflies, the real subject of these paintings is how powerfully color, line and composition can combine into patterns to create a vibrant, dynamic, even explosive viewing experience, thereby introducing us to a new experience of our everyday world.

The painting series is about journeys: the journey of each butterfly, but also my journey. Patterns in Flight provokes thoughts on time, refined beauty, and overcoming struggles. It contains a variety of butterfly species: painted ladies, a blue morpho, malachites, a citris swallowtail, postmans, a variable cracker and a zebra longwing.

RVSP today at the Facebook event: Patterns in Flight at Wug Laku’s

There are times when one looks back in time and remembers glimpses of what came before.  Visually, one’s eyes are isolated to perceiving what is now, however through images, pieces of time can be superimposed.  Time and animation are integral elements in my dynamic still life paintings.  During their lives, butterflies are creatures that themselves undergo great change.  They start as insects bound to the earth and transform into wonders of flight.

In these paintings, the simplified patterns of wings, closely cropped, tend to eclipse the creaturely nature of each butterfly.  Diagonal orientation of some canvases adds to the energy of the image.  This position breaks convention and presents a shape that can be referential to transition.

The details of how wings open: the way that sometimes light falls on the wings creating a translucent glow, reminiscent of stained glass, and how the patterns foreshorten as the wings open, add to the sense of movement, and at times rhythm, in the paintings.

A continuous and ‘unlimited’ conversation is encouraged by the use of short poetic titles.  These names can be understood as word plays on the butterfly’s name, but can also relate to time, refined beauty, and challenges overcome.

Patterns in Flight.  Patterns of movement, color, and light. Sometimes a pattern manifests where no pattern exists; patterns are implied but not actualized.  These paintings are not static butterflies, collected and mounted, but elusive creatures in flight.

It was more than a year ago that I began my butterfly series, Patterns in Flight. It’s now ready to break out of it’s cocoon (so to speak).  RVSP today at the Facebook event: Patterns in Flight at Wug Laku’s

The entire butterfly series, Patterns in Flight, will be on display at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. The series opening will be August 6, 2010 at 6pm-10pm during the IDADA’s August First Friday and the series will show through September 25. Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is located at 1125 Brookside Ave #C7 Indianapolis, Indiana.

If you cannot make it to the opening, Wug’s gallery hours are 12-4pm Friday and Saturday or by appointment. To make an appointment, call Wug Laku at 317-270-8258.

The painting series is about journeys: the journey of each butterfly, but also my journey. I have transformed from being called the “bone lady” to the “butterfly girl” over last last year. Three paintings of this series were selected by the Arts Council of Indianapolis. Working with the Arts Council led to a few small commissioned works for the ARTI awards. My macro paintings have been compared to Georgia O’Keefe –whether that comparison is true or not. I have learned much about myself wondering around butterfly wing veins and cells for hours on end. And now I am excited to finally place these paintings in public view at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage which is at the Circle City Complex.

Patterns in Flight provokes thoughts on time, refined beauty, and overcoming struggles. It contains a variety of butterfly species: painted ladies, a blue morpho, malachites, a citris swallowtail, postmans, a variable cracker and a zebra longwing.

This May, the Arts Council of Indianapolis is moving offices from the Guaranty Building at 20 N. Meridian Street to 924 N. Pennsylvania St. Their new location, called the Metzger Building, is an art deco building covered in white tile and built in 1928. It once housed a roller skating rink.

As a part of the Art Council of Indianapolis’ Picture Windows Program, a Public Art Indianapolis project, the Arts Council requested from local artists images of current work to display on a large 36′ by 10′ banner. The above collage of three pieces from my latest dynamic still-life series, Patterns in Flight, was selected. This, Patterns in Flight triptych, will be a vinyl banner on the exterior of the building. The Patterns in Flight triptych is scheduled to be installed Tuesday, May 25, 2010 and will remain installed for one year.

The entire butterfly series, Patterns in Flight, will be on display at Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage. The series opening will be August 6, 2010 during the August First Friday and the series will show through August 28. Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is located at 1125 Brookside Ave #C7 Indianapolis, Indiana.

"Unwound", oil on Fiberboard

I spent an hour today taking in the show, A Working History of Things to Come, works by Eric Hudgins in Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage.  The show is aptly titled, as the paintings build upon themselves and foreshadow his current work.  Overall, Hudgin creates pieces that have interweaving patterns, ideas, and colors.  His work explores the relationship between technology and nature.  The older pieces in the main part of the gallery contain a dichotomy of nature and technology.  They relate, yet remain separate.  In the “red” room, one finds abstract paintings that seem to contain something somewhere between the extremes.  All of the pieces are painted with care.  The surface of the paintings are smooth and therefore do not obstruct the viewer from the content of the painting.

Among the earlier works on display, Cecoprian and Convergence caught my eye and mind.  These works are surreal in nature and representational in execution.  The work is presented in black frames that add to the formal, traditional feeling of this earlier work.  Eric Hudgins sums up his ideas when he states, “I believe there may come a day when technology is viewed as being just as natural as nature itself.”

"Cecoprian", oil, acrylic, ink, graphite on paper

In Cecoprian, the viewer is presented with a moth.  Half of the moth is natural.  The other part is created with intricate designs and patterns, melded with nature.  There is a combination of nature and technology, yet they stand as separate elements.  In Convergence, the dialogue between nature and technology takes on a different dimension as an alligator hatches out of a light bulb and an apple split in half reveals half of a white natural apple and half of a mechanical object.

"Convergence", detail

"Convergence", detail

The larger, newer, abstract works in the red room are displayed as frame-less, wrapped canvases.  These works are narrative, containing forms interacting with light in space and time.  The subject, although abstract, is the result of natural and mechanical influences.  It is a combination of the two separate ideas that Hudgins was previously working with.  A detail from Divine Turbulence shows how one of the planes in the picture, painted like a sky, is transposed next to a mechanical shaped plane.

Symmetry is the element that seems to hold both Running a Finger Along the Edge of Madness and The Rise of Fall together.  The paintings have energy and motion, but are stabilized by vertical symmetry.  In the first of these two paintings, it is symmetrical to the point of having a different light source for each half.  In the latter painting, there is a single light source which opens the space of the painting up to include a singular, symmetrical object.

Running a Finger along the Edge of Madness

The Rise of Fall

The show will be up through May 29.  Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage is open 12-4 on Fridays and Saturdays or by appointment.

The title of the show, Approaches to Abstraction, describes the variety of the pieces in Dave Voelpel’s show.  The media of the pieces range from acrylics, oil, watercolor, collage, and mixed media.  These seemingly diverse pieces are tied together through layers and the theme of landscapes.  In the piece to the left (Voelpel has not titled any of the pieces in this show), there are at least three abstract landscapes combined into one painting. The horizontal layers contain the possibility of multiple landscapes stacked vertically within the picture plane.  There are also translucent layers that add depth to the images.  These physical, tactile, textural layers are complemented by layers that are constructed for composition or to provoke thought.

Most of Voepel’s paintings are spontaneous and en plein air (painted outdoors). Instead of carefully composing before he paints, he chooses items for his collages out of a bag.  “Every piece is new, fresh, and original,” says Voelpel, when discussing his process.  When he is working on an acrylic abstract painting, he uses both, additive and subtractive approaches. He treats the paint in a variety of ways with the result that it emulates watercolor, glaze, and sometimes encaustic.  Voelpel does not include titles with his pieces so that viewers can interact with the image without being influenced by a title.

The opening for the exhibit is April 2, 2010 from 6:00 – 10:00.  The show will be in place April 3rd through April 24th by appointment only.  To make an appointment, call Dave Voelpel at 317-345-3426.

Five Seasons Studio Gallery
1125 Brookside Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46202
April 2, 6pm

Detail of a piece that has a Newspaper comic page as a base with collaged faces and translucent layers of acrylic paint.

This small piece has an encaustic appearance with depth created by subtle use of white. The layers of white give an atmospheric appearance.

It  would have been a great night to start a fire and cuddle with my hubby, but instead we braved the slush and visited several galleries along IDADA’ s First Friday Gallery walk.   Before I go into detail about what I saw, I want to reflect on the similarities of the three shows that I saw this evening.  They all had layers of ideas and used a type of collage method.  They were all bodies of work that were abstract with identifiable realistic elements.  Two of the shows were more serious in nature.  One was in fun.  At least one had self-portrait elements.

We started out by visiting the Harrison Center for the Arts and seeing Elizabeth Guipe Hall’s exhibition entitled A Beautiful Mind.  Her show was based on the theme of the the brain and the mind.  She creates encaustic paintings with layers of wax, some translucent while others are opaque, and collage elements.  Examples of some of the layers in her paintings include the following: an underlying drawing, geometric spirals, ribbons of color, and more clean cut shapes that have a ‘stenciled’ or ‘stamped’ look.  Her paintings are designs that sometimes contrast exact geometric shapes and free imperfect forms with uneven edges.  Colors, such as red, orange, blue, and purple, are used purposefully, while an overall off-white layer gives the pieces an atmospheric translucent dimension.

The theme of the brain is expressed with images of the nervous system and branching patterns.  Titles, such as Long-term Memory, or Connecting, initiate thoughts inside the viewer of the functions of the brain and mind.

Right and Left Reacquainted by Hall

The opaque surfase of the encaustic reminded Stephen of Frosting.

Long Term Memory by Hall

Then we went down to Fountain Square to visit the AV Framing Gallery and view Strumpets and Squares, mixed media works by Jenny Elkins.   Her materials ranged from clippings, to photos, to buttons, to fabric and beyond.  It is a juxtaposition of design and humor. A strumpet is an archaic term for a loose woman, and a square is a slang term for a nerd.

After narrowly escaping being stuck in a parking lot in Fountain Square, we made our way to the Circle City Industrial Complex.  I saw the third collage exhibition of the night in Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage.  Undertow by Kate Oberreich was a series of collage paintings reminiscent of landscapes of the west Michigan shoreline.  Symbols of pebbles and homes were repeated in a few of the paintings.  She used a limited palate in many of the paintings and the shapes became important in her design.

Congratulations to the opening of Flame Art Studios! I stopped by and saw the new space that is occupied by the female flame artists: Nancy Lee, Jari Sheese, and Bonnie Ramirez. Along with displaying their beautiful works of art (that you can often wear!), they also offer classes and workshops in a variety of mediums such as metalsmithing, beading, jewelry, clay, enameling, lampworking, sculpture, and welding.

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.

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Butterfly Clover

Three Daisy Jazz

During the month of November, stop by Wug Laku’s Studio and Garage to see, Nerve, a collection of some of the gallery owner’s personal work.  His drawings and paintings are worth an extra trip downtown when his gallery is not crowded with people and conversations, but if one only has time to view them during a First Friday, stop by the opening on November 6th.

The drawings and paintings deserve more than a cursory glance.  Do not pass them by as minimalist renderings of form, but envision the works as simplified mirrors reflecting both physical and metaphysical thoughts. Open and honest communication is at their core. Parallel to his work, his artist statement is a simple poem that opens Laku up to the viewer and leaves room for abstract ideas to breathe.

In the gallery’s main area, he has work from 1993, inspired by a county road north of Zionsville, IN (and a Burger King cup).  Within this group, he juxtaposes negative/positive space, layered paint, planes of solid color, and value transitions.  One can see a simplification of nature–very direct, concrete but beautiful in Butterfly Clover.  This piece has three sections.  1) The background is a completely smooth green color. 2) The butterfly is a simple triangle that contains a slight amount of brush strokes.  3) The purple clover is the focal point.  Here alone, the color changes in value and the strokes are free and visible.  This group is connected to his later work (mostly from 2001) that is found in the red room through the conscious simplifying of nature.

The later work refines the simplification. The work’s referent is less obvious, but not less important. The color palette and texture of the images are limited, yet they are not minimal–only simplified. Three Daisy Jazz (located in the red room) represents the continuity, journey, and conversational quality of the entire show.  This medium-sized painting shows process with its un-erased graphite lines, leftover tape, straight and jagged edges, and additive pieces.

Based on my visits to Laku’s gallery over the past year, he appears to enjoy displaying multiple stages of an artist’s work. This both contrasts and unites one body of work to another to showcase the development that defines an artist’s style. Laku continues this practice with two prior bodies of his own work.

While you are viewing Nerve, be sure to check out Nancy Lee’s beautifully designed metal jewelry.

A small disclaimer: Laku has represented my work at his gallery, so I am not a complete stranger to him.