This month at the Community Arts Center in Danville, Kentucky, there is a strong emphasis on student work with great exhibits from the Danville Learning Disabilities Association (the DLDA), and Danville Christian Academy.  Susan Black, a local photographer getting her start in floral photography also had an excellent display.

“The Hands that Touch the Heart” -  DLDA Student Exhibit

Last year, the Community Arts Center had an exhibit with the Danville Learning Disabilities Association in what I would like to call “accessory spaces” – spaces that aren’t normally used for exhibits in the basement and in one of our upstairs studios.  The exhibit had all kinds of work from the students – perhaps even too much.  Each student had a number of works on anything from paper to ceramics, which was a challenge to hang in our historic facility with ancient plaster-over-lathe walls that you can’t put nails into without starting cracks that take a few years to reach their full potential.  So, we taped pieces all over the walls.  When we ran out of room in the basement, we continued to tape things in the hall upstairs and in the studio normally used for yoga class.  I’ll admit that I had underestimated the size (likely over one hundred works) and impact of this exhibit.  On opening night in 2007, we had all kinds of kids in the building on every level, proudly showing off their latest creations.  It was inspiring to see how excited the students were to be able to point to a piece on the wall and say with a smile, “That’s mine.”  Pieces were sold for $25 with $20 going to the artist and $5 going to the DLDA which doesn’t seem like a lot of money for a painting, but the kids were thrilled to be making a sale.  My wife and I both agreed on an excellent minimalist striped piece by an artist named Alejandro.  After that first opening, I had decided that we should probably make this an annual event at the Arts Center.

Andrea Cass from the DLDA helps me put on this exhibit and really takes the initiative to get the whole project going.  We decided that for 2008, we would have the exhibit in April – Autism Awareness Month.  I noticed that as April rolled around, CNN was featuring all kinds of stories on autism, which helped to give the show a bit of perspective.  Andrea and I had also decided that we would make the show a bit more streamlined.  Each student would be able to create one painting or ceramic piece.  This also allowed us to include students from more schools – Boyle, Danville, Perryville, Junction City, and even Garrard County students were able to participate this year.  2007’s exhibit featured works that weren’t in the best of conditions for an exhibit.  A lot of the pieces were on single sheets of fairly lightweight paper which sadly didn’t stand up too well to being duct taped to the wall.  This year, Andrea was able to get enough wood and canvas stretchers for the students to create works with much more durability and lasting appeal.  Paint was donated by DecoArt in Stanford. 

The exhibit this year is nothing short of wonderful with around 75 paintings on display.  Some are funny, others are charming, and some are stand-alone masterpieces of abstraction.  What makes this exhibit interesting is the absolute abandon that these artists show in the creation of their work.  You can tell by looking at these paintings that the artist is living in the moment, fully enjoying every juicy brushstroke without concern for any particular assignment or objective other than to make a great painting.  A viewer can tell when an artist is hindered by self-criticism - held back by self doubt.  I can’t think of a single painting in this exhibit that shows any sign of deliberation.  It appears as if every artist were the most confident, accomplished painter on earth.  Another interesting aspect of the exhibit is how pop culture sneaks in to the work every now and again.  One painting features a Dodge logo, another features the characters of Aqua Teen Hungerforce, while others show everything from monster trucks to Spongebob’s pet snail Gary.  On opening night, many of the paintings sold to the near record attendance of 325 people.  The great thing is that people were buying paintings from artists that they didn’t really know based not on who the artist was, but on the strength of the work.  I was a bit disappointed when the painting I had my eye on (the one in the photo above) was one of the first to sell.  This exhibit is one of my favorites and certainly one of the highlights of the year because it’s rare to see an artist so excited about their work being on display.

Danville Christian Academy Student Art Exhibition

Robert Moler is one of the better known artists in the Danville art scene and is accomplished in several very different styles of painting.  He also has experience in putting together art exhibits as he hosted a number of juried shows at the Wilderness Trace Art Gallery here in town.  I was very pleased when he stopped by the Community Arts Center last year to tell me he was going to be teaching art at Danville Christian Academy, a private school in the community.  I knew that his experience with various media and his ability to teach others about art would be a great fit for the program.  Without deliberation, I signed him up for an exhibit of student work. 

The work by the students in this exhibit is absolutely amazing.  The students are painting with a maturity far beyond their years and you can tell that they actually understand what they are doing.  All the basics are there:  color mixing, composition, and technique – but most of these works do not appear to be created by children.  The work I have photographed for this blog is a dead ringer for a landscape by Munch, the artist best known for his painting (or paintings rather as there are several) The Scream.  The range of projects presented in this exhibit is refreshing.  Rather than just paintings and drawings, this exhibit showcases painted wooden eggs that resemble Ukrainian designs and some very interesting animal-shaped clay whistles that “toot” when you blow into them. 

I hope that these students continue their work beyond what is necessary for school as I can see that there is a lot of natural talent and true potential among these children.  With a great teacher like Robert Moler they have been given the opportunity to learn in a very artistically charged environment.  If the students that have exhibited at the Community Arts Center in the past year or so continue to develop their skills and knowledge of the arts, Danville has a great generation of artists lining up for the not too distant future.

“April Showers…” Digital Photography by Susan Black

You would not guess that Susan Black is a beginning photographer by looking at her images – macro close-ups of every type of flower from the most exotic orchid to the most common wildflower.  Even though she has only been working at her art for a few years now, she has thousands of images stored away on her hard drive.  Susan strikes me as one of those photographers that is also a collector.  Rather than picking flowers and putting them in a vase or pressing their petals between the pages of an outdated phone book, Susan captures them in her camera – alive and vibrant.  She has told me about how her obsession with floral imagery has gotten her into trouble from time to time as she will sometimes take photos of plants outside of stores in the home/garden section.  I’m not quite sure why anyone would take offense to this small action, perhaps they think she is a corporate spy snapping competitive prices rather than memorable photographs.  She takes trips and visits floral conservatories with the intent of capturing the perfect image.  Susan is always prepared with her camera on her, “at all times.”  She often stops on the roadside when a particular subject captures her attention.  I think that Susan’s work could best be described as floral portraiture because the close-up angle that she achieves on most of the flowers appears to be an attempt to capture the “face” of each species.  Some of my favorite images in her exhibit appear as if the picture were taken in very low light with the flash illuminating the petals as the background fades away.  In a time when photographers often give into the temptation to over-edit their work, Susan does very little to alter the images, usually only bumping up contrast and color when necessary.  In fact, I believe that she is only using the software that came with her camera to get her images into their finished state.  I feel that Susan is definitely a photographer to watch as she seems to have found her niche – something that usually takes photographers many years and several thousand images to find.  Look for Susan’s (very affordable) work in our gift shop after the exhibit.  We hope to be able to keep a rotating stock of images that we can update often, so check in from time to time to see what we have available.

Thanks,

Brandon Long

Executive Director

Community Arts Center

At the Community Arts Center, March was a whirlwind month– blowing by so quickly I was left wondering where it went.  Usually I post these blogs within the month of the exhibit and if you’re looking at the date on this one, you might notice it is a bit late.  So I guess this is a recap of March’s exhibits.  The exhibits in March were quite diverse, each one dramatically different from the other and equally interesting – So I’ll give a brief review of each.

Quiet Places – Landscapes by Dan McGrath

“After the Harvest” by Dan McGrath

Dan McGrath is an excellent oil painter out of Lexington, Kentucky who specializes in realism.  Although this particular exhibit focuses on landscapes there are a couple of paintings in the show that also hint at Dan’s other loves- still life and equine art.  A plein aire painter, Dan’s work captures the essence of each location, to make the viewer feel as if they are there on location with the artist.  One can tell from looking at Dan’s work that this is an artist that has studied painting and composition at length, although he has only been painting professionally for around six years.  Interesting composition choices makes his work stand out from your average landscape.  In Slope, treetops and clouds appear to mimic and compliment the shapes and textures of the other, while shadows of clouds cross the foreground to allow the viewer a gradual transition into the painting.  In another work, Blowing Snow, we are treated to a somewhat unconventional composition, that breaks the rule of thirds (common composition in which the bottom third of the painting is the foreground, the middle third is the background, and the top third is the sky) to great effect.  A large white country house looms far in the distance across a winter field, sitting a little lower in the composition than one would usually expect - allowing the cold winter sky to occupy and dominate the mood of most of the painting.  This unusual composition makes the viewer feel as if they are actually standing in the field, approaching the house.  The cold sky and fields of the painting make the house look all the more comforting.  The painting I have chosen to represent Dan’s work on this blog is After the Harvest, which he also chose to send out on the postcards advertising the exhibit’s opening.  This painting features a vineyard in the foreground, the perspective of which leads the viewer’s eye toward the background where the autumn horizon, ablaze with the colors of the season, mirrors the tones and textures found in the grapevines.  It is well balanced compositions such as this that really set Dan’s work apart.  You can see more of Dan’s work at his website at http://home.insightbb.com/~danmcgra/index.htm.

Cathedrals – Sculptures by Elizabeth Kernen

“St. FinBarrs Cathedral, Cork, Ireland” by Elizabeth Kernen

Elizabeth Kernen was Elizabeth Taylor’s stand-in for the movie Raintree County when it was filmed in Danville some 50 years ago.  Not only does she look very similar to Elizabeth Taylor to this day, she was also married to a man with the last name Taylor at one time – making Elizabeth Taylor’s stand-in none other than . . . Elizabeth Taylor.  It is unusual, for certain.  I wasn’t aware that Mrs. Kernen was an artist until just a few months ago when I was told about these amazing cathedrals that she had made.  When I went to check them out, I was surprised at the level of detail and charm that each of these miniatures  held.  The best part (and my favorite part) is that the cathedrals were made out of nothing more than cardboard and other found materials, or as Elizabeth calls it, “junk.”  Everything from pine cones, styrofoam bowls, wind chimes, rocks, and spools were used to make replicas of twelve cathedrals from around the world.  Cathedrals from Ireland, Greece, Japan, and Africa (to name a few) were represented.  From a distance the cardboard replicas look like actual buildings, creating the illusion that our gallery has been somehow transformed into a small city.

Staying Centred- Glass Forms by Jeremy Lampe

“Behavioral Problems” by Jeremy Lampe

Jeremy Lampe has been in Danville since last August, serving as Centre College’s Graduate Assistant in the art department.  As he was working in the program, he also got the chance to make a lot of art and focus on his craft.  Almost all of the 30+ pieces in his exhibit at the Community Arts Center were made during his time at Centre – hence the name, “Staying Centred.”  Jeremy’s work is an interesting mixture of glass, ceramics, and found objects.  He likes to focus his work on what he calls, “Industrial Castoffs” – objects that once held a degree of functionality, but are no longer used.  Most glass artists tend to focus on the beauty of the medium, making the most out of the transparency and almost liquid nature of the glass.  Jeremy’s work tends to lean more toward organic or biological forms, with pieces resembling microorganisms or parasites – although each piece is beautiful in its own right, if you were to encounter it in the real world as a living being, you might not be sure to squash it like a bug or keep it as a pet.  With as many pieces as Jeremy had in the exhibit, the show had a tendency to look like an invasion of glass creatures.  Instead of just being displayed on pedestals as ordinary sculptures, the artist arranged the work so that pieces were hanging from the walls, basking in sunlight, cavorting on windowsills, and some known as “Donut Walkers” precariously perched on a lattice divider in the middle of the room.  One of the more interesting aspects of Lampe’s work is his ability to switch between ceramics and glass – often in the same piece.  It is not unusual to see one of his pieces be half ceramic and half glass.  One particular work, Behave, looks as if the glass portion is emerging from a ceramic cocoon.  The strongest element of this exhibit is the apparent effortlessness of the pieces,  each looking as if it were something that should have already existed somewhere in some form.  The mark of a true artist is the artist that makes the work look easy.  I’m sure that each of the pieces were quite labor intensive in both design and execution, but they all look as if they just became into existence.  I also appreciate the artist’s use of lo-tech solutions and found objects.  In this exhibit, it was very difficult to identify what elements of the work were created by the artist and which were applied as found objects.  The found objects in Lampe’s work do not call attention to themselves.  They exist as a part of the work rather than the basis or the focal point of the work itself.  Jeremy’s work is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before and I’m sure he has a great career ahead of himself.  I’ve attached a couple of Youtube videos of Lampe, shot by Jennifer Brummett at the Advocate Messenger News here in Danville.  They should give you a greater insight into the artist and his process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9mirVeAktI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yhllbTPL3c

Thanks,

Brandon Long

Executive Director

Community Arts Center

“Help Yourself” by Lori Larusso. 2007.

Paintings of thick delicious pastries line the walls of the Grand Hall at the Community Arts Center this month.  Cupcakes, sugar cookie bunnies with candy eyes, menacing jack-o-lantern styled desserts line a tray, threatening to consume the viewer.  On another wall in the same gallery, a different series of work paintings represent “threat” with bears getting a little closer to a patio than one would like and a rattlesnake warming itself on what appears to be a back porch. 

Lori Larusso’s work is about contradictions in our present systems of belief.  While the two bodies of work represented in the exhibit seem to be at odds with each other, they actually relate quite well when one stops to contemplate as to how the work relates to the theme of contradiction.  In the series of delicious desserts, Lori’s artist statement reads, “As a consumer society, we tend to indulge in petty temporary distractions to remain sane in a complicated, contradictory world.”  As an artist, Lori is offering the viewer a sense of escapism and entertainment.  In today’s world, Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, and Emeril are celebrities, cooking on television for an at home audience that can never taste the dishes being prepared.  In that same manner, I feel that Lori is baking cakes for the viewer, serving up thick slices of pie that we can never consume.  In a way, it is a temptation for the viewer to want to know what the painting tastes like, to know what the texture of the icing on the cake would feel like - only to snap back to reality like those old Warner Brothers cartoons where a character finds themselves diving into an oasis, swimming the backstroke, and eating sand in what was only a mirage.  That delicious cupcake is only enamel on plywood. These paintings are intended as a getaway – a vacation for the eyes.  They also serve as a warning that things aren’t as they seem.  In this series of paintings, dark shadows often eclipse the surface of the dishes being offered, suggesting the ominous threat that the viewer has to the well being of the existence of the cookies.  In one painting, titled, “Help Yourself,” the shadow of what appears to be a hand reaches for animal shaped cookies.  The eyes of the rabbit shaped forms nearest the grasp of the unseen hand appear much larger than the rest of the cookies.  In a moment of fear, the rabbits seem to be saying, “No, not yet!”

In the series of paintings representing threats, perhaps the viewer is seen as the delicious dessert.  As a pair of bears approach a patio, they may be eying the viewer as a man shaped cookie.  Although the bears appear rather harmless and relaxed, we can’t help but feel threatened by their presence in an otherwise serene landscape.  In the foreground, a chair and cushions are surrounded by a gently curved wall and a well-placed carefully landscaped tree.  These details seem to suggest that the viewer is within an area of comfort, a safe area reserved for quiet time enjoying nature.  The bears tend to represent the truest form of nature, the part that we somehow can’t manage to tame - threatening our leisure.  It seems to suggest that even though we intend to enjoy the outdoors, we intend to enjoy the version of the outdoors that we have created.  We plan to enjoy our preened, landscaped back porch in the mountains oblivious to our real surroundings.  These paintings tend to focus on the contrast between leisure and exterior threats.  In the modern world, we don’t often have to face real threats to our existence.  We face threats like mortgage rates and stock market fluctuations, but how often do we have to square off with a bear or rattlesnake?  The two paintings of this series in the exhibit are actually titled, “Exterior Threat Study,” a clever name suggesting that the threat is both outdoors, outside of the self, and outside of our control.  In both paintings, the animals that are actually the “threat” appear to be at ease.  The bear is ambling about with its cub, the rattlesnake appears to be basking in the sun.  There is nothing in these paintings to suggest that the viewer is directly in harm’s way, but our preconceptions of these animals as “dangerous” tend to set off alarms in our subconscious. 

Lori’s work has a very high degree of personal style in both technique and image selection.  In each of the works, Larusso uses very hard edged shapes to define the images.  The works have a very graphic-based feel because most of the layers used to create the images are self contained in their color – that is that they don’t vary within each individual shape, almost like a paint-by-number painting.  Each color has its very own specific boundaries.  Created from enamel and acrylic paint, it appears as if the layers of paint are thick enough to peel off the surface of the painting.  There are a few areas in shadows where subtle blending serves the purpose of making the more hard edged sections pop out even more, and the effect is used very sparingly with great effect.  There are also several works in the exhibit that take advantage of the differences between gloss and matte paints.  Very glossy enamel may be used on one section of a painting while another may get an entirely flat treatment.  The piece that uses this most effectively is “Sweet Escape.”  In this work, a tray of bunny shaped cookies (painted in a very flat paint) resides on the upper left half of the painting.  The very glossy enameled violet background is interrupted in a very subtle manner by flat cut-out images of the bunny cookies painted in the same violet tones, appearing to flee from the surface of the painting.  I’m fairly certain that the result may not photograph convincingly well, but to see the painting in a gallery under just the right lights, it appears as if ghost images are exiting the surface. 

Intrigued by the images used in the paintings, I asked Lori where she comes up with the ideas for her compositions.  Apparently, the imagery for the dessert series comes from vintage cookbooks.  You know, the type where color photography is used in almost a cartoon manner.  When Technicolor came along, you could tell that photographers and printers went wild with it.  If strawberries were red, you can bet that they were reproduced in the most fire engine red available.  Because the colors are so strong and varied from her usual palette, Lori works from black and white reproductions of the images, changing the colors as she sees fit.  She also uses old encyclopedias (some of my favorite source material) for her work.  When looking at Lori’s work, one can tell that she has an interest in recreating a certain vintage vibe that is popular among contemporary painters.  I often wonder if the appeal of vintage or retro imagery stems from the perception of the media of that era by my generation.  In my mind, looking back on The Andy Griffith Show or I Love Lucy, it seems that evil, fear, and anxiety simply did not exist.  Of course, all of these things existed; it just was not represented in the media to any great extent.  To an artist focusing on the concept of contradiction, one of the greatest examples can be found in how people have decided to present their culture in both the past and the present.  In the past, the news glossed over and generalized current events, offering a very broad and usually positive view of the world.  Now with user created content available all over the web, from Myspace to Youtube, anyone can show their own version of events to any level of detail.  Some of it’s true, some of it’s false, and most of it is someone’s version of the truth to be agreed upon or to be disputed.  Perhaps Lori’s use of vintage imagery is a way to reference a time when events and images were passed through a certain level of scrutiny, a certain level of filtering to ensure a uniform presentation across all media – where all cakes looked similar, where all strawberries were the same color, where everyone could help themselves. 

Lori Larusso’s exhibit, titled, “Help Yourself,” will be on display throughout the month of February (2008) at the Community Arts Center on the corner of Fourth and Main in Danville, Kentucky.  Be sure to check out Lori’s website at www.lorilarusso.com.

  Thanks for reading,

Brandon Long

Executive Director

Community Arts Center

At the Community Arts Center in Danville, Kentucky, January is usually a cold and somewhat slow month as can be expected with the conclusion of month after month of holidays from October to December.  As the temperatures began to drop, the Arts Center turned its focus to a warmer form of art – quilts.  All of the exhibits during the month featured the work of some of Danville and Boyle County’s finest quilters with work from the Crazy Quilters Guild and Dolores Fegan.

The Crazy Quilters Guild (a group of quilters who do not necessarily make the more free-form stylized “Crazy Quilts”) exhibited in two of the Arts Center’s three galleries.  The Grand Hall mainly featured “Challenge Quilts” and the smaller Studio 2 gallery featured a variety of work by this group.  As the group doesn’t focus on creating “crazy quilts,” I suppose that their name somehow reflects their emotional state.  I have met these ladies and wouldn’t consider them to be crazy at all; rather they are very dedicated artists to their field.  It seems that the group really enjoys the company of one another and that they have had a very successful start since beginning in 2006 as a part of the Boyle County Homemakers.  Their exhibit featured work from very experienced quilters as well as at least one artist who was displaying the first quilt that she has ever created.

The Crazy Quilters exhibit in the Grand Hall featured what the group calls “Challenge Quilts.”  These quilts are created within the group by a set of rules established by a group member.  Challenges from both 2006 and 2007 were on display.  The 2006 challenge was to create a fish-themed quilt.  It is apparent that the group enjoyed the challenge and came up with a variety of creative spins to put on the theme.  One quilt, Woodland Fish, by Teresa Martin featured a woodland scene created with very simple geometric designs that featured a log cabin, trees, and a small pond with several fish within its borders.  Maybe it’s the limits of my generation, but this quilt reminded me of early computer games such as the Oregon Trail.  Quite popular back in the true floppy disk days (when the disks were actually floppy), there was one part of the adventure where the player got the opportunity hunt pixelated wildlife of the western plains among a similarly styled geometric landscape.  This quilt features the same angle of view, an almost three quarters birds eye view of the scene.  Another fish challenge quilt, Something’s Fishy, by Katie Fowler features several button-eyed fish in profile, with three dimensional fins that “flap” off of the surface, and what appear to be actual small fly fishing lures dangling before the open mouths of the fish.  In 2007, the Crazy Quilters were challenged to create a quilt using a specific lime green patterned fabric.  This fabric was not the most subtle color, so the results of this challenge tend to be very bright and lively.  A piece by Suzanne Brown, Froggie Chaos (pictured below), features a handmade checkerboard pattern that gives the illusion of three dimensions while frogs cut from patterned fabric spill onto a psychedelic blend of shapes and color, making me wonder if the supposed mind altering effects of licking toads might be a reference point for this work. 

Now I’m not saying that the Crazy Quilters go around popping frogs in their mouths, it was just a reference that came to mind when viewing the work.  Another work that made good use of the patterned fabric was Kentucky Challenge by Audrey Cameron.  This piece was one of the more subtle uses of the bright green fabric and featured a nice palette of color that complimented the challenge fabric without drawing too much obvious attention to it.  In Studio 2, the Crazy Quilters got a chance to show what they can do outside of the limitations of the Challenge Quilts.  Work in this gallery ranged from contemporary landscape themed quilts, to a quilted jacket, to a quilt built on a Civil War era pattern.

The Gallery upstairs featured work by Dolores Fegan, a quilter specializing in art quilts, quilts that aren’t necessarily intended to be used as bed coverings in the traditional sense.  Art Quilts are meant to be displayed and viewed as art much like a painting on a wall, except instead of paintings on a canvas, they are made of fabric.  Art quilts have become quite a spectacle recently as more quilters are becoming known as artists.  I think that it is important that all quilters are known as artists in the sense that they are contributing to the culture with their work.  The design and concept of art quilts, and the fact that most quilt artists use no specific pre-existing patterns make art quilts stand out more as an individualistic art form whereas traditional quilts often reflect a sense of time and place among a group of artists.

The sheer amount of work that Dolores puts into each quilt makes an immediate impression on the viewer.  If each quilt only consisted of white fabric and white thread, the amount of care and labor put into the layout of the stitches and sections of cloth would be enough for them to work as a great piece of art.  Luckily, for the viewer Dolores’ work contains a great variety of both color and pattern to make each section of a quilt stand out among the others.  For example, a quilt featuring a landscape would feature green, densely patterned fabric to look as if it were grass or brush, while loosely patterned brown earth tones would be used to represent sections of dirt in the quilt.  One such quilt, “Melody of the Plains,” the artist even goes as far as to use a larger textured pattern near the foreground of the quilt, while the background uses a tighter pattern to give the illusion of atmospheric perspective – the appearance that the objects in the background fade into the distance.  One of the most impressive aspects of Dolores’ work is that rather than taking the easy way out, she isn’t afraid to do a lot of hard work to make the quilts stand out.  For example, in the quilt featuring dancing chickens “Poultry in Motion,” she stitches metallic thread onto a patterned fabric that already resembles chicken wire.  The result is astounding in that the thread catches and reflects the light to look exactly like chicken wire should.  The centerpiece of Fegan’s exhibit was a very large quilt installation, “Women of the Bible.”

This quilt features sixteen small art quilts featuring various women of the Bible chained together to form a massive fourteen by seven foot installation. Each of the smaller quilts features a haiku about the biblical character.  If the viewer has difficulty in figuring out the character being referenced, they can scan the surface of the quilt for what I call a “cheat.”  The name of the woman is stitched into the canvas in a very inconspicuous place.  You have to really look closely in order to find some of the names.  Finding the names of the women becomes almost like a game of hidden objects to the viewer.  At the center of the installation is a large, shapely representation of a woman.  A heart is stitched onto her chest, and the names of nearly all of the women in the Bible form a hand-stitched trail around the figure, starting with Eve at the center of the heart.  Just the figure of the woman would be sufficient to stand alone as one of those, “Wow, look at that” moments.

Women of the Bible by Dolores Fegan. 

  Other details are sometimes more subtle.  In preparation for what is perhaps the most traditional quilt in her exhibit, “Fruit of the Spirit,” Dolores studied papercutting here at the Community Arts Center.  Studying with Debbie Baird, a local artist specializing in cut paper art, Dolores learned how to create repeating patterns on paper.  By adapting this knowledge to fabric, she was able to create very dramatic designs cut into a single piece of cloth.  To explain it doesn’t sound very exciting, but to see this technique in person is amazing.  Pictured below, the quilt features black designs over colorful fabrics.  The undulating black patterns are the sections that are cut from a single piece of cloth.  Other details may have completely passed by the casual viewer.  For example, a fish quilt was stitched with glow in the dark threads on the scales of large, three-dimensional koi to make their scales glow under the right lighting conditions.  It is Dolores’ dedication to exploring new media and her willingness to take on the most difficult challenges that make her work so interesting.

Fruit of the Spirit by Dolores Fegan

The quilt exhibits were a great addition to our winter lineup of shows.  With so many talented quilters in our region, we had great attendance with many enthusiastic viewers.  Many visitors made their first visits to the Arts Center to check out the work of these artists.  As I hoped and suspected, these exhibits drew a new audience to the center.

Thanks for reading,

Brandon Long

Executive Director, Community Arts Center 

“Familiar Scene on the Fork” by Paul Overstreet

Paul Overstreet, truly one of the great local artists in the Boyle County area, died on Christmas Day following a bout with cancer.  He was best known for his paintings of native Kentucky wildlife and local scenery.  Viewing his work from the Danville Art Guild exhibit held at the Community Arts Center this November, I could tell that he was an artist that paid very close attention to detail and that he loved the community that he grew up in.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a painting by Paul that didn’t feature some part of Boyle County in its scenery.  Whether it was Penn’s Store, the Bottoms House at Perryville, or a familiar scene down on the Fork, Paul showed his love for his subjects and his community with every brushstroke.  He will certainly be missed in the Danville/Boyle County arts community.

Ornaments from the Arts Center’s “Community Tree”

“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas. . .” Bing Crosby’s voice might have been drifting in subtle waves over the radio, dreaming of snow, but it didn’t seem to have much of an influence on Kentucky weather patterns.  We were about as far from a white Christmas as we could possibly be with some of the warmest winter weather that I can recall.

Although there wasn’t a White Christmas in the bluegrass, there was plenty of the theme to go around at the Community Arts Center this month.  “White Christmas” was the title of our first open invitation exhibit.  By open invitation, I mean that any artist that had work relevant to the theme of “White Christmas” could have their work be part of the exhibit for the month of December.  I was willing to accept almost anything.  On the flyer for the exhibit, I added that artists could submit artic abstractions, winter landscapes, Christmas and holiday themed work.  If someone went as far as to submit something that just happened to be painted white, I would have accepted it.  My main reason for doing this was to make the arts more accessible for both artists and viewers.  As an artist, I often get frustrated by the hoops that I must jump through to get my work out of the studio and into a gallery.  Some curators require that artists slides of your images, some want digital images, while others want to see the real work in person.  For most group exhibits, artists must pay a fee to submit their work to be reviewed by a panel before they even get considered for the exhibit.  With this exhibit, I wanted to get as many local and regional artists to participate as I could as a way of celebrating the holidays.  There were no prizes, no entry fees, just a great opportunity for artists to show their work. 

After sending the emails to artists and hanging the flyers for the “call to artists”, I was beginning to get a bit nervous that we might not have enough work for the exhibit.  But one by one in the days leading up to the exhibit, artists started contacting the Arts Center and leaving work behind.  We eventually had enough art to fill both the Grand Hall and the Gallery with “White Christmas” themed work.  Around thirty artists submitted over sixty works for this exhibit.

The work in the exhibit ranges from children’s art to professional regional artists and there is no shortage of variety.  There are snowy landscapes (in oils, acrylics, and watercolors) fiber art wall hangings, installation style sculptures, assemblages, abstract paintings, glass jewelry shaped like snowmen, even folk art gourds painted to look like Santa.  Also, a large part of the exhibit and the centerpiece for the holiday season at the Arts Center was the “Community Tree,” a twelve-foot Christmas tree donated to the Arts Center, decorated with all kinds of ornaments from community organizations.  The Creative Tree House, a children’s group that meets at the Arts Center, displayed Christmas themed work in Studio 2 or the “Elevator Gallery” as I like to call it.  This exhibit featured excellent Christmas tree paintings in the style of Gustav Klimt.

(above) An abstract painting from Baby Bear Daycare. 

I was pleased to learn that the Heart of Danville had chosen to have their Christmas Parade on Main Street share the theme of “White Christmas.”  After the parade, streams of excited children and parents flooded into the Arts Center to have their photos taken with Santa.  The Heart of Danville provided the Santa photo-op and CASA at Woodlawn provided the refreshments for the reception.  Although the numbers were too high to count, I would guess the number of people at the parade after party to be around 550. 

I would like to thank all of the artists who submitted work for the exhibit and all of the organizations that donated ornaments for our tree.  With so many different artists on display, the Community Arts Center had many visitors over the course of the month to view the exhibit.  Hopefully, we can do a similar exhibit next year with even more entries.  May all your Christmases be white.

The following artists displayed work in the White Christmas Exhibit:

Linda Lalor, Gaynella McGuire, Jack Carey, Susan Black, Marlene Martin, Dan McGrath, David Farmer, Judy Howard, Connie Goetsch, Carolyn Ellis, A. Jack May, Jenna Eickmeier, Jane Brantley, Debbie Baird, Ethan Birney, Baby Bear Daycare, Nancy Martindale, Brandon & Kristin Long, John Robinson, Yolantha Pace, Kris Marnon, Ray Wireman, Robert Apple, Linda Neal, Mary Noelker, Sherrie Cocanougher, and Christine Humphrey.

The following individuals and organizations donated ornaments for the Community Tree:

Big Brothers Big Sisters, Garden Club of Danville, Girl Scout Troop 738, Lancaster Road Homemakers Club, Ephraim McDowell Regional Medical Center Auxiliary, Boyle Middle School FMD, Crazy Quilters, Families First Cradle School, Southwood, Brownie Troop 1174, Advocate Homes, Streamland Homemakers Club, Linda Gustafson, Danville Independent Schools Library Media Specialists, Tillie Sowders, Pieceable Quilt Guild of Danville.  Special thanks to Judy Sweeney and Mary Ann Griffin for decorating the tree.

Thanks,

Brandon Long

Executive Director

Community Arts Center

“Familiar Scene on the Fork” by Paul Overstreet

“Reflections of Boyle County” is an exhibit on display November 2007 at the Community Arts Center by the Danville Art Guild, a group of six local artists in the Danville/Boyle County area.  This exhibit features works by Jack Carey, David Cornwell, David Farmer, Marlene Hanna, Paul Overstreet and Tillie Sowders.  The majority of the work and the focus of the show is on landscapes and scenes from Boyle County.  The scenery in the paintings covers locales as varied as Main Street, Dix River, and the Forkland area with an emphasis on the rural areas of the county.  It is surprising to me that there are no paintings in this show that reflect downtown Danville, but with all of the nice rolling hills and farm scenes, I can’t complain.  It is incredible to note in this show that although there are six different artists, each work contributes to the other without distracting the viewer.  There really aren’t any works included that jump out as being out of place in this exhibit.  With each artist painting from the local palette, one can tell that these paintings and the artists who painted them get along and are comfortable in the presence of one another.  Too many group exhibits fall apart when artists try to make works that call too much attention to them without complementing the works of the other artists involved.  One great example of how well the pieces complement each other in the exhibit can be found on a wall in the Grand Hall of the Community Arts Center where two paintings hang, one by Marlene Hanna, the other by David Cornwell.  Marlene’s work, titled Breakfast, features a grapefruit half on a white plate with blue trim, while Cornwell’s work, Lemon in Blue Bowl, features a lemon, cut in half in a blue bowl – the scale and color palette of both works are surprisingly similar despite the different media used.  Marlene’s work is done with oil paints while David uses colored pencils for this particular piece.

“Breakfast” by Marlene Hanna (top)

“Lemon in Blue Bowl” by David Cornwell (bottom)

Some artists, such as Paul Overstreet and Jack Carey chose to focus on Boyle County’s past, including brief narratives with some of their works.  Overstreet depicted a scene from the Battle of Perryville where a horse was shot out from under a general.  In this work, the action is captured perfectly as the viewer feels as if they are in the scene themselves. In the foreground, a soldier appears to be quickly moving out of the way as the horse falls – explosions bursting in the near distance.  Another Overstreet painting features Penn’s Store in the 1930’s with a car of that era parked out front.  Penn’s Store is so much of a point of reference in the community that I have (half) jokingly said that the Community Arts Center could have an entire show of paintings featuring the building.  Maybe someday we will if I can round up enough pieces.  Also focusing on the past, Jack Carey included a work called Kissing Bridge, which shows a long bridge that once crossed Dix River where couples would often kiss in the darkness of the tunnel.  My father, who likes to fish in that area, has been talking about this painting all month.

Another interesting aspect of this exhibit is the range of media shown by the artists.  Although 90% of the show is two-dimensional works in varied media from acrylic to oils and even a few colored pencil works, however, there are a few exceptions by artist David Cornwell who included five sculptures in the exhibit.  Four of the five sculptures (three birds and a bear) were carved of soapstone, in a style that reminds me a lot of Inuit artists.  Another exceptional piece by Cornwell is titled Broken Feather, a woodcarving in a caricature style of an Indian with a broken feather in his headdress.  The piece is very well balanced and appears (for all I can tell) to be carved from a single piece of wood.  The angles and features of the face are very well done and give a whimsical appearance as the frustrated chief eyes his broken feather.  Another interesting medium that Cornwell uses is pyrography, known to most as wood burning.  However, Cornwell uses this technique on paper.  I was not aware that pyrography would work on paper, but apparently it does to great effect.

Although most of the pieces in the show are landscapes, there are a few floral paintings by artists Marlene Hanna and Tilly Sowders, both of whom do an excellent job of capturing the beauty of their subjects.  When they were concerned that the pieces weren’t specific to the Boyle County theme, I reassured them that they could be considered Boyle county flowers.  Marlene’s florals in this exhibit were handled in a style akin to scientific studies with only the flower appearing in the frame, the rest of the background disappearing in a gray or white tone, while Tilly’s works back away from individual flowers and approaches them as a group in vases as a part of a still life.  I like to see how different artists approach a similar theme, and it looks as if both Marlene and Tilly have found great ways to put their own spin on the traditional floral still life.

This show was a great group exhibit that allowed viewers to see their surrounding county through the eyes of six different artists, each with a distinct style and approach.  In this area, we are certainly blessed with not only great scenery, but also great artists to capture it.

Thanks,

Brandon Long

Executive Director, Community Arts Center 

“Witches into Crows” by J.H. Leigh

J.H. (John) Leigh has been busy.  His most recent exhibit, “Soliloquies in Abstraction Expressionism” on display at the Community Arts Center in Danville, Kentucky contains no less than twenty-three paintings, none of which could be classified as small.  There were so many paintings in his exhibit that the Arts Center had to extend the exhibit into the hallway upstairs.  Each of these canvases are fully saturated — dripping with washes and strokes of color, not only to the edge of the picture surface, but often wrapping around the edges of the unframed works.

John is currently the art and writing teacher at Crab Orchard Elementary school in Lincoln County.  Strangely enough, I have taught after-school art classes in his classroom as a part of a grant with the Lincoln County schools.  At that time (2001 or ‘02), John had not quite ventured into abstraction yet.  I recall a very realistic drawing of a bird outside his class door, with an article next to it about the piece.  I always find it refreshing when art students in public schools can learn from someone who is practicing what they are teaching, providing an excellent role model for what one can accomplish in the arts.  I got a chance to know John a little better over the summer during our Arts Market events, where local artists bring in art to sell on Thursday nights in the basement of the Arts Center.  He would always have a great variety of work — realistic nudes and drawings of birds, but I could tell that it was the abstract works that were capturing his attention and his time as an artist.  I had not seen his larger works yet, but if they were anything like the small abstractions he was bringing to Arts Market, they had to be great. 

A good artist will almost always have what I like to call an “artmobile” – a sensible car with good gas mileage that also happens to hold a lot of art.  My vehicle is a late 90’s Ford Escort station wagon.  It’s not huge, but you can go to the hardware store, buy several 8 foot pieces of wood and manage to get it home intact.  When John delivered his work to be displayed for the exhibit, I was amazed at how many paintings he had packed into his mini-van and at the sizes of the works themselves.  I believe he had almost all but one or two of the paintings in a single trip.  Unlike an artmobile, most of the galleries at the Arts Center can hold around twelve to fifteen works, depending on the dimensions of the paintings.  With twenty three larger-than-usual paintings, I was wondering what we would do with all of them.  John’s exhibit spread into the extra spaces in the Grand Hall, wound its way upstairs, and occupied the hallway on the second floor quite nicely.

The paintings in the exhibit have several different styles, which is not unusual to see when an artist is exploring the language of abstraction.  Some of the paintings have very long vertical drips running the height of the painting, while others have what appears to be sand added to the paint to add a degree of texture.  The greatest commonality between the works is that you can tell that each was created by an artist who loves painting.  The push and pull of abstract painting is what makes it such an enjoyable and challenging activity.  On one hand, the artist wants the entire painting to look as if it happened naturally, with free, loose applications of color.  On the other hand, most artists have to go back to the more logical part of the brain to tame the picture into a reasonable composition.  Attempting to find the balance between the loose and the logical can be one of the most challenging obstacles to the contemporary artist. 

In his artist’s statement for the exhibit, Leigh says, ” . . . in my art, I seek to reunite myself with that archaic understanding of freedom, that freedom which is actual and pure, the one that existed early, before anthems and allegiances, social security numbers, schedules, and Daylight Savings Time.”  In the paintings presented in the show, one can feel the archaic, primitive forms calling out to be recognized.  In one painting titled, “Heathendom,” I feel as if I am being watched through the dense leaves of a forest by a large cat waiting to pounce when I am least paying attention.  The stripes of the painting and the way that Leigh plays with the shifting ochre and yellow tones of the background tend to hint at such an explanation.  It makes sense that the artist would reference primitive man in abstract painting.  Man always attempts to construct sense out of the senseless, to imagine pictures and figures where there is only paint and canvas.  The senses that I am using to interpret these paintings are the same that would have come into play thousands of years when scanning the depths of the forest, searching for the carnivorous beast that could be my death or my dinner.   

“Heathendom” by J.H. Leigh

Thanks for reading,

Brandon Long

Executive Director

Community Arts Center

Work by Brenna Kihlman featured in her exhibit Bold Strokes. 

“Brenna Ji Won Kihlman was born in Seoul, Korea in 1975 and adopted by Shan and Dale Kihlman and brother, Nick.  She graduated from Boyle County High School and Eastern Kentucky University.  Her legacy to those of us who knew her, and those who knew of her, is her artwork.  She died from cancer in 2002 after a 10 year battle.  Brenna is the joy, inspiration, laughter, and courage inside us all.”

The words above were from the artist’s statement provided by Brenna’s adopted parents, Shan and Dale Kihlman.

The Community Arts Center is proud to exhibit Brenna Kihlman’s work in an exhibit titled Bold Strokes.  Brenna’s exhibit is a celebration of what she accomplished in the arts during her short lifetime.  In selecting works for the exhibit, her parents and I decided to show mainly abstract pieces, as they were the largest of the works that she had available, but we could have just as easily had an exhibit of self-portraits, drawings, or fashion designs.  When looking through a book that showed more of Brenna’s work, I was astounded at how many pieces there were.  There were an almost unlimited number of fashion designs – very bold patterns on sassy models, posed as if the wind were blowing in their favor.  I could only imagine the amount of energy that it took to create so many different designs, some of them being realized to the point of having fabric samples glued to the page to show the intended prints. 

In Bold Strokes, the most interesting aspect of the exhibit is trying to decipher the abstractions in the drawings.  Some parts look representational while others seem to be only forms meant to complete the composition.  In one drawing alone, a single section of the composition has been interpreted by viewers as a door, a computer mouse, and shoes.  Others forms seem to take shape as wine goblets or barbells, egg-shaped ends balanced on top and bottom of a cylindrical center.  Some of the shapes and forms remind me a bit of some of Marcel Duchamp’s later work, particularly in his “Large Glass” piece.

 www.abcgallery.com/D/duchamp/duchamp29.html  

If you follow the link above to Duchamp’s piece, you’ll see that there is a bit of interest in fashion as what appears to be articles of clothing are on a rack, like what one would find in a shop.  There have been many essays written regarding the meaning of Duchamp’s ambiguous forms and Duchamp has gone through quite an effort himself of attempting to explain himself on this largely conceptual work.  Whether or not Brenna was influenced by Duchamp is questionable, but you cannot deny Picasso’s influence on her work.  The smallest piece in the exhibit is a cubist drawing of a head, shown both in profile and straight ahead in the brown, earthy hues associated with Picasso’s earliest collages and assemblages.

Another exciting part of the Bold Strokes exhibit is Brenna’s use of color.  While some pieces are more reserved in palette, being drawn in mostly browns and darker tones, others have a more vibrant feel with very feminine pinks, violets, and blues.  One piece appears to be a purple tree which has taken on some female aspects, with shapely curves coming out its trunk – branches like arms, spread across the sky.  In the lower left foreground, a form much like a butterfly wing approaches the viewer.

While putting this exhibit together and during the opening reception, I could only wish that Brenna were here to see the exhibit and to personally get the recognition that she deserves for this great display.  Her opening was very well attended by friends and family who gathered around and reflected on her life and her art.  I would like to thank Dale and Shan Kihlman for helping to put the exhibit together and for coming to the Community Arts Center to speak to visiting students on Brenna’s behalf.  Brenna’s exhibit will be up until the end of September and portions of the proceeds from the sales will go to Heritage Hospice.

What does Jesus look like? 

That seems to be one of the big questions that J. Robert (Bob) Gundy is trying to answer in his recent body of work, Religiosity on display through September at the Community Arts Center in downtown Danville, KY.  On one wall of the exhibit, there are no less than three paintings of Jesus – each looking very different.  One looks angry, one is blonde, while another has black hair.  While I was touring a group of students from Kentucky School of the Deaf through the exhibit, one girl pointed at the paintings and said in sign language that none of the paintings are correct, that Jesus had brown hair.  Bob has explained that his reasoning behind the three different depictions of Christ is that in doing his own research for this series that he came across writings from an author who had compiled ancient texts describing Jesus from eyewitness accounts.  Surprisingly, each person’s view of Christ was very different.  It seems that the depictions of Christ in Western art, nearly unchanged since the Renaissance, have been etched deep in our minds. 

Bob started the Religiosity series after having a very intense religious experience in his studio one day a few years ago.  After the experience (which I will not describe because it is a deep personal experience to the artist that I’m not sure he wants to share in such an open forum) Bob decided to focus more on works of a religious, Christian nature.  The series covers scenes from the Old Testament and the New.  Some of the paintings are very narrative, in the case of “Jonah and the Great Fish,” which shows an almost cartoon view of the scene from both above and below the water (much like the drawings we all did as a kid with the boat above the water at the top of the page with the fish and marine life below).  Jonah has just been thrown overboard, with all of the ships crew looking overboard into the green water with blank faces to see what has become of him.  A large fish, nearly transparent and painted as if its bones were a part of its exoskeleton, prepares to swallow Jonah whole.  The entire series is painted with a very colorful palette, with bright primary and secondary colors jumping off the canvas.  The figures are often painted in a very flat, two-dimensional fashion, which does a nice job of referencing Christian art found on stained glass windows and illuminations.  The paintings which depict Christ appear as if the figure were posed in front of the halo that forms a cross behind each.  Above each of the three arms of the cross in the paintings is a letter, spelling out, “I AM,” referencing one of the most profound statements in the Bible: “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” (Exodus 3:14).   Several of the paintings focus on Christ’s suffering.  “The Agony of Golgotha” frames the face of Jesus on the cross at a very dramatic angle as blood spatters from the mouth, painted in a very dense tempera that almost looks as the blood could be picked up off the canvas.  Another, “Trial,” refers to Christ’s trial before being executed.  Presented as a mixed media collage, photographs of friends of the artist are included as a part of the scene. 

Symbolism is very prevalent in the series.  Hands form the symbol of the trinity on paintings of “good” characters while “evil” characters form their hands into the too-often-used-in-heavy-metal “devil horns.”  “The Temptation of Christ,” shows a very nervous looking depiction of Jesus sandwiched between an angel and the devil much in the same way cartoons show an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. Other symbols are shown in the paintings, but they seem to be personal symbols and I probably shouldn’t venture too far into guessing.  Bob mentioned in his artist’s statement that he “may have asked more questioned than answered putting this exhibit together.”  I think that the same could be said of any good art exhibit.  In fact, that would be a noble goal for any artist.

Be sure to check out Bob Gundy’s exhibit Religiosity at the Community Arts Center, on display through the month of September.

Thanks,

Brandon Long

Executive Director

Community Arts Center