"Chickasaw Park" by Victor Sweatt, 16x20in, oil on canvas, 2017, $750 — "Chickasaw Park" by Victor Sweatt, 16x20in, oil on canvas, 2017, $750

Parks and Inspiration

For a painter interested in landscapes, Louisville’s celebrated park system offers a nearly inexhaustible series of locations. For Victor Sweatt, the beauty is in the commonplace paths open to all of the city’s population; the diverse range of sunlight and the prosaic quality of the trees, great and small, which shade the environment. Knowing the themes of spirituality and community that are dominant in his figurative work, it is but a small leap to imagine the artist sees nature as an extension of those very same ideas.

Recently, Sweatt completed two large scale paintings for the Slugger Museum in downtown Louisville that depict native son and World Champion Boxer Muhammad Ali on one, and Atlanta Braves legend and holder of the record for career home runs Hank Aaron on the other. Together the work is titled: “Ali & Aaron: United in the Fight”. He also won a design competition to paint an image for the Heritage West development in the Russell neighborhood of Louisville that will be displayed on a billboard.

"Ali & Aaron: United In The Fight" by Victor Sweatt, acrylic on canvas, 2017, courtesy Slugger Museum. — **"Ali & Aaron: United In The Fight" by Victor Sweatt, acrylic on canvas, 2017, courtesy Slugger Museum.**

Sweatt was born in Louisville. The oldest of three sons, Sweatt was raised in a single-family household. He has shown his work in group and solo exhibitions, and appears in public and private collections throughout the United States. In 2015, his work was included in the Louisville Visual Art exhibit, Presence and Place at Metro Hall in Louisville, KY. Sweat is a signature member of the Louisville Visual Art, the Kentucky Artist Pastel Society, and the Kentucky Watercolor Society.

"A New Day is Dawning" by Victor Sweatt, 12x16in, acrylic on panel, 2017, $650 — "A New Day is Dawning" by Victor Sweatt, 12x16in, acrylic on panel, 2017, $650

A long-time teacher and mentor for kids in west Louisville, Sweatt is currently seeking funding for "Speak Up", a children’s book that empowers them against child molestation, educating youth about the negative effects of under age drinking and setting positive goals.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/victor.sweatt

"Shawnee Park Trail" by Victor Sweatt, 8x10in, acrylic on canvas, 2017, $450 — "Shawnee Park Trail" by Victor Sweatt, 8x10in, acrylic on canvas, 2017, $450

"Underpass" by Victor Sweatt, 11x14in, oil on panel, 2017, $650 — "Underpass" by Victor Sweatt, 11x14in, oil on panel, 2017, $650

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more. — **Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.**

Painting, Mixed Media

Vignette: Jennifer Palmer

Guest User · September 8, 2017

Mapping the Void, 4" x 3", Mixed Media on Poplar, 2017,  $300 — *Mapping the Void*, 4" x 3", Mixed Media on Poplar, 2017, $300

The Act of Creating and Coping with Grief

The act of mapping connects the past with the future. It charts a journey into the unknown, providing a safe, or at least safer, passage for those that follow in our path, alleviating fear and superstition as we move into the larger world together. This was true for explorers traversing the globe hundreds of years ago in wooden ships, literally mapping the geography, and it is just as true for artists using the concept metaphorically today. The face of the earth has been prodigiously documented, but individual emotional experience is nearly always unchartered territory.

Jennifer Palmer’s new exhibit, Mapping Loss, features mixed media artworks that, in the words of the artist, “…create maps of thought that are about finding Zen in the chaos of loss; the search for balance amidst the process of grieving. The works feature a variety of materials that explore the meditative process of repetitive mark making juxtaposed against colorful, unrestrained shapes.”

Between the Clouds, Mixed Media on Paper, 9" x 12", 2017, $400 — *Between the Clouds*, Mixed Media on Paper, 9" x 12", 2017, $400

“Through the process of finding the light in the darkness, the act of creating is helping to bring calm to the chaos of the grieving process and coping with the death of my mother.”

“I want to keep exploring the world and the objects it holds, and create personal maps out of memories. I am searching to find a balance and peace to what has happened and also trying to create something beautiful out of my experiences.”

Mapping Loss, is on display at Barr Gallery, Indiana University Southeast through September 22nd. In October Palmer will be the Collider Artist in Residence at the South Central Regional location of the Louisville Free Public Library.

At present Palmer is an Adjunct Professor at Bellarmine University, Louisville, teaching Drawing, 2D Design, and Art Concepts.

Name: Jennifer Palmer
Hometown: Simpsonville, Kentucky
Age: 36
Education: MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design; BA in Art and Political Science, Cedar Crest College (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
Website: http://jenniferpalmer.tumblr.com
Instagram: jenniferlaurapalmer

Mapping II, Mixed Media on Paper, 9" x 12", 2017, $400 — Mapping II, Mixed Media on Paper, 9" x 12", 2017, $400

Mapping Above,  Mixed Media on Paper, 9" x 12", 2017, $400 — Mapping Above, Mixed Media on Paper, 9" x 12", 2017, $400

Woven Into time, Mixed Media on Paper, 22" x 30", 2017, $800 — Woven Into time, Mixed Media on Paper, 22" x 30", 2017, $800

Photography

Vignette: Dobree Adams

Josh Jenkins · September 7, 2017

“These photographic mosaics are my way of making sense of and giving form to images captured in brief encounters with these ancient towns.” – Dobree Adams

*"Sant'antimo One" by Dobree Adams, 24x32in, Composite; Archival Inkjet Print (2017), $535*

When an artist shifts from one medium to another, it is always tempting to see elements of the first medium in the second, and often there is a foundation in such observations. In the work of Dobree Adams, we can see the pattern and textures of her weavings reoccur in her photographs, and as she often has chosen historical architecture as a subject for her camera, we might also connect the fundamentally earthy tones of her textile palette with the aged, dusty surfaces found in much of her photography.

That palette also runs to a spectrum of greens, and in Adam’s most recent work she juxtaposes images of ancient architectural forms with lush gardens and mazes, connecting and contrasting the mortality implicit in the modern occupation of structures built thousands of years ago with the verdant arrangements of shrubbery and garden design. The “photo mosaics” are drawn from sixteen towns in Umbria, Tuscany, and Le Marche.

*"Assisi Two" by Dobree Adams, 24x32in, Composite; Archival Inkjet Print (2017), $535*

“I captured strong yet intimate images, often weirdly dissimilar,” explains Adams, “gargoyles, fragments of stone work and frescos, colors, light patterns, and landscape jewels. These photographic mosaics are my way of making sense of and giving form to images captured in brief encounters with these ancient towns. The images in each mosaic, although from a single geographical location, may be from different places, different times, different materials, and are sometimes reproduced at different scales.”

"Sweet Summer" by Dobree Adams, 62x32in, Felted by hand and on the FeltLoom; Silk, Merino and Lincoln Wool (2016), $950 — *"Sweet Summer" by Dobree Adams, 62x32in, Felted by hand and on the FeltLoom; Silk, Merino and Lincoln Wool (2016), $950*

“The energy or movement perceived in the mosaics works like the optical mixing of colors so important in impressionistic painting. Your eye is trying to make sense of the relationship between the images, perhaps trying to deal with that weirdness, looking for perspective or perhaps trying to argue whether a line is straight or crooked.”

Adams wants her compositions to communicate a sense of place through the subjective lens of her camera, as well as the unique and sometimes unorthodox juxtaposition of locations. There is an aspect of assembling a puzzle using pieces that aren’t a natural fit, yet there is an association that we only discover through the artist’s perspective; one we almost certainly won’t discover anywhere else.

Dobree Adams has been long recognized as a contemporary fiber artist. Most recently she has been creating felted landscapes using the FeltLoom in the University of Kentucky Fiber Studio. is also an accomplished photographer who began actively exhibiting her photographs with her woven work in 2003. She has had collaborative shows of her tapestries and photographs intertwined with the poems of her husband Jonathan Greene since 2009, including the Albrecht-Kemper Museum in Saint Joseph, Missouri, the Headley-Whitney in Lexington, and the Evansville Museum.

Her felted piece ‘Homage to Jasper Johns’ was included in the New Editions Gallery exhibition MIX IT UP. She is also in three current or upcoming exhibits:

*"La Foce Nine" by Dobree Adams, 24x32in, Composite; Archival Inkjet Print (2017), $535*

Way of The Land: The Farm Story, an invitational exhibition designed to document the region’s agrarian culture, will run through October 22 at the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art.

Italia Con Amore, a solo show and premiere exhibition of photographic mosaics from Umbria, Tuscany, and Le Marche will run September 22 through October 27 at Crafts(s) Gallery, as part of the 2017 Louisville Photo Biennial.

Lexington Camera Club: New Work, work by 32 members curated by Paul Paletti, will run October 6 through December 15 at the Lyric Theatre Gallery, Lexington.

Hometown: Frankfort, Kentucky
Education: BA, Mathematics, Wellesley College. Over 25 years in the scientific arena before becoming a full time artist/farmer; has studied at the Penland School of Craft & Santa Fe Photography Workshops
Website: www.dobreeadams.com/dobreegallery/

*"Montepulciano One" by Dobree Adams, 24x32in, Composite; Archival Inkjet Print (2017), $535*

*"Umbertide One" by Dobree Adams, 24x32in, Composite; Archival Inkjet Print (2017), $535*

Painting

Vignette: Kathie Daulton

Josh Jenkins · September 5, 2017

“The bison struck me as moving mountains, impervious to time and elements.”
– Kathie Daulton

"Mountain Goes to Mohammed" by Kathie Daulton, 20x16in, oil on canvas (2017), $400 | BUY NOW — *"Mountain Goes to Mohammed" by Kathie Daulton, 20x16in, oil on canvas (2017), $400 | BUY NOW*

Kathie Daulton believes the purpose of modern representational art is to stop time. Arguably, any static image accomplishes this, but in “Museum Row” the street scene seems frozen, except for one figure allowed a sense of motion, a women in white and purple who might be in a world of her own at this moment, her penetration into the space so intentional as to make the rest of us feel as if we are standing still.

In “Mountain Goes to Muhammad,” the painter confronts the stoic gaze of a nearly immovable object, a massive bison on the American prairie. Time again stands still, but with an underlying tension in anticipation of what the monolithic creature might do next in the sunbaked landscape that was his domain long before humankind encroached.

That quality of immutability carries over into a painting of bicyclists. Intellectually, we know that they are in motion, yet the image arrests them sufficiently to suggest the figures moving slowly, with gravitas, as a herd of bison might move. The swift speed of the scene is downplayed in favor of what Daulton refers to as, “…some less definable essence of a moment.”

"Old Hippies" by Kathie Daulton, 20x16in, oil on canvas (2015), $300 | BUY NOW — *"Old Hippies" by Kathie Daulton, 20x16in, oil on canvas (2015), $300 |* *BUY NOW*

Daulton has studied with local artists Rita Ford Jones, Joyce Sweet Bryant and Cathy Hillegas, and attended workshops with nationally acclaimed artists Judi Betts and John Michael Carter. She is an active member of the Floyd County Crit Club and Madison Art Club. She received a purchase award in the Ohio Valley Regional juried show in 2002, and a first in an annual Floyd County Crit Club show in 2013.

Daulton's work is displayed at Art on Main in Madison, Indiana. She will also be exhibiting with other Floyd County Crit Club members during the month of September at Pearls on Pearl, New Albany.

Hometown: Charlestown, Indiana
Education: Self-Trained
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/At-the-Lake-Painting-278423408862954/

"Big Four Bikes" by Kathie Daulton, 20x16in, oil on canvas (2015), $300 | BUY NOW — *"Big Four Bikes" by Kathie Daulton, 20x16in, oil on canvas (2015), $300 | BUY NOW*

*"Big Four Bikes (detail)" by Kathie Daulton*

"Museum Row" by Kathie Daulton, 16x20in, oil on canvas (2012), $300 | BUY NOW — *"Museum Row" by Kathie Daulton, 16x20in, oil on canvas (2012), $300 | BUY NOW*

Ceramics

Vignette: Amy Chase

Josh Jenkins · September 1, 2017

*"Complacency" by Amy Chase, 9x5.5x5in, Porcelain Cone*

It was recently announced that Amy Chase is one of the recipients of the 2017 Al Smith Fellowship. The prestigious award, named in honor of former arts council chair and Kentucky journalist Al Smith, recognizes professional artists who have reached a high level of achievement in their careers. Since its beginning in 1983, the program has provided more than $2.5 million in funding to artists in the visual arts, literary arts, media arts, composing and choreography. In this round of funding, the fellowships were awarded to artists in the choreography and literary arts disciplines.

Examining a selection of Amy Chase’s work, one gets the sense that a community has been built. The forms are often abstract, but the relationships are clearly drawn, and some of the figures capture very human postures and attitudes. Those figures live on various platforms, so there is always a context of isolation or separation. Sometimes characters are drawn closer, and other times they are widening the distance between them. Often, and most irresistibly, two of them (for they almost always seem to come in pairs) are connected by a slender thread, pulling on their tether in a precarious fashion that creates a delicate tension.

*"Compliance" by Amy Chase, 10x8x10in, Porcelain*

“The surface consists of intricate patterns that are applied using precise silkscreened slip and glazing techniques. These choices in pattern address personal experiences, while at the same time evoking the viewer’s own memories.”

Chase’s artist’s statement makes it explicit that these patterns and textures are drawn from childhood memory, so there is an undeniable element of autobiography in this work. Yet the abstraction puts us at a distance; we are empathetic because the fundamental dynamic at play resonates within our own memory. The anonymity allows us to see ourselves in this nebulous but welcoming community.

*"Enticement" by Amy Chase, 3x4x3in, Porcelain, Underglaze, Luster*

Chase is currently the Design Coordinator for Louisville Visual Art in Louisville, Kentucky. Since residing in Louisville she has also been the Ceramics Instructor and Gallery Director at Spot 5 Art Studio and taught Ceramics at Jefferson Community and Technical College. From 2010–2012 she was the Adjunct Professor of Ceramics at Southeast Missouri State University located in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Amy Chase has been awarded the title of ‘Emerging Artist’ by American Style magazine, has been featured in Ceramics Monthly, Clay Times, 500 Ceramic Sculptures and 500 Ceramic Vases. Chase has also has an extensive exhibition record including venues such as: The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Clay Studio of Missoula in Missoula, Montana; The Washington Project for the Arts in Washington D.C.; Carbondale Clay Center in Carbondale, Colorado and Lincoln Arts in Lincoln, California.

Hometown: Murray, Kentucky
Education: BFA, Murray State University; MFA, Southern Illinois University
Website: http://amychaseceramics.com

*"Inclination" by Amy Chase, 8x4x3in, Earthenware, Fibers*

*"Solidarity" by Amy Chase, 9x7x4in, Porcelain, Stoneware, Flocking, String, Luster*

"Deciphering Fiction" by Amy Chase,  6x6x6in, Terracotta, Wood, String, Underglaze — *"Deciphering Fiction" by Amy Chase, 6x6x6in, Terracotta, Wood, String, Underglaze*

Vignette: Victor Sweatt