Vignette: Elizabeth Foley

"Making the work becomes a journey of balance in and of itself." - Elizabeth Foley

"Enso-Clarity" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut and collagraph, 26x38in, 2015, NFS

“My work focuses on the interplay of lives and the concept of life-balance, explains Elizabeth Foley. “I explore the circle as a resolved but potentially irregular shape, representing both the balance and variety we all strive for in our lives. How is wholeness achieved and what tips the circle off center? What distracts from the main circle? Does wholeness come at the price of predictability?” 

Printmaking need not avoid explorations of depth in form and space, yet it would appear to be a common trend in contemporary art that prints be concerned with surface, texture, pattern, and field. Of course, this technical and compositional observation doesn’t restrict depth in subject or theme. Much to the contrary, the embrace or even celebration of 2-dimensional surface art by working print makers calls attention to the profundity of abstract and limited representational imagery. Foley shows how much the opportunity for suggestion and meaning in her work depends on the invitation to the viewer inherent in abstraction.

"Revolving" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut collagraph, 21x21in, 2017, $600 (unframed)

“The vibrant dialogue between shape, color, and pattern invites viewers into the work. I create spaces in which the viewer feels involved in the work: being both delighted and challenged. The colors activate the imagination; they influence and play off each other in order to shift and tilt planes of information. Overlapping transparencies create the illusion of distance and scale, as well as deepening relationships between shapes.”

Foley uses relief, monoprint, and collagraph techniques together to make unique images from the same plates – “a potential template for life balance”. She is currently exhibiting in "Venn Diagram" Work by Blake Snyder Eames & Elizabeth Foley, running through December 18, 2017 at The Grand Theater, Frankfort, KY, and will be participating in the Sixth Annual Black Friday Art Sale at Loudoun House in Lexington, December 1 from 6-9pm and December 2 from 2-7pm

Foley was also selected to be a part of the inaugural Hadley Creatives Program, a 6-month learning and engagement experience for local artists who are at a pivotal point in their careers administered by The Community Foundation of Louisville and Capital Creative.

Permanent Collections
Bluegrass Printmakers Cooperative Saint Joseph Hospital
Chase Bank, Cincinnati, OH and Louisville, KY Saint Joseph Jessamine County Emergency Treatment Center
Good Samaritan Hospital Southern Graphics Council
Kentucky One Health Alliance Tiger Lily Press
Keystone Financial Group University of Arizona
LexArts University of Kentucky Hospital
Littler Mendelson, P.C. University of Miami
May Department Store Washington University School of Art
Ohio University School of Art West Virginia University
Ohio University Alden Library

Hometown: Wellesley, Massachusetts
Education: BFA, Graphic Design, Washington University, 1990; MFA, Printmaking, Ohio University, 1997; M.Ed, Secondary Education, Ohio University, 1997
Website: foleyprints.com
Instagram: @foleyprints

 

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"Candy Colored Sky" by ElizabethFoley, woodcut, 38x26in, 2016, $900 (unframed)

"Coming Home" by ElizabethFoley, woodcut, 21x21in, 2015, $400 (unframed)

"Floating Candy" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut collagraph, 38x26in, 2016, $900 (unframed)

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: Luke Gnadinger

Disrupting a Sense of Linear Time

"IghborhoodNe" by Luke Gnadinger, Ceramic, 7Hx 24W,x2.75in, 2017, POR 

On Luke Gnadinger’s website we find a statement in which the artist describes his work as, “…being post-media and concerned with the ways domestic ‘containers’ impart a shaping force on our notions of home and identity. Generally, this foregrounds what would otherwise be supplemental or armature. While not limited to, this often employs the industrial history and materials of ceramics, photography, or coding languages to position the work someplace between archival-object and design-object, disrupting a sense of linear time.”

"Fluids" by Luke Gnadinger, Ceramics, Steel, Acrylic, 48Hx24Wx8Din, 2017, POR

There is an intriguing balance of rustic and digital in Gnadinger’s work. He seems as comfortable using “a hexadecimal editor to produce coding aberrations”, as he is creating somewhat traditional, functional, ceramic vessels. He incorporates found objects that evoke nostalgia in installations of a very modern sensibility. In “House”, the effect is entirely modern, but “Fluids” mines a collective memory that elicits a sentimental response. The vintage ceramic knobs on the fixture have been recoated with slip and fired again by Gnadinger, giving the artifacts a new sheen that makes nostalgia more seductive.

In “Super Great Horse Art”, the packaging concept merges bourbon and horse racing culture in a pointed commentary on art as product in Kentucky. As both are Sacred Cows in the Bluegrass State, the implications, however undeniable, are still somewhat bold for a Kentucky-born artist, and it seems an especially clear example of Gnadinger’s statement about positioning work “between archival-object and design-object”.

Another balance that fascinates is the notion of complex ideas expressed through graphic forms of great simplicity. Those “Horse Art” bottles recall generic labeling from the 1970’s, and in the curiously titled “ighborhoodNe” the forms are equally fundamental, with red map diagrams that have the effect of stamps. There is an ornate quality to the surface design, yet the work remains straightforward and uncluttered, allowing for a direct understanding between the artist and the viewer. For being so conceptual an artist, Gnadinger’s work is refreshingly accessible, but never dumb.

Since receiving his degree from Transylvania University in Kentucky, Gnadinger has worked as an assistant and been a winter resident at Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina.

Gnadiniger’s work is currently featured in show MAP/PING in Morlan Gallery in Lexington, through December 5, 2017.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BFA, Studio Art, Transylvania University
Website: www.lukegnadinger.com
Instagram: lukegnadinger/

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"SUPER GREAT HORSE ART" by Luke Gnadinger, Ceramic, Set: 12Hx24Wx48Din, 2015, POR

"Lagrange, #2" by Luke Gnadinger, Cyanotype, Birch, 20Hx36Wx.5Din, 2017

"House" by Luke Gnadinger, Windows, Cord, Lights, Slumped Plexiglass, 4Tx20Wx20Dft, 2014

"Landscape, #5" by Luke Gnadinger, Digital print, 6dx0in, 2017, POR

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: Macel Hamilton

"Butterfly" by Macel Hamiton, Acrylic on wood, 6x12in, 2017, SOLD 

When someone picks up a brush and begins painting with no formal training or experience, are they hobbyist, amateur? In a time when art intelligentsia is either busy manufacturing new nomenclature to capture new trends, or rejecting all formal classifications (inter or multi disciplinary?) how do we describe the new artist who enters the fray motivated by curiosity or edification?

"Cow" by Macel Hamilton, Acrylic on wood, 10x12in, 2017, SOLD

Consider Macel Hamilton. The designation Folk Artist connotes a lack of education and primitive technique, but Hamilton is an educated professional, and her skill after a very brief time painting is estimable, and "hobbyist" foreswears the dedication she has put to the task. Her subjects are simple: animals and insects, but she has also painted portraits of people. All of it indicates an innate skill of observation and the controlled manipulation of a brush and medium. That Hamilton often paints on unfinished wood introduces a rustic quality certainly, but compare the delicacy of her color in this butterfly and the rougher, more spontaneous marks in the image of a savage rooster improbably named “Cow”.

Clearly some of Hamilton’s work finds its roots in her rural upbringing: “I was raised in the hills of Eastern Kentucky and now live in the knobs of Casey County. I am mostly self-taught and have taken a few day classes at a local community art center. I have been painting for about a year and a half. I began doing art approximately two years ago, teaching my self to draw portraits.”

So if there must be a designation, perhaps Rural Artist would be apt in this case, a reflection of both Hamilton’s background and the sensibility expressed in her work.

 Age: 55
Hometown: Liberty, Kentucky
Education:  BS, Psychology, ADN Nursing
Facebook: Macel’s Art

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"Untiltled" by Macel Hamilton, Acrylic on canvas, 16x20in, 2017, $200

"Sarah's Love" by Macel Hamilton, pastels, 12x16in, 2017, NFS

"Hummer" by Macel Hamilton, Acrylic on wood, 10x12in, 2017, SOLD

"Dogs" by Macel Hamilton, Acrylic on canvas, 16x20in, 2017, SOLD

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: Irene Mudd

“[These women were] exquisite butterflies trapped in an evil honey, toiling away their lives in an era, a century, that did not acknowledge them…they dreamed dreams that no one knew-- not even themselves, in any coherent fashion-- and saw visions no one could understand.”

-Alice Walker

"Untitled" by Irene Mudd, hand knitting, embroidery. 20x17in, 2017, $375

Textile artists often tap into the past contextually; many of the techniques used by such artists originate in family legacy. It is perhaps more unusual to see literary inspiration merged into that lineage. Irene Mudd uses an essay by Alice Walker to provide a conceptual basis for her current body of work. “In Search of Our Mother's Gardens”, discusses and laments the vastly untapped potential and creativity of generations of black American women.

“While Walker addresses black women specifically in her essay, I found her words to be quite universal,” explains Mudd, “resonating with me despite my privileged status as a white woman. I strongly connected her message to my own grandmother’s story—a woman of great intelligence, creativity, and ambition, who studied to be a biologist, but set aside this pursuit to become a housewife, until she died at the young age of 53. My grandmother's story is not unique, generations upon generations of women have followed this same path, being held back from becoming their fullest selves by the oppressive systems established in their worlds.”

"Untitled (Edmonia Lewis)" by Irene Mudd, hand knitting, embroidery, 20x18in, 2017, $375

Mudd joins a legion of contemporary artists who find inherent meaning in these traditional techniques; a feminist sensibility excavated from the archetypal position of ‘homemaker’. Women created things for function, but the task enabled a form of expression that is culturally significant. “Each portrait is hand knitted, paying homage not only to the personal history knitting and craft have had in the lives of the women of my family, but also to women throughout history who were artists and makers, whose primary means of creating were restricted to “feminine” crafts such as knitting.”

“This work is the result of a process of reconciliation with these truths, and therefore, I want this series to act as a kind of memorial for the innumerable, often anonymous lives of women like mine and Walker’s mothers and grandmothers, whose gifts were lost on a society that did not value them.”

Mudd was just in Revelry Gallery’s tarot art exhibit, The Future is Unwritten, and also is included in Kaviar Forge & Gallery's show Artists in Our Midst, which runs through December 30, 2017.

Age: 22
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education:  BFA, Painting & Fiber, University of Louisville, 2017
Website: irenemuddart.com
Instagram: irenemudd

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"Untitled" by Irene Mudd, hand knitting, embroidery, 22x19in, 2017, $450

"Untitled" by Irene Mudd, hand knitting, 21x18in, 2016, $400

"Untitled" by Irene Mudd, hand knitting, embroidery, 23x19in, 2016, $375

"Untitled" by Irene Mudd, hand knitting, embroidery, 21x19in, 2016, $375

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: Barry Burcaw

"Pixilated" by Barry Burcaw, oil on canvas, 50x50in, 2-16, $2800

Barry Burcaw studied graphic design in school, earning a degree from the University of Bridgeport, but he only began painting once he retired from a long, successful career in advertising. This provides an easy explanation of why his compositions are so dominated by forceful geometric structure and bold saturated colors.

Often the abstract images remain rooted in representational sources; Burcaw is fond of landscapes and architectural sources as a point of departure, but it is not unusual for him to veer into diagrammatical structures of pure pattern and shape. “Pixilated” does this, as does “Vernal Equinox”, even if the title makes explicit that the qualities of atmosphere and climate that we assume were in the artist’s mind here. The lower half containing dark grey and earth tones beneath the blue and yellow tones in the upper half cannot help but connote landscape, if only because our expectations fill in the blanks with little prompting – doesn’t the abstract artist appropriately depend on the viewer’s frame of reference?  “Solar Flares” is more obvious in its subject, placing a brilliant yellow orb in the center, and Burcaw’s curled linear forms representing the sun’s angry expression are more whimsical in their effect than the fiery astronomical phenomenon that provide the inspiration for the piece.

"Impressions of Santorini" by Barry Burcaw, oil on canvas, 50x50in, 2017, $3500

There is an unyielding exactitude in Burcaw’s work that suggests a highly structured perspective on the world at large. Perhaps this is a common underlying truth of any artist who utilizes geometry in such bold, almost confrontational terms.

Burcaw recently placed 4 paintings with Zephyr Gallery as part of their Corporate Art Program.

Hometown: Palisades, New York
Age: 74
Education: BS in Graphic Design, University of Bridgeport, CT

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"Vernal Equinox" by Barry Burcaw, oil on canvas, 50x50in, 2017, $2800

"Solar Flares" by Barry Burcaw, oil on canvas, 50x50in, 2008 $3500

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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