Art[squared] Spotlight: Julia Davis

To celebrate the 5th Anniversary of LVA’s Art [squared] Event to Benefit Children’s Fine Art Classes, we will feature five local artists who are contributing 24” x 24” paintings to be sold at the event through a Silent Auction. Today we feature Julia Davis:

Design for CirqueLouis event, digital illustration by Julia Davis, 2017

“As an artist and I want to be fully involved within the arts on many levels.” – Julia Davis

Besides her studio practice as a painter, Davis has also become involved with performance, working with Squallis Puppeteers for the last 18 months and becoming immersed in the world of puppetry, education, and creation all together. “I started working for these amazing people as an administrative assistant in the office then I started dipping into puppet mingling, which then lead to protest involvement, then to making puppets and performing with said puppets. I made my first puppet for Emperor's New Clothes, which is an adaptation of a Hans Christian Anderson Fairy tale using multiple animal rod puppets, which meant I had to find my voice as well. I eventually made my first backpack puppet for the performance of Peter and the Wolf (with the helping hand Squallis directors, Shawn Hennessey and Nora Christensen) that was utilized in a one-time performance with the Louisville Orchestra on March 17th, 2018.”

“I also I dip into the circus as an illustrator for CirqueLouis, and I am currently working on my 4th poster for them. Like Squallis, CirqueLouis is a non-profit organization that makes a great effort teaching the public and the youth of the public the importance of performance artwork, specifically the importance of the circus. Their most recent show, Kaleidoscope (November 2017) was a favorite of mine because it gave life to one of my most treasured studio items, the movable manikin. I was given a lot of artistic freedom and was able to develop a visual story in one frame. I truly love the relationship I have with CirqueLouis and will be designing the poster for their new show, Happy Birthday that will be performed at the Iroquois Amphitheater as part of that historic venue’s 80th birthday.” 

"Look before you leap" by Julia Davis, Oil on canvas, 24x24in, 2018, Featured Silent Auction Painting for 2018 Art[squared} Benefit

Davis remains dedicated to her studio practice for painting however, and was included in Not Just a Drawing: A Line with Intent in Chicago in March 2018. Oh, Places is a new painting that is adding on to a continuing study about the use of imagery. “My personal work contradicts realistically painted images with superimposed line work offering a question of purpose. My aim is to paint images in a realistic fashion and interrupt them with graphic line work to consistently investigate the use of imagery. The piece for "Art [Squared]", Look before you leap, is another addition to my study.” 

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BFA, University of Louisville, 2012
Website: www.JuliaDart.com
Instagram: @Julia_Davis_Art

"Peter" (for Peter and the Wolf) by Julia Davis for Squallis Puppeteers, 2018

"Pinocchia", Design for CirqueLouis poster, digital illustration by Julia Davis, 2016

"Pinocchio" (alternate), Design for Cirque Louis poster, Digital illustration by Julia Davis, 2016

---

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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

Art[squared] Spotlight: Chuck Swanson

To celebrate the 5th Anniversary of LVA’s Art [squared] Event to Benefit Children’s Fine Art Classes, we will feature five local artists who are contributing 24” x 24” paintings to be sold at the event through a Silent Auction. Today we feature Chuck Swanson:

"Untitled (Kentucky)" by Chuck Swanson. Acrylic on canvas, 36x48in, POR

Swanson is an artist, primarily a painter, but he is also one of the pioneer gallerists in Louisville, having opened a gallery on Bardstown Road in 1982 and then in 1998 on East Market Street in what would eventually become the celebrated NuLu neighborhood. For the record, Swanson opened the space near Market and Clay well ahead of the rechristening of the area, so he must be counted as one of the reasons why the once-neglected and depressed environs became a hot spot for redevelopment.

As a painter, his images have often been landscapes, but not with the typical detail and texture for flora and fauna that are found in a wide range of such compositions. Swanson’s scenes are elementally observed, deconstructing the form to its basic structure and realizing the point-of-view with saturated color under layers of translucent medium.

"Calendar #3" by Chuck Swanson. Acrylic on canvas, 70x40in, POR

The composition is almost always a body of water moving away from the viewer and dividing two landmasses as it approaches the horizon. While the tone is placid enough, there is also a tension that results from the opposite shores never touching, forever separated.

Swanson’s more recent work positions these images in relationship to abstract color fields, but even there we can find that same dynamic in the juxtaposition of acrylic painted panels either echoing the tension of two forms in opposition on a horizontal plane.

As a gallery owner, Swanson is credited with helping develop the early careers of artists such as Russel Hulsey, who calls Swanson, “extremely progressive and forward thinking”, and being among the first to include electronic media and musical performances   He has served on the board of the East Downtown Business Association, Louisville Visual Art, and has been vice president of both the defunct Artswatch and LOOK, a Louisville area consortium of art galleries.

  installation view, "Calendar #4 and Calendar #5", by Chuck Swanson

Hometown: Wausau, Wisconsin
Education: BA, Social Studies, University of Kentucky

"Flattened Landscape" by Chuck Swanson, Acrylic on panels, 12x28in, POR

"Calendar #2" by Chuck Swanson. Acrylic on canvas, 54x40in, POR

---

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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

Art [squared] Spotlight: Billy Hertz

To celebrate the 5th Anniversary of LVA’s Art [squared] Event to Benefit Children’s Fine Art Classes, we will feature five local artists who are contributing 24” x 24” paintings to be sold at the event through a Silent Auction. Today we spotlight Billy Hertz:

“My paintings of landscapes have become far removed from any traditional definition of that genre; yet they still maintain a slender but sustaining thread to the concept of representational image. I paint "ariel" views of farmland - the furrows of plowed fields are sometimes rendered as transparent textures.” 

"Pink Cloud at Sunrise" by Billy Hertz, Mixed media painting, 24x20x1in, 2017, POR

Hertz has exhibited all over the United States, and in Germany, Italy, and Russia, and his work is included in several private collections.

“My fascination with the dark, fertile earth of cultivated fields led to loose interpretations of the landscapes; this manipulation into near abstraction by unorthodox perspectives i.e. Clouds and fields occupying the same plane and geometric shapes are built from layers of oil washes.” 

“The determined physicality of the color fields is accentuated by a collage element, so that the terrain is rendered with a dash of topical relief that introduces a new element to my vocabulary.”

“The blurring of naturalism and non-representational in the imagery obfuscates the intention enough to create some mystery in a subject usually thought of as straightforward (the landscape) and hopefully seduces my viewers into completing the narrative for themselves.”

In addition to his own inestimable work as an artist, Hertz has been a gallery operator for more than 20 years, and was an early pioneer in transforming the near east downtown area of Louisville, KY that is now known as the NuLu district. Galerie Hertz now operates in the Smoketown neighborhood of Louisville.

"Garden Plot #1" by Billy Hertz, Oil pencil on panel (painting), 12.5x16.5x3.75in 2017, POR

Hometown: Boynton Beach, Florida

Education: BFA in Ceramics, Florida Atlantic University, 1972; 1974 Post Graduate, Painting, Florida Atlantic University Painting, University of Louisville, Post Graduate Painting
Website: www.galeriehertz.com

Scroll down for more images

"Seaport" by Billy Hertz, Oil pencil on panel (painting), 16x20x3.75in, 2016-17, POR

"Fields #2" by Billy Hertz, Oil pencil & foam core on panel mixed media painting 16x201in, 2017, POR

"Fields Meet River", by Billy Hertz, Oil & pencil (painting) on panel, 20x24x3.75in, 2017, POR

---

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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

Vignette: Victor Sweatt

"Between Collard Greens and the Sun" by Victor Sweatt, Watercolor on paper and mixed media, 11x14in, 2018, $450

The people we see in Victor Sweatt’s work are people he knows well. Whether or not they are, strictly speaking, portraits of actual people in the artist’s life may seem beside the point, they may very well be, but even if they are not -Sweatt knows them. They are found in his neighborhood on Louisville’ West side and in thousand of neighborhoods just like it all over America. Simple, hard-working folk, but seen through the artist’s eyes as people of innate dignity and humility. As he paints or draws them, Sweatt is bearing witness to the divine in humanity. In the parlance of the church, his images “testify”.

Sweatt has often captured these characters inside of a church, but even when they are not, he paints them with reverence: a body bent over collard greens in the garden, or aged fingers at work repairing a pair of shoes. They are skills from the past, too often taken for granted or thought forgotten. But this artist understands and appreciates that they are the threads that bind a community.

"The Craftsman" by Victor Sweatt, Acrylic on mat board, 11x15.5in. 2018, $450

In 2017, 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.

Sweatt was born in Louisville. He has shown his work in group and solo exhibitions, and appears in public and private collections throughout the United States. Sweat is a signature member of the Louisville Visual Art, the Kentucky Artist Pastel Society, and the Kentucky Watercolor Society.

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

"Within" by Victor Sweatt, Oil on canvas, 8x8in, 2018 $350

"Love Letter" by Victor Sweatt, Watercolor paper and acrylic, 11x14in, 2018, $400

"The Power of Touch" by Victor Sweatt, Watercolor paper and ink, 11x14, 2018, $250

---

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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

Feature: Ewing Fahey

Ewing Fahey & Caren Cunningham in 2014. Photo: Rich Copley/Lexington Herald Leader

                   Based on material from Caren Cunningham and Suzanne Mitchell

When does an ongoing reality become a tradition? Enid Yandell’s Daniel Boone Sculpture dates from 1915, meaning the history of noted women sculptors in Louisville is more than 100 years old. Certainly that qualifies as a tradition?

But it takes more than the passage of time, it takes a chain of individuals who, whether aware of it or not, maintain an ideal through a continuous series of actions. For the tradition of women sculptors working in Louisville, the strongest and most vital link in that chain is Ewing Fahey.

Her mother was a pioneer in the field of special needs education, but her father died when Fahey was nine years old. Despite the hardship of the death of three other family members, they travelled to Chautauqua, NY for ten weeks every summer. Fahey grew up attending lectures, concerts, and exhibitions, and Chautauqua has remained a regular summer adventure.

"Ceremonial Object" by Ewing Fahey, Cow bone & painted wood base, 2011. 

Fahey graduated from the University of Louisville in 1942, at the age of nineteen, with a double major in Fine Arts (painting and drawing) and Art History. Her Art History professor was Justus Bier, a recent German emigre, scholar, and expert in contemporary art. He was an important influence on her, encouraging Fahey’s love of art, architecture, travel, and lifelong learning and thinking. 

It was during her senior year that Fahey became the editor of the University’s Cardinal newspaper, the first woman to hold that position. That journalistic experience led to her being hired as the first female reporter for WAVE Radio (television was still a few years in the future). She also taught art, first at the Louisville Girl’s School, and then at a middle school where she worked with approximately 750 students each week. It was 1946, and the classrooms were heated with wood-burning, pot-bellied stoves.

"The Turrets" by Ewing Fahey, The Highlands Island designed by Suzanne Rademacher, 1990

That same year, Fahey took off for New York City to work as a copywriter for McCalls Pattern Sales and later became an Art Director for Norcross Greeting Cards. When Fahey returned to Louisville, in 1953, it was to become the first female Advertising Manager at Louisville Magazine, and within two years she had become editor. She was still in her early 30’s. 

If Fahey was a trailblazer in breaking the glass ceiling for women in so many positions, was it because of the times, or was she destined to be an iconoclast? Her independence seems confirmed by her decision, on the eve of her marriage, to spend several weeks traveling through Europe by herself in order to see firsthand all of the art and architecture she has studied while in school. There are so many firsts in her history, and she returned to her fine art roots at the age of 56, becoming a sculptor of the most unforgiving materials, learning to carve wood and limestone and working outdoors in all climates.

In 1998, she helped form ENID, a collective of women sculptors named in honor of celebrated Louisville sculptor Enid Yandell (1869-1924), who studied in Paris with Auguste Rodin and Frederich MacMonnies and was only the second female to be inducted into the National Sculpture Society. The group shows about once every two years, and their most recent exhibition was at PYRO Gallery in 2017.

Eighteen members of ENID were featured in that exhibition, including Leticia Bajuyo, Gayle Cerlan, Caren Cunningham, Jeanne Dueber, Linda Erzinger, Ewing Fahey, Sarah Frederick, Fran Kratzok, Valerie Sullivan Fuchs, Mary Dennis Kannapell, Paula Keppie, Shawn Marshall, Suzanne Mitchell, Joyce Ogden, Jacque Parsley, Emily Schuhmann, Gloria Wachtel, and Melinda Walters.

"Ancient Reliquary" by Ewing-Fahey, Gilded cattle bones and glass, 2011

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, www.Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

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