Vignette: Neal Johnson

"Lightening Rod" by Neal Johnson, Photography, 16x20in, 2014, $175, archival pigment print, edition of 5

One of the missions of photography is to make us see the world around us through different eyes. We drive by a building every day on the way to work, or pass by a bridge, or a park, only rarely, if ever, stopping to see the shape and dynamic of things; how they define the personality of a community.

Architectural and contemporary landscape photographer Neal Johnson works in Louisville, Kentucky, and his deceptively simple images perform this function for the viewer, but occasionally they do much more. In “Lightening Rod”, a light fixture for a public space evokes mystery and the suggestion of an enigmatic presence representative of “the other” (think monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey). The light seems to have some intention beyond simply illuminating a dark place.

“Look Out” captures a human structure that echoes the verticality of the forest surrounding it, but it also seems to imply the limitations of human design; functional but never as prosaic as the tree it unknowingly emulates, it provides an approach that, could be argued, allows us to position ourselves as superior to nature. And “Space School” locates an arrangement of contrasting forms bisected by another strong vertical and reinforced by color and the placement of an oversize numeral character.  

That idea of disruption doesn’t preclude harmony, as we see in “Invasive”. Here Johnson suggests that such an intrusive quality emanates from the natural world, so that we are made to question some of our assumptions about the imprint our species make on the earth. Once humans began using tools, we changed the world, but how much of our invasiveness fits into the organic equation, and at what point did we tip the balance?

"Space School" by Neal Johnson, Photography, 15x15in, 2013, $150, archival pigment print, edition of 5

Johnson will be exhibiting photographs from his 'Future Perfect' project at PART Studio, 815 South 6th Street, in the South of Broadway area of downtown Louisville, with a public reception April 26th from 6:30-9:30pm. 

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: Associates degree in graphic design.
Website: Nealparkerjohnson.com

Scroll down for more images

"Look Out" by Neal Johnson, Photography, 16x20in, 2014, $175, archival pigment print, edition of 5

"Human Linked" by Neal Johnson, Photography, 17x24in, 2012, $25o, archival pigment print, edition of 5

"Invasive" by Neal Johnson, Photography, 15x15in, 2015, $150, archival pigment print, edition of 5

---

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: Mack Dryden

You may have heard of Mack Dryden the professional comedian, actor, and public speaker, but in recent years he has embraced a new creative outlet: sculpture made from driftwood.

"Water Dance" by Mack Dryden, Ohio River driftwood & poplar, 2017, POR

What Dryden calls, “this new, odd passion” has its roots in his experiences as a reporter for a daily newspaper, which included illustrating his own stories. He was good enough to eventually make a living as a freelancer in Key West drawing cartoon advertising art. In 2010, he moved to Louisville after living for several years in Los Angeles.

“I’ve been handy all my adult life,” claims Dryden, “ and have made loads of furniture and other practical things. So this melding of my love of working wood and creating a pleasing composition is kind of a natural progression. As I write this, the Ohio is so high from recent rains that the banks are under ten feet of water in places that usually yield beautiful finds.  I’m counting the days until the water recedes, revealing what mother lode of masterpieces it has brought me this time.”

“The first time I walked, crawled and climbed through the tons of driftwood deposited on the banks of the park, I marveled at the treasures that were there for the taking. I found gorgeous pieces that had been sculpted by the environment where they’d grown, reduced to their essence by their journeys downriver, and burnished by the elements until they became—to my aesthetic—finished pieces of art. I saw no reason to try to improve on their inherent beauty, but rather was inspired to find ways to reveal it to the world.”

“I was encouraged when my very first attempt was juried onto our front porch by my wife Teri, an accomplished abstract artist who doesn’t curate casually.”

"Black Water Chorale" by Mack Dryden,Ohio River driftwood, 2017, POR

“Curious about what might be inside some of the pieces I brought home, I ripped a few on my table saw and found spectacular colors and grains. After a couple of early experiments, I kicked myself for using tinted stains and resolved to use only clear products that would enhance the natural colors of the wood.”   

Dryden’s description of his journey of creative discovery succinctly answers the question, what does it mean when an artist labels themselves “self-taught”? He has entered a genre that is an easy target for high-minded critics, but it seems to be exactly the point for Dryden. “I happened on a photo of what I considered a hideous driftwood chandelier, it inspired me to try to make a beautiful one.”  

Dryden’s chandeliers now hang in half a dozen shops, restaurants and bars in the Louisville area, and he has had his work featured in several locations:  

The Outsider Art Fair, New York City, 2016
Art Santa Fe, NM, 2017Craft(s) Gallery, Louisville, KY
Revelry Boutique Gallery, Louisville, KYTrue North, New Albany, IN
Madison Table Works, Madison, IN
Great Flood Brewing Company, Louisville, KY

Hometown: Pascagoula, Mississippi
Education: BA, English and Journalism,University of Mississippi (Ole Miss); MFA, Creative Writing at the Center For Writers, University of Southern Mississippi
Website: Riverborneart.com

Scroll down for more images

"Six-Mile Island" by Mack Dryden, Ohio River driftwood, 2017, POR 

"Bayou Bash" by Mack Dryden, Ohio River Driftwood,  2017, POR

"Jitterbug" by Mack Dryden, Ohio River driftwood, 2017, POR

"Inside Out" by Mack Dryden, Ohio River driftwood, 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: Henry Chodkowski

Henry Chodkowski taught painting at the University of Louisville for 37 years (1962-1999), and how many students/artists he influenced in that time is almost literally incalculable.

As an artist, Chodkowski moved from geometric compositions and stark graphic drawings to a particularly evocative landscapes influenced by multiple journeys to Greece. Many artists express a highly developed sense of place for a special location: Van Gogh in Arles and Gauguin in Tahiti are obvious examples, men obsessed with the individual sun and atmosphere they couldn’t seem to find anywhere else.

Chodkowski's fascination with the island of Crete and the Aegean Sea may have also been about the light - the Mediterranean sun is the stuff of legends, after all, but in the paintings we see here, the formal elements of landscape have largely receded into a vigorously executed abstract field of emotional color. While we know that Chodkowski painted from direct observation, the turmoil of stormy weather he captures must also be forging a connection with the deep wealth of history and mythology inherent in that country. The organic relationship between the slate blue and flushed pink in the sky show us the dense and threatening tempest, not the saturating sunlight we find in postcards.

"Ouranos-Thalassa, 26" by Henry Chodkowski, Acrylic on paper, 103:4 x 115:8in, circa

In several pieces, such as “Ouranos Thalassa, 26”, that connection to ancient history is made explicit with impressions of ancient symbols in the paper. Chodkowski looks so far beyond the present-day culture, that the act of artistic creation merges with an intuitive sense of archaeology that borders on the mystical.

“These paintings are charged with the direct experience of actual places where earth, sea and sky are such vessels of new illumination, echoing inner expanses within us. Vast symbols hover almost unnoticed in veiled atmospheres of nascent light, as archetypal bridges to experience beyond history. The places are Aegean sites of the heroic ages, and the labyrinthian symbols speak of early Minoan forms of civilized vitalism.” - Jay Kloner

Hometown: Hartford, Connecticut
Education: Bachelors, University of Hartford, Connecticut; Masters, Yale University, Connecticut

"Ouranos-Thalassa 78" by Henry Chodkowski,  Acrylic on paper, 8 1:4x11 5:8in, circa

"Ouranos-Thalassa 115" by Henry Chodkowski, Acrylic on paper. 22x26in, circa

"Ouranos-Thalassa 122" by Henry Chodkowski, Acrylic on paper. 161:4 x 151in, circa

"Ouranos-Thalassa 71" by Henry Chodkowski,  Acrylic on paper, 8.5x12in, circa

---

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: Monica Barnett

"Derby Run" by Monica Barnett, Graphite, 40x30in, 2018, $750.00

Like many artists, Monica Barnett has studied and worked in various mediums throughout her career, but sometimes it is important to get back to basics.

“Recently, I have concentrated on drawing,” explains Barnett, ”specifically in graphite. My subjects: horses. I draw with a passion I hope is shown in the forms I create.”

In the quality of the drawings we find a blend of near scientific observation – in Barnett’s detailed examination of the musculature, with an idealized, almost romantic perspective – the animals are most often captured in motion, the mane extended. It is a point-of-view not unusual for an equine artist, especially one born and bred in Kentucky.

"Lippizaner" by Monica Barnett, Graphite, 30x40in, 2018, $750.00

Barnett does not restrict her choice of subjects to the thoroughbreds that are part of the identity of the Bluegrass State, her portfolio includes horses from France, Belgium, Wales, Austria, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Norway, and the Netherlands.

Barnett participated in the 2018 Spring Art Show at Mellwood Art and Entertainment Center in February, and the Stella de Luce Art and Wine Show in March.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: BA, Berea College, Kentucky, 1986
Website: monicawbarnett.wordpress.com

Scroll down for images

"French Camargue Ponies" by Monica Barnett, Graphite, 40x30in, 2018, $750.00

"Before the Race" by Monica Barnett, Graphite, 30x20in, 2018, $250.00

"Dutch Warmblood" by Monica Barnett, Graphite, 40x30in, 2018, $750.00

"Soviet Draft Horse" by Monica Barnett, Graphite, 40x30in, 2018, $750.00

---

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: Douglas Miller

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 highlight Douglas Miller:

Douglas Miller’s approach to art entered the Louisville consciousness subtly, evolving from handcrafted ear X-tacy signage to the mostly-dimensional animals familiar today to visitors of Cellar Door Chocolates, Copper & Kings American Brandy and Edenside Gallery, as well as gallerists from Asheville to Quebec.
 

"Miller Thesis 1 (Title 1)" by Douglas Miller, Ink, pencil, and acrylic on paper, 39X50in, 2018

His current project finds him at U of L’s Cressman Center downtown achieving success by examining failure with a new exhibition he’s calling Title (strikethrough). Miller says these drawings explore themes of “indeterminacy, failed projects, and the complications of representation. This series is informed by preliminary drawings, marginalia, and written notations that are inherent in the formulation processes of both visual and literary compositions.”

Miller was inspired by Russian author Nikolai Gogol’s unfinished 1842 novel Dead Souls “to conflate literary theories with visual representation” with his drawings. Compelled by process as a topic, Miller continues, “The Title (strikethrough) series presents fragmentary images, texts, and digressive narratives that demonstrate intermediaries between propositional states and reconciled concepts … ultimately finding interchanges between the methods of representation and what is represented, this series underscores the ruptures in the production of meaning.”

"Miller Thesis 3 (Title 3)" by Douglas Miller, Pencil and acrylic on paper, 24X30in, 2017

This literary digression is a turn down a fresh alley for Miller. He says, “Modeling this series of drawings on methodologies typically constrained to literary texts, I intend to identify parallels between generating drawings and the formations of literary texts. Central to this thesis and the series of drawings is an emphasis on the disruptions of meaning and the digressive characteristics that adversely occur in the development of projects and how these function to create a more diverse, complicated, and ultimately uncertain interpretation.”

“In this way, the Title (strikethrough) series demonstrates a fictive series of narratives that are preparatory and indeterminate in anticipation of a larger conclusive work that is never reconciled.”

Miller’s MFA exhibition Title (strikethrough) is on view April 27 through August 4, 2018 at The University of Louisville's Cressman Center, with an opening reception April 27 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. He will also have work on exhibit at Lenihan Sotheby's International Realty in May of this year.

Education: BFA, University of Louisville, 2009                              Scroll down for more images
Website: www.douglassmillerart.com
Facebook: facebook.com/douglasmillerart/
Instagram: @douglasmillerart

"Miller Thesis 5 (Title 5)" by Douglas Miller, Pencil and watercolor on paper, 18X22in, 2017

---

Written by Peter Berkowitz. Entire contents copyright © 2018 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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