Oils & Acrylics
by Katina Johnson

January 3, 2017 to
February 28, 2017

Painting again! After many years of caring for a family and teaching, I am glad to return to my painting. A palette of colors gives me the opportunity to try and capture nature’s glory on a sheet of blank paper or canvas.

The escape of creative expression thru art has long been a lifesaver for me. Here in central Kentucky, the beauty of nature is present every day to inspire me. Although I studied art during my years at UK and WKU, the time and passion for painting have now returned to my life bringing a rewarding dimension.

Having time to paint with friends, participating in the MC Arts Council, Girl Scouts, baby-sit grandchildren, and teaching art are my daily pleasures.

Previous shows:

Art Over Louisville, Artemisia 2009
KY State Fair 2009, 2010, 2011
Smithsonian Exhibit/Art Show 2012
Marion County Ham Days Festival 2014,’15,’16
Wickland Art Show 2013, ’14.’15,’16

Mixed Media
By Kelly Ayers Sheehan

March 1, 2017
to April 30, 2017

I'm originally from Virginia, just outside of Washington. D.C. where art and creativity were strongly encouraged at home. My love of collage and "bringing the pieces together" began at an early age with quilting and sewing with my mother and grandmother. I attended Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia; George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia (B.A.) and Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia (M.S.). I've spent over twenty years working as a graphic designer and an interactive media designer while continuing to pursue my love of fine art in painting and collage.

Five years ago, I decided to pursue fine art full time. I work in my home studio and have been an exhibitor and sold art in shows close to home as well as in shows like the New York Art Expo. I draw inspiration from traveling with my family and friends, as well as from music and festive gatherings. I currently live in Decatur, Georgia with my husband and four children.

"When I decided to pursue my passion for the fine arts, there was a natural transition from graphic design to collage. As a graphic designer, just like quilting, I used various design elements (in this case text and images) and moved them around within design software before creating a finished piece. Now I take physical pieces of painted, cut paper, fabric, etc. and move them around on a physical canvas, experimenting with how it looks until finally adhering the pieces to the canvas. I love the element of surprise; how things come alive on the canvas when you least expect it."

It is incredible to look back and appreciate how a leaky shower changed my life. Armed with the blind confidence of new independence and two tubes of mismatched caulking, I fixed my first leak in my first apartment. As the caulking curdled and dried along the shower's unforgiving fault lines, I couldn't help but find beauty in the simplicity of its shape and texture. I was intrigued, and decided to add color to the equation. Using crude pieces of found scrap-wood as canvas, I began to experiment and create, employing dyed-caulking as my medium. Plastic lids, bubble wrap, beer caps and an ever growing assortment of found objects began to creep onto my canvases. As I continued to work in the film industry I realized the amount of waste that was produced, especially the waste of wood. I soon started to create my works on set walls discarded after a movie was finished. Eventually, my small living room morphed into a home gallery, and I became numb with the realization that I finally knew who I was and what I loved. What started as the inconvenience of a leaky shower, progressed into the inner awakening and ignition of passion that drives me to this day.

Humbly influenced by the brilliant works of Jackson Pollock, Gerhard Richter, and Mark Bradford I strive to unite the anonymity of the abstract with the raw power of reflective association. Everything is relative; and what's found woven within the thick layers of life's strata serves as innate inspiration. I prefer to work big, with no visible frame, and avoid the boundaries of the immediately recognizable.

By the mere fact of contemplating the paintings of Nieves, the spectator becomes aware that language is not necessary to express feelings. His paintings are full of color and energy. His style is expressionist and surreal at the same time, like a colorful and joyful fantasy. Nieves was born in Remates de Guane, province of Pinar del Río, Cuba. He worked for a time in Havana, and finally in 1959 he settled in the United States.

The combination of his Cuban upbringing and his life in southern North America has given him a unique point of view that comes to light on his canvases. Some of his themes reflect his childhood in the family farm in Cuba. Others emerge from their travels abroad and the impressions these journeys have left imprinted on the "creative mind's eye." Nieves is not limited to a single medium and has worked with pen and ink, acrylic, watercolor, oil and metal sheets. Nieves' paintings have won numerous prizes at various sworn exhibitions and are represented in public and private collections in the United States, Europe and South America. The artist has shown her work in galleries and art exhibitions in the USA. And Europe.

Matt Blodgett grew up on a rural Ohio farm, immersed in the beauty of plants and the creative energy of nature. Even in high school Matt showed great creative talent and artistic aptitude, winning a statewide student art competition with "Indian Princess," a mixed media collage with handmade paper and copper. The piece hung in the Ohio Governor's Mansion for one year.

Matt majored in Horticulture and Landscape Design at Ohio State University. Moving to Atlanta after college and working with some of the top landscape companies in the South Matt developed a keen sense for composition and texture. After more than 20 years in that industry he has now shifted his attention to his first and deepest calling, Fine Art, working primarily in collage, handmade and cut paper, and acrylic media.

He has shown at several Atlanta Art Fairs, including twice at Callanwolde Art Center, and has pieces in private collections from Los Angeles to Washington, DC. to New York City.

He is very happy to have the opportunity for this solo show, particularly because the library setting highlights the potential for the expressive use of paper (both handmade and cut paper) in ways that reach beyond its common use as simply a vehicle for the printed word.