Hi Folks! This weekend is the River Art's District Studio Stroll. We have sooooo many friends down there with cool fine art and hand made items to see. It should be nice weather so get out and enjoy it.
While you are wandering about be sure to stop by Splurge for some refreshments with extended hours Friday and Saturday. Hope to see you out there.
Cheers!
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Barbara the Stack
"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order" Carl Jung I stopped in to visit Barbara Fisher yesterday morning in her studio. We haven't had the chance properly connect since I landed from all my travels. It is always great to chat with her, share her space and absorb her passion. I can't think of anyone more practiced and dedicated within her neighborhood of artists. And there is the fact that I simply love her art. Though I have had the privilege of witnessing the evolution of Barbara's work for over six years now, I'm going to bow out of discussing it in detail here. Andrew Wengrow recently wrote a wonderful piece on Barbara that spells it all out in an article titled A Different Orbit. He both captures the spirit and evolution of her work and notes her current solo show going on at the Hickory Museum of Art. As witnessed by the overflow of art outside her studio door, Barbara is in the midst of preparing for a big show in Atlanta at the Mason Murer gallery in May and June. If you would like to see more of her work please visit Barbara's website. Better yet, stop by her studio at 170 Lyman St for a visit and be inspired!
Mitchell Portracit
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Lonas comp
Artist Mitchell Lonas has been creating his artwork here in Asheville for four years now and is currently featured in this months show at the Blue Spiral Gallery. Also, he has a show in Seattle and recently opened a show in New Orleans at Gallery Bienvenu (photo below) where he sold 11 of 18 pieces on opening night. The director of the Gallery Bienvenu painted such a clear picture of Mitchell's work I reusing his words below.Several years ago in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, artist Mitchell Lonas laid eyes on something of such uncanny beauty, he has never forgotten it: a trio of swallows' nests, which the birds had fashioned solely from horse-tail hairs. The nests, each a different color, were so improbable in their architectural intricacy and gossamer sheen, they filled Lonas with the inspiration to transmute common natural phenomena such as nests, feathers, and trees into items of aesthetic rapture. These motifs are central to The Wrench Series, the artist's debut exhibition at Gallery Bienvenu. To create the works, he employs a unique process to apply paint to steel and aluminum panels. Then, working from sketches, he uses customized cutting tools to incise the picture planes with iconic imagery, the beveled lines glinting as viewers behold the pieces from different vantages. "You walk in front of them," he explains, "and the light travels with you. There's a sparkle, a feeling of movement. It's almost a fiber-optic effect."Lonas, who studied art history at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, was a respected portrait painter before transitioning to his current style. A portraitist's sense of focus, line, and beauty continues to inform his new work, which is included in notable private, public, and corporate collections, among them a series of large-scale commissions for Nordstrom department stores. An avid hiker and birdwatcher, he is compelled to portray nature in ways that are both poetic and inventive. "The challenge," he reflects, "is to create something original using unconventional materials and methods." The artworks' gestural drama is tempered by a hushed, Zen-like serenity, heightened by an intuitive use of negative space that recalls Asian sumi-e brush painting. Immaculately presented with hidden cleats that make the works appear to float in front of the wall, the incised paintings have a weightless, ethereal quality and a sculptural presence that is contemporary but not cold. In these semi-abstracted celebrations of the natural world, viewers will find a treasure trove of symbolisms and personal narratives, which lend themselves to extended contemplation and interpretations as varied as nature itself.For more information on Mitchell Lonas visit his website at MitchellLonas.com .Text courtesy of Gallery Bienvenu. Photos courtesy of Mitchell Lonas and Troy Winterrowd.
