Mitchell Portracit

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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.

Bob Pazden captures Hoss Haley’s “Radius” show at Blue Spiral

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Photographer Bob Pazden’s eye is drawn to graphic elements such as pattern, color, line, shape and form.  Which is the reason artist Hoss Haley calls Bob when he wants his work professionally documented.  Hoss’s creations have a quiet, graphic strength to them while Bob likes to quietly connect with what he is photographing.  Bob says, “Whether he is photographing architecture or people he is drawn to details and intimate experiences.”Hoss Haley currently has a one man show at the Blue Spiral gallery on Biltmore Ave. in Asheville.  In his artwork he uses concrete, steel and bronze to create two and three-dimensional artworks.  Favoring industrial materials and fabrication methods reminiscent of his past working on machinery in the west, his paintings and sculptures explore the use of forms, lines, surfaces and textures.

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Hoss says, “We strive to bring our vision of order and progress to the world; but as quickly as our monuments beginning to dot the landscape, they are reclaimed by the forces of nature that we can never control.  I find great beauty in this inevitable contrast.  That is why I like to use steel.  It rusts; it shows age; it deteriorates.”  Bob took notice of the rich rust color and how it radiates off of the white walls of the gallery space.One of my personal favorite pieces at the show was Hoss’s version of a big spiral-graph machine that etched through enamel coated steel to leave a pattern that is both geometric and organic.Hoss was one of the select artists whose work went public in Pack Square.  This rhythmic trellis that helps tie together the two government buildings reflects the mountains scene behind. Below are a few detail shots of the trellis at night.  While photographing Hoss Haley's artist constructions Bob captures graphic compositions and creates new pieces of art with his camera.Photographs by Bob Pazden (www.bobpazden.com), Article by Troy Winterrowd