The Opening Gala and the next 6 weeks

The opening of Vessels; All the Eyes Can Hold was a huge success. You can see a lot of pictures on the Vessels Facebook page. I will try to post some here as well. I will continue to highlight the fabulous artists  and write about all of the events associated with the show. So hang on, we'er just getting started!

Carole and I with some of the artists. It was really fun to meet everyone.

Ron Esposito and his Singing Bowls

Guenter is a master model ship builder

Michael Buckman receiving his award for winning the vessel logo contest.

A Pop of Color

EMILY DVORIN

I call myself a sculptural basketmaker. I am known for my innovative, “transordinary” vessels. Challenging the original definition of basketry, I explore contemporary interpretations of this traditional craft, utilizing non-traditional materials.

I transform the ordinary through the processes of manipulation, construction, alteration, repetition of singular elements, coiling, weaving and assembling to create dense arrangements ofcommon, urban objects. I sculpt with fiber and interact with material, pattern, color, design, shape and texture.

My use of re-purposed, re-contextualized materials is commentary on overconsumption of commercial goods, societal excess and throwaway consumerism. My work references everyday life and our relationship with our urban environment. I use the vessel form with an emotional and personal visual vocabulary to speak about life’s issues. Color and texture, whimsy, exuberance, optimism, and a sometimes-edgy approach, always enter into my work.

Biography: Emily is a self-taught, award-winning fiber artist who lives in Kentfield, CA. She grew up in New Jersey in the 50s, a child of an intellectual family. Her father was a psychiatrist, and her mother was a high-school teacher. Growing up, she was told her creativity and artistic approach were "cute".

In college in the 60s, Emily majored in foreign languages (Spanish, French and Italian) because that felt more appropriate to her parents than art did. She got married and went to graduate school for her Masters in Teaching, and then taught third grade for four years until she left to start a family. Her husband's job took her and her family to California in the 70s, where they settled in Marin County. Art and music remained a part of her life during this time--she sang in a Community Chorus, and in the mid-70s, partnered with a friend to open Various & Sundries, a contemporary crafts store in San Anselmo, California. She did a lot of macramé – it was the 70s, after all – it and discovered an enduring fondness for fiber art.

In the early 80s, she took a basket workshop in the basement of the old Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, and her life was forever changed. She had an "a-HA!" moment and realized that basketry and three-dimensional work were what she truly loved. Emily had little formal art training, other than workshops here and there, including four years in a "Fiber Sculpture" studio class. She learned traditional techniques this way, but then branched out into her own innovations. Still a teacher after all these years, as well as a learner, Emily began offering workshops of her own to adults and going into 3rd-8th grade school classrooms to bring the joy of basketry to a wider audience.

Flarf

In 2008, after owning and operating Various & Sundries for 35 years, and enabling other artists to gain wider audience and appreciation for their work, Emily retired to live her life's dream of being a full-time artist. She now has a studio in Sausalito, California. She continues to teach classes for both adults and children, and she speaks, consults and exhibits all around the country.

                                                                                               

 

BARBARA  MURAK

Red Vessel

Ever since I was a young child, I have found pleasure in using fabric, yarn and thread for creative expression. As a mixed media fiber artist, I enjoy using traditional methods like knitting and stitching to create contemporary shapes, and find the long hours meditative and rhythmically soothing. I am fascinated with repetition of shape and line in nature, and strive to convey similar layering, symmetry, and contrast of texture in my sculptural forms and vessels.

Biography:

Barbara is a mixed media fiber artist whose work reflects a life-long preoccupation with the “stitch” (from early childhood hand embroidery and knitting stitches to intensive machine stitching) as a sculptural element to create complex textures and forms.

My parents and grandparents were artists, and in my studio I find comfort in the silent dialogue with my ancestors by surrounding myself with their sewing implements, paint brushes and heirlooms. I find connection to my great grandmother when I look up and see her tiny hand stitches in the 1800’s quilt that drapes over my studio wall.

My interest in fiber techniques has changed and evolved since I first began exhibiting in juried shows in 1974.  It has been a process of building upon previous experiences and works to expand and develop new ways of creating. Over the years, I have exhibited paintings, batiks, fabric collages, art quilts, thread paintings, knitted sculptural forms and hand-embroidered dimensional pieces.

Recent explorations of the sculptural possibilities of fabric as container/vessel have fostered spiritual awareness and personal insight.  The theme of memory and fragility, found both in nature and relationships, is a reoccurring direction in my work.  The cutting of fabric, textural layering, and the construction process is always challenging as is life; and I find the long hours of stitching meditative, rhythmically soothing and therapeutic.

After earning a M.S. in Creative Art Therapy, I am currently an Artist-in-Residence at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, creating artwork bedside with patients or in waiting areas with family and caregivers to help relieve their stress and anxiety.  Many projects involve textile arts with several patient-made quilts currently hanging in the hospital.

In addition to numerous national and international exhibitions, my artwork is represented in public and private collections in the United States as well as Canada, China, South Korea, The Philippines, Europe, Australia, South Africa and India.

                  



                                                                                      
            

PAMELA A. MACGREGOR

Purple Couture

My life as an artist has taken many turns over the years. Artist as student, artist as teacher and now retired teacher as felt artist. Since my retirement,the discovery of felting has charged me with a new artistic energy. I find the versatility and engineering possibilities for each project both mentally and physically stimulating. At the end of the day, there is usually a sweet surprise, an “ah ha” moment of inspiration giving me insight for future felt works, bringing with it new and unique possibilities.

Bio:
A retired art teacher living just outside of scenic Grand Rapids, Ohio on a small farm, MacGregor has become impassioned with traditional wet felting.  She finds traditional felting energizing in its versatility and the medium pushes her into constant and exciting engineering challenges. She has been teaching felting classes in her studio as well as classes throughout the United States and Europe.  Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. http://www.tarveycottagestudio.com/

                   
                                        

   

                                                                                       

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Vessels of Light

BILLIE CUNNINGHAM

My motivation is to use common objects together to form a unique and visual concept. My goal is to push the limitations of glass and metal, to highlight their reflective qualities.

I like to use materials outside of the purpose they were intended for.

My goal is for my art to be visually pleasing as well as practical.

Biography: Billie Cunningham is a freelance Visual Artist and Jewelry Designer living in

Cincinnati.

Vessels of Light

Her love of art began at an young age. She was captivated by drawing and sketching portraits. Her early works included a variety of mediums such as pen and ink, watercolor, and pastels and color pencil. This was the foundation which formed her love

and study of art. Much of the art she creates is influenced by her combined work experience in manufacturing and Graphic Design. She studied graphic design at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and currently works for Honeywell Process Solutions.

ROBYN AND STEVEN LINCE

Robyn and Steven Lince are mixed media artists working from their home studio in Cincinnati, Ohio. Both artists are inspired by forms of nature, their sensitivity to subtle energies, their visionary sense of spiritual realms, and their relation to timeless ancient and indigenous themes. Steven works sculpturally with metals, fused glass, and wood; Robyn with glass and clay. As a couple they are exploring and delighting in the magic and synergy of co-creating art, letting the heart guide the work. There is an essential connection that takes place with the piece in the creation process which breaths life force into the art. Melting into the creative process itself is a spiritual experience that is illuminating, transformative, healing and fulfilling. The desire to uplift and inspire and be a catalyst for healing and inner peace is infused into the work.

Sharing very similar creative processes, they create their own personal bodies of work as well as collaborating.  Individually Steven and Robyn are passionate abstract expressionist visionary painters, both artists intuitively allowing that which flows from the inside to move out through texture, color, shape and movement onto the board or canvas. Their works express the beauty of the outer world, inner world and the spirit and energy that moves through everything and connects us all.

                                             www.linceartstudio.com       

Ancient Altar

KHAC Guild Members are Telling Stories

NANCY GAMON

Nancy Gamon is an experimental, mixed-media artist. She employs a variety of techniques in her artwork, including sewing, weaving, wrapping, painting, printing, collage, plaster molding, and embroidery.

Folklore

Her artwork, fashion accessories and home décor items have been featured in a variety of national publications. She is the 2013 President of Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Artists (CQAFA), a local group with over 60 members.

D.S. (DOUG) MEYERS

D.S. Meyers is both an avid artist and voracious writer. His creativity in both disciplines helps him to push conceptual boundaries.

His artwork has been seen in a solo debut D.S. Meyers at the Car Barn, Final Fridays, a fundraiser for the CAC when it was under construction, Sidewinder Coffee, The Hyde Park Art Show and Malton Gallery. He is very honored to have found a home among the Kennedy Heights Arts Center Guild.

In his painting, Manic Raven: Space Vessel, Meyers uses different finishing gels to create depth. He combines different finishes to create dimension. The sky in the painting is highly glossy. But the moons are a very flat matte- creating a sense that they are coming out of the canvas. The mountains are painted in a medium gel, and the characters in the foreground are once again matte.

As a writer, he has written five novels. He received an Honorable Mention in the 75^th Annual Writer’s Digest Writing Competition- placing within the top 25 out of 19,000 entries.

With the Manic Raven series, D.S. Meyers has found a way to convey the mysteries of our solar system. He uses his skills to merge stunning visual imagery with written narrative.

Copies of his book Adventures of the Manic Raven are available in the gift shop. The next book Race to VIP is due out in 2014.
Manic Raven: Space Vessel

Manic Raven

ROBIN HARTMANN

Robin began her career after graduating from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1987. After working in the theater industry creating and building costumes for many of the Broadway shows of the 1980s (A Chorus Line, The Wiz, Pippin), she found herself working among frogs, bears and pigs and Jim Henson’s Muppets.

For five years, she helped pin, stitch, design and create the puppets, costumes and sometimes props that delighted children and adults alike. Some projects included Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, various Muppet movies and TV specials.

It's Always Time for Tea

Upon leaving The Muppets, Robin worked as a wardrobe assistant for a season on Saturday Night Live (1985). She then became interested in toy design and came to Cincinnati to work as a designer for Kenner Toys.

Robin has worked on many successful projects while in Cincinnati, including toy development for Kenner, Hasbro, Gibson Greetings, Empire Toys and Idea development. She has also worked on feature films in Cincinnati including “A Rage in Harlem” and “The Shawshank Redemption.”

She has designed costumes and puppets for The Cincinnati Museum Center, the Dallas Children’s Museum, Artworks and The Smithsonian Institution. The creations she is most proud of are her children. Robin is currently frelancing and teaching art at The New School in North Avondale.

Robin is a charter member of the Kennedy Guild of the Kennedy Heights Arts Center.

Are These Vessels Real?

ELAINE YORK MCGUE

In the Shadows

My first artistic medium -- my first love -- was photography, and it has been a cherished love for all the years since. I initially pursued that love in my flower garden. Recognizing the unique beauty of  blooms, butterflies, bees, bugs, and, birds, I found capturing their essence in a photo to be very gratifying.

I also discovered that when I go out with camera in hand for a photo shoot, it seems I’m more aware of the world around me. I see things I might walk past. I lose myself in the world of images, seeing light, shapes, sizes, and colors with a different eye. I look up, down, all around me, it doesn’t matter, though the world is the same, I just see it differently when I'm taking photos.

My efforts in photography were rewarded about 15 years ago with a solo show at the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Florence, Kentucky. And in 2010, I entered a photo in a nationwide call for the Roho Photo Gallery which was chosen as one of the final thirty for the gallery, book, and website. To be a part of that show was such an honor. It helped me realize how much I had missed that old friend: My Camera.

I’m so grateful for this gift, and for the joy of sharing my art it with others.

Thomas R. Kinsel - Artist Biography

    

   I am a Cincinnati native and my artistic background is rather diverse. I have experience with Fine Artsuch as painting, drawing, and print making. However, I am formally trained as an Industrial Designer (a designer of mass produced products). I earned my BS degree from the University of Cincinnati - DAAP in 1996. Since graduation, I have worked in both the field of Industrial Design and Graphic Design. I currently work in the mold-making industry and new product development where I design food safe silicone molds for the culinary industry.

I have always had an interest in all types of art from an early age. One of my passions that developed over twenty five years ago was photography. I started out with film and have been using primarily digital media for the last ten years. However, I like to remain as true to the art of film photography as possible.This means not drastically modifying or altering the image.

    I have shown my photography at numerous locations around the Cincinnati area including:

Milton’s, Pleasant Perk, HD Beans Cafe, Starbucks, Habanero’s, Redtree Gallery, RoHo Photo Gallery, Scene Ultra Lounge, Mt. Adams Art Walk, Art Design Consultants and the Kennedy Heights Arts Center.

Life in a Bubble

Photography to me is just “wandering around” and finding something cool that stops me in my tracks. I tend to look for the unusual, things that others might just walk past and maybe not see. Perhaps no one has seen this before... at least from my perspective?

Thomas R. Kinsel - Artist Statement

    One day while shopping for used building supplies, I happened to spot a grouping of used sinks outside that were all lined up in rows. My first thought was that they all looked like some sort of automobile “junkyard”. Are they waiting to be crushed up and then recycled? Or, perhaps they are patiently waiting for a new home and just have to sit there until the right person comes along to find them? This was my inspiration for the “Bargain Basins” image.

For my second image titled “Life in a Bubble”, I wanted to explore the idea of something that is very fragile and short-lived. At any second the bubble might burst, and along with it the fragile “world” within that it contains. I was also fascinated by the reflections in the bubble which shows its surrounding exterior environment.

Jenny Reed Artist Statement: 

I am very interested in ethical reasoning and perplexed by human activity, or inactivity, and how this correlates to the rest of life.

                                                                                               

I try to make objects that encompass a moment of nostalgia; a bittersweet, hazy memory of a forgotten perception or experience. These hybrid objects connect the almost illusionary concept of interconnectivity with the physical reality of life.

A Klein bottle is a hypothetical non-oriental surface. In three dimensions, it is manifested as a sort of “bottle” that has no inner or outer walls. Therefore, unlike a functional vessel, this bottle can only serve an aesthetic purpose. The smaller, inner neck of this Klein creates the outer exterior, and vice versa. I was interested in using the Klein bottle as a representation of human consumption. Specifically, I was thinking about the amount of natural resources humans consume and the impact this has on us as a species. 

Jenny Reed Biography: 

Jenny Reed was born in Louisville and currently resides in Newport, Ky. She is a BFA candidate at Northern Kentucky University. Jenny has received scholarships from her participation in the Kentucky Governor's School for the Arts as well as from work created during college. She was most recently exhibited at Northern Kentucky University’s Scholarship Exhibition. Her BFA show is anticipated for Spring 2014.

Consumption (Klein Bottle 1)
To see other surreal vessels re-visit these blogs; Klein Bottle 5/13/13 and Blue Ash Sculpture a Vessel of Enlightenment 101512