Join us for an exhibition of

Recent Artworks by Kelty Crew, Helen Klebesadel, and Danny Torres

at the

Opera House Art Gallery

Second Floor at 115 East Main Street, Mt Horeb, Wisconsin (No Elevator)

Hosted by Nancy Howard, owner

September 6-November 3, 2014

Opening Reception:  Saturday, September 6, 2:30-5:00

VERY brief artists talks 3:00

 

I have been busily framing some of my  more watercolors for this exhibition I am doing with two of my favorite artists, Daniel Torres and Kelty Carew.  Danny Torres (who happens to be my watercolor slinging step-son) will share a series of watercolors that primarily focus on relationships people have with each other, themselves and the universe.  They are rich and expressive paintings that inspire the viewer to reflect upon their own relationships.  Kelty Carew shares etching, created both on paper and granite.  Her incredibly delicate and representative drawings capture both the personalities and commitments of people involved in contemporary agricultural practices, like CSAs, as well as expressive and symbolic works.  Both artists share work drawn with awesome yet expressive detail.

Danny and Kelty showed some of their work together last fall in a wonderful exhibition in Minneapolis.  I immediately began looking around for a place where the three of us could do a shared exhibition in southern Wisconsin.  I was delighted when Nancy Howard, the owner of the newest gallery in Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin invited us to show together in her lovely Opera House Art Gallery in a historic building on main street Mt. Horeb.  (Thank you Nancy).

Daniel, Kelty and I invite you to come and check out the gallery and our art.  If you are a Facebook user you can share our event and invite others.

 

Kelty Carew has been drawing for years.  I first spotted her work in an art exhibition that both she and Daniel were in at their high school.  Her facility and commitment to the arts has continued as she has pursued her education and career.

Kelty has worked as an artist in the monument industry for over a decade, designing memorials in stone and bronze and specializing in hand-etched portraiture. As a current graduate student in Sustainability Leadership at Edgewood College, she has channeled her passion for community art, sustainable agriculture, and social justice into a development project between her hometown of Madison and communities in Jacmel, Haiti and Alto Cayma, Peru. Her work draws upon imagery and traditions of these places, while continuing the Midwest lineage of magic realism in exploring themes of resilience, death, and renewal.

Kelty has also facilitated collaborative mural projects in the US and abroad by drawing on her passion for community organizing and participatory art. She is attracted to the intersection of art and ecology, specifically the transformative power of collective creative process on psychological and physical environments.

Danny Torres is a watercolor artist who is best known for his surreal portraiture. He uses bright colors and dark themes to explore concepts of self and the mind. Danny studied Fine Art at the Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He currently resides in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is very accomplished web designer.   (He designed my own art website that you are now looking at.)  Danny is a multidisciplinary designer & artist, who I can attest has been making art since he was old enough to hold a brush.  While painting & drawing were early passions, he also spent shamefully large swaths of his youth tinkering away at his computer.  His transition into digital art has therefore been both natural & fulfilling (so if you need a website contact him). He enjoys applying his creativity to digital and traditional media.  For this exhibition he is focusing on watercolor (my favorite).

If you are reading this you probably already know I exhibit my watercolors nationally and internationally. I’m best known for my environmental and women centered artworks that push the traditional boundaries of the medium in scale, content, and technique. I usually start with detailed drawings, and develop images with layer upon layer of color washes and dry brush technique mixed within areas of wet-into-wet spontaneity.

For this exhibition I will be sharing watercolors on paper that are in keeping with the season in their displays of beauty and abundance.  With so much craziness in the world and an over-riding sense of distress at the direction our world and country seems to be going, I find myself needing to focus on noticing and appreciating the beauty and abundance that surrounds me.  I feel very lucky to live in a community where so many people appreciate and work to protect our natural world.  Flower gardens lower my shoulders and their beauty calls for me to ‘stop and smell the flowers.’  I am privileged to have access to the amazing rich smell and taste of home grown garden vegetables and fruits.

I long ago figured out that artists are allowed to sit and stare at flowers and plants for long hours without too many people asking us why we are ‘wasting our time.’  Learning to look and appreciate the natural world around us is something we should all experience (it might help us appreciate the natural world enough not to destroy it).  I suspect that until quiet, meditative observation is a part of our education for everyone it will be the artist’s job to stop, notice, and share what others are too busy to take the time to stop and notice for themselves.

If you are in southern Wisconsin, please join us September 6th for the opening reception of our shared exhibition.  If you cannot make the show you can see images of many of the artworks that will be in the exhibit online here.