JOAN WEBSTER-VORE, PJ MILLS, JULIE FLANAGAN, & AMANDA JOLLEY
December 8, 2017 — January 20, 2018
JOAN WEBSTER-VORE finds life is about balance. What we do, the big or small choices we may or may not make, tip us one way or another. In the case of the passenger pigeon, decisions made over one hundred years ago tipped their odds of survival. There are written reports of the birds blocking out the sun as they flew overhead, a mile wide in formation continuing as far as the eye could see. Martha the last passenger pigeon, died in the Cincinnati Zoo on September 1st 1914. Webster-Vore’s works include site-specific installations in response to the extinction of the passenger pigeon, broaching issues of nature, balance, and the marks we leave upon the world.
PJ MILLS‘s paintings represent visual metaphors that emerge from the examination of common objects in his life and how images of those objects relate to an “intimate” human condition. He feels metaphors for identity, self-preservation, and mortality stem directly and indirectly from inanimate and animate personal possessions. Referred to often as “ropography”; or a depiction of those things which lack importance, the everyday objects of life or those objects we take for granted. These paintings are of objects contextually placed in still life settings or sometimes in more ambiguous spaces. By focusing on insignificant objects Mills feels they often illustrate a greater significance pertaining to our addiction to possessions, our obsession with self-preservation, and ultimately our mortality. Although, there are romantic notions in the personal subjectivity of this work, they are not grand statements of typical romantic artwork, but more closely related to Genre type statements of the mundane used as metaphors for grand ideas
JULIE FLANAGAN Due to a newly altered lifestyle, Flanagan now places into her camera’s view-finder inpromptu treasures rarely noticed by the passerby. Then with astute sensitivity, she distills them to unveil a striking lethargy, an unforeseen alchemy or a subtly nuanced resilience. Her signature filtering techniques along with inventive uses of digital tools enables her to create art that reflects an edgy and innovative interpretation of the traditional philosophies behind the post impressionist, the baroque and even post-modern styles.
AMANDA JOLLEY begins with layers of encaustic medium which is clear, and then build random geometric shapes on top of that with both encaustic and oil paint. Layer upon layer, each has a distinct voice different from the one beneath. In the end, most of these layers are concealed with hints of what lies beneath speaking through the surface layers. Jolley works intuitively, so often an image or pattern will appear that defines an emotion or thought with which she’d been wrestling internally. She then expands and explores the pattern to find out more about what it has to say. The geometric portion of Jolley’s imagery is highly influenced by the origami she often folds. The crease patterns that are created when folding the origami often reveal themselves in lines of her paintings. The remaining imagery appears intuitively, often influenced by recent experiences.
