Winter Mix

Past Exhibit

with Helen Gotlib, Jill Wagner, and Dylan Stryzinski

Our February exhibit features a mix of modern, traditional and fun.  Join us this Friday during the Red Bird Art Walk from 5-8p.  While covid has us still taking good care of ourselves, we are still rotating in our amazing artists and bringing you new works.

Helen Gotlib

My primary visual concern has always been to document nature by focusing on its strengths rather beauty. Simultaneously subtle and overwhelming, it confounds us with its infinite system of outwardly chaotic patterns within patterns and uncannily expressive forms.

Biology produces striking color combinations. Recently I have been moved by the dazzling flowers of ice plants on the rugged shores of the Pacific Northwest. The waxy pink blossoms of these plants are electric against the blanket of succulent dark green leaves spread over ancient rocks and dunes heaving up against the ocean. My large scale mixed media print pieces are an attempt to evoke the intensity of this breathtaking encounter with the seaside.

Patterns of nature yield compelling results when filtered through subjective experience. Concurrent to my expansive beach scapes I have shifted and narrowed my focus to the abstract possibilities of wood grain. By changing the context of the interior of a tree, the connection to the original object nearly disappears. What remains evokes the movement of water and reveals a hidden but familiar aquatic landscape like the pond near my home in the Michigan woods. Some beaches are public and some beaches are secret.

Jill Wagner

As a contemporary impressionist painter, I’m obsessed with capturing light. Plein air painting is my passion, but during the colder months I work on larger pieces in my studio. I paint in both pastel and oil, two mediums which complement each other nicely.

My subjects are varied, ranging from country landscapes to inner city architecture, from portraits to casual nudes, from seascapes to interiors. I love to travel and sometimes work from photos I’ve taken on the road, but when weather permits, my first choice is always to paint outdoors (en plein air), especially in my beloved Italy.

The consistent theme that attracts me is light and shadow. I aim for realism with a painterly twist, but sometimes I allow the rich hues and textures of a scene to dominate. Oil and pastel are exhilarating mediums that lead to endless adventures… and sometimes I’m just happy to follow their lead.

Dylan Stryzinski

Producing artwork, image making in particular is a continuum. Ideas reoccur; images repeat, transform, take on new meaning and develop in unexpected ways. Sometimes older ideas wait for the next discovery that points to a new project.

I tend to see myself as more a drawer than a painter and therefore, even when working in tightly rendered modes, as a sort of cartoon expressionist. Matching media and content is important. Energy is the ultimate concern and I try to work in ways that encourage spontaneity and deliberate mark making. Many of my pieces take on the raw appearance of the outsider. Yet my themes are not entirely clear. My pieces are filled with self-referential meta-subjects whose meaning lies somewhere near the edge of direct understanding. This complexity places my work squarely in the realm of highbrow, so called “fine art.” Yet surface and material suggest a visionary spirit. As a result I have come to occupy an odd space that is neither entirely reserved for academics nor primitives.

Ultimately I am a postindustrial cave painter gathering the tribe together in the warm stinking glow of the scrap lumber fire to recount the exploits of the pre apocalyptic man.

Human progress is over rated.