January 6 – February 10 , 2012
This group exhibition features abstract watercolor paintings by Virginia Andrade of Grants Pass, OR; the vibrantly-hued chromogenic photographs by Robert Buelteman of Montara, CA; and the found object/mixed media installation by April & Wendy Hill from Medford and Sunriver, OR, respectively. These artists share an interest in using unusual processes and/or materials in the creation of their work.
Virginia Andrade creates abstract compositions that explore color, texture, and line. Through the use of flowing and gestural marks, Andrade’s paintings suggest motion and dynamic action. She utilizes Yupo paper which has a non-absorbent, ultra-smooth surface that allows the watercolor pigment to sit on the surface of the paper, making colors more vibrant and brilliant than on standard papers.
Andrade writes in her artist’s statement, “I did not decide to become an artist, it was breathed into me by my third grade teacher. She told me, “Oh Virginia, you are an artist”, and so I was. I cannot recall a time in my life I was not engaged in a creative activity.”
Robert Buelteman was an established nature photographer who began experimenting with botanical subject matter and a new camera-less photographic technique. His technique utilizes the photogram, in which objects are placed on photographic paper and exposed to light. Rather than merely arranging flowers on light-sensitive film and exposing them to sun, Buelteman explores a far more technically demanding process. The floral subject is initially exposed using high frequency, high voltage electricity.
Then, in a process the artist compares to Japanese ink brush painting and improvisational jazz, Buelteman uses a variety of light sources to hand-paint the subject. In addition to xenon-strobe and tungsten lights, he makes extensive use of fiber optics, allowing him to control the delivery of light much as a painter controls a brush. The resulting image is not created by reflected light; the image records energy and light as filtered directly through the plant structure. The images of plants vary in shape and color, from earthly and simplistic to dazzling and complex forms of nature, symbolizing life and growth.
April and Wendy Hill, mother and daughter, teamed up to collaborate on the installation, String Things at the Multiplex. The hanging installation is constructed of nearly 1000 mini-paintings that are framed in photographic slide mounts. April created the tiny paintings that Wendy then “framed” with slide mounts that she embellished. The paintings are strung on long strands of yarn and electrical wire that are interconnected with glass beads, papier-mâché balls, painted wheels, and other small trinkets.
All these components are suspended from five transparent discs from the ceiling, creating a dimensional curtain that the viewer can circumnavigate. From a distance, the individual parts cannot be identified. Up close, however, the details spring into focus. The result is an installation that can be viewed and appreciated from all angles and distances: from the bottom up; from the top down; from all sides; from up close; or from far away.
On display in the Members Gallery
Oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings, pastel drawings, photographs, mixed media collage, monoprints, and encaustics by member artists Rachel Barrett, Janet Bocast, Dianne Jean Erickson, Barbara Eshoo, Denise Souza Finney, Dodie Hamilton-Brandon, Georganna Happel, Lee Hilton, Jennifer Ivey, Carrie Kaufman, Dixie Kinser, Roni Marsh, Nancy Jo Mullen, Bobbi Murphy, Cecilia Pestlin, Lo Smucker, Irene Stephens, Tiffany Stewart, Eva Thiemann, Sandi Whetzel, Eve Margo Withrow and Elaine A. Witteveen.
Berryman Gallery at the Craterian Ginger Rogers Theater
23 S. Central Ave, Medford Oregon
Ignite the Mind, Stir the Soul, Open the Heart