Standing before an unfamiliar object, there is a moment when we must rely on sensual memory to find our footing and make order of what confronts us. The viewer is left to reconcile the strange with the familiar. This balance between visual attraction and disorientation intrigues me. The in-between is where I want to be. In each series of sculptures I set out to create objects that straddle functionality and use, referencing organic forms and man made objects simultaneously. They are designed to pull one into a place where contemplation must occur.

Translating this into my work in printmaking, working serially becomes more systematic. Linoleum plates are carved with abstractions that are based on nature and the elements. These are layered in colors that begin to create a climate or atmosphere. The interchange of these plates in various prints compounds the ritual nature of the printing process. Each combination reveals a new identity for the abstract forms, coming to rest teetering on the brink of becoming a pattern.

"The Heaven, Earth and Sea series explores drawing and painting with permanent ink on archival water resistant paper. As I scratch, scrub, draw and pour these shapes into a smooth surface it becomes evident that permanence is an illusion and the ink records every moment. 

This body of work is a long and winding river for me... It has a momentum which takes everything in its path and returns it to the sea: truth, beauty, pain and decay... it floods, ebbs, dwindles and flows as it makes its way to wherever it is going. "

In 2008 I spent the summer teaching jewelry-making lessons to women in rural communities near Quetzaltenango, Guatemala and helping them create a line of fair trade jewelry that is now sold in the U.S. My memories of that experience inform this series of small sculpture and jewelry.

I am interested in highlighting the overlooked beauty of urban Guatemala. All the gritty, rusted, and stubborn signs of humanity that get overlooked by the tourist and taken for granted by the resident are my curiosities. Imagery of infrastructure and sprawl convey connections between people and their constructed environment as well as connections between neighbors and strangers. Even though there are no inhabitants in my work, their presence is suggested by the structures necessary for their implied reality. I find the cities that inspired these pieces beautiful for their inhabitants and the way they shape my memory. In this way I hope to celebrate the places I loved, the people I respected, and the experiences I will never forget.  

A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Aggie Zed grew up in a large family on Sullivan’s Island riding ponies and donkeys on the beach. As a child she watched her father repair television sets and played for hours with cheap plastic horses and cowboys which had no moving parts. She could always draw.

Living in Richmond, Virginia, after graduating from The University of South Carolina with a degree in Fine Arts, she supported her painting by designing and building ceramic chess sets. Her work in clay evolved to become a widely-collected series of humananimal hybrid figures with which she has made a living. She divides her working life between sculpture and drawing and painting. Her drawings and painting are informed by a lifelong celebration of the beauty and strangeness of dreams posed against the absurdity and poignancy of supposedly rational human activity. Her usual mediums are dry pastel and various inks with water on paper.

Aggie Zed’s sculpture ranges from intimately-scaled ceramic figures of people and human-animal hybrids to copper wire and ceramic horses to ceramic and mixed-metals contrivances she calls “scrap floats”. Her scrap floats are intended as entries in a parade of the future.

She currently lives with her husband in Gordonsville,Virginia where she keeps animals in her life, especially chickens, which defy anthropomorphism. 

This series of work , titled Optic Dialogue, is documentation of my personal reactions to the ideologies of the social enviornment of my day. Being a gay woman in the South and comng from a religious, conservative background has meant interacting with, coping with, and facing ideologies that seem to oppose who I am. I have discovered that the intstitutions that form my culture are based on the society that makes them, never on absolute truths. Therefore, I am able to participate in social conversation that is constantly forming how we, as a group, think. 

-Leeanne Maxey 

 "Metamorphosis, mutation, otherness, comfort and building a place to belong are concepts that are prominently featured in my work and in how I choose to live my life. Modification has changed the way that I see myself and the way the rest of the world responds to my appearance."

Ryan Myers' playful yet somber paintings grow out of his early obsession with Pee Wee Herman, Hanna-Barbera Laugh Olympics and the bad children from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory.

Richmond artist Mike Brown creates functional and beautiful pottery. Each unique wheel thrown piece is carefully fired to perfection.  

Hyun Kyung Yoon received her BS in applied design from the University of Minnesota and her MFA in ceramics from Virginia Commonwealth University. Since 1996, she has been the owner of Ceramic Arts Studio and Gallery Monticello in Yangpyeong, South Korea. She describes:
"My ceramic works share a common interest in Far Eastern Calligraphy, especially in the cursive style wherein kinetic tension of growth, as well as contrast between line and mass, elucidate the art of the brush stroke.

My interest in nature has helped me to discover a new way of seeing and a different approach to developing thematic ideas for making ceramics. Some of my motives are derived from nature. The natural world is a constant source of wonder, inspiration and delight to me. I try to convey these feelings in my work. Some of my work is inspired by direct observation, while other work is motivated by impressions and images stored in memory."

 Emerald Grippa's evocative drawings use graphite and watercolor to seduce the viewer. Embracing the monochromatic raw pencil, she carefully punctuates with color to illustrate the fashionable and the mysterious.
The featured artist in Quirk's supersketch event in October, this Richmonder is sure to excite.

For this piece, Emerald uses cut outs from magazines: "I composed each object into a letter of the alphabet and then drew each letter using graphite."

see more at www.emeraldgrippa.com

A Richmond favorite, Matt Lively makes "images that suggest a story without a beginning of end. Learning to stop before the painting reveals too much is the most delicate aspect of my process." When not in the studio- a 130 year old barn- Matt teaches at VCU and the VMFA.

see more at www.mattlively.com

This series of encaustics was inspired by the process of conception from "planting the seed" of the embryo through fertilization and how the human gene makes that person who they are from day one.

 Diana Detamore explains, "Nature's ability to adapt, regenerate and reinvent continues to be a prevailing theme and source of imagery in my artwork. Its wisdom and lessons in the mystery of life are infinite. It is the timeless qualities of things, and how they are able to transcend time and space that continues to intrigue me."

See more at dianadetamore.com

A collection of hand thrown ceramic vessels by Julia Gabriel.  Julia's artistic background lies primarily in fiber arts.  Most recently she has taken on a long term project of designing and excecuting a line of hand-sewn backpacks modeled after the architecture of abandoned Richmond buildings.  Julia is constantly striving to expand her knowledge of materials and this recent body of ceramic work explored distorting the form and allowed her to create using a more organic process than the strictly patterened packs.

To see additional current work by Julia Gabriel please visit her blog here.

 Judith FAE Brown's shop show, titled "Certain Intersections" explores the use of different materials and the intersection between her different bodies of work: sculpture, jewelry and ceramics.

Rebecca Kuzemchak's work investigates the use of glue as a translucent encaustic-type medium. Stipples and etched line work hover between the layers, and mixed media reactions form organic patterns. Taken as a whole, the series presents a balance between artistic control and the choice to relinquish it.

 An installation of intimate, mixed media paintings and collages with a nod to pop art.

When something irreplaceable is lost there are several solutions for addressing that void. For illustrative purposes I will use the loss of a front tooth as an example. The methods I am most familiar with are the following:
1. Replace lost subject with similar subject. This is the most obvious solution, although most often the replacement is found wanting for some quality that was integral to the value of the original. In such cases the only thing I know of to do is lower your standards. You just have to accept that this porcelain veneer is a close as you’re ever going to get to growing another tooth. The upside to this solution its’ simplicity and potential for inconspicuousness.

2. Replace lost subject with dissimilar subject. This solution is the second-easiest and can be most rewarding. It allows you to express however much or little you’d like to about your loss. If you’re suffering from despair over the loss of the original subject, the absurdity of an incongruous or exaggerated replacement subject can be a welcome distraction. Having a sense of humor and a willingness to accept magic and mundanity as equals will be helpful in choosing an appropriate replacement. Will you replace the missing tooth with a smoothly turned rose quartz or a button from your mother’s wedding dress? There are millions of solutions, and what you choose as your replacement can potentially pay homage to your feelings about the loss itself, the meaning of the original subject or, conversely, refute its worth altogether.
3. Do not replace lost subject. This method will require the most effort on your part in that it requires you to accept the void of the lost subject AS the new subject. Will you ever stop tonguing the hole that housed your original tooth? It will be less and less of a distraction over time, yes, but will it become something you worry with when you’re thinking or waiting for sleep to find you each night? How exactly do you plan on eating an apple ever again? Is this acceptance of nothing as the new something a graceful acceptance or a defeatist attitude?  

New work by Michael A. Pierce. Richmond artist Michael Pierce will be showing rabbit drawings in oil pastels, graphite, house paint, and gold composition leaf on paper.  

From the artist: I use familiar visual signs to explore materials, process and identity issues.

This series is based on my own documentary photographs of prize-winning rabbits
from the Virginia State Fair. As usual, in the transition from photographs to drawings,
the rabbits have been freed of their cages, and the gesture of the hand-drawn mark
takes precedence over photographic representation. “Who doesn’t like a rabbit?” I have
asked, knowing full well that there are those who would be put off by these images.

I’ve incorporated French words and phrases into the work, using Google translator
to translate lyrics from English show tunes and pop songs into French, a language I
neither speak nor understand. As an installation, the images along with the text take on
a narrative structure. There may be humor, but there is no irony intended.

- Michael A. Pierce, April 2011

A master of collage, Joni Ulman-Lewis brings together disparate pieces to form a new cohesive, and beautifully intriguing whole. The works seem exceedingly bizarre and all too normal at once. Her curiosities invite you into a world all her own making, yet of which we are vaguely familiar.  

Emerald Grippa creates fashion based illustrations that combine graphite, color pencils and digital manipulation. There is a disturbing elegance from the pencil lines that evoke only part of the story, asking the viewer to imagine the rest.

www.emeraldgrippa.com

Phil makes incredible monsters. With a sense of humor, curiosity and color his work is sure to make you smile, if not laugh out loud. philbarbato.com 

"In this series of work I explore life in the natural world; animals going about their every day business and just being." Sarah invites us to take a peek into the rabbit hole. Her dreamy surrealistic style and rabbit imagery allows the viewer to identify with a sense of nostalgic innocence.  

 An installation of mixed media sculptures by Richmond artist Paul Teeples. 

A collection of new paintings by Richmond artist Chris Milk Hulburt.  Huburt, a self taught artist, uses house paint on wood (often found panels) for all of his whimsical paintings. 

Eleanor is a designer and illustrator well-known for her modernist illustrations of animals and her clean, bold, graphic aesthetic. Eleanor’s unique graphic perspective aims to simplify line and playfully arrange form to capture the essence of each animal she draws. Grosch's work takes a graphic approach on feathered, furry, and fuzzy friends. Her illustration career has grown from its rock poster roots with jobs for clients such as Keds, Giro, Urban Outfitters, and Wilco.

Daniel Calder is a painter, installation and conceptual artist living in Richmond. Daniel holds both a BFA and MFA from VCU. His work appears in numerous private and corporate collections and he has been featured in various publications including Artpapers and the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Working with acrylic paint on wood panels sometimes covered in canvas, he explores identity, isolation, and memories through paint, latex and plaster. His works have a unique textural quality that puts the viewer both on edge and at ease, looking both ahead and back. As he reveals "currently my work has returned to its roots in abstract painting. Now as a middle-aged artist I am making the paintings that I couldn't as a young artist."
www.danielcalder.com

Richmond artist Stacy Moore creates a whimsical world of circus themed characters in her August Shop Show "For Your Entertainment," an installation of soft sculptures.  Each piece is hand sewn and individually embellished, making them truly exquisite and one of a kind.

The meaning behind my work is simple- just the love of nature and the desire to bring the peacefulness and beauty it exudes inside the home. I am intrigued with the patterns and colors found in nature and strive to recreate them in my work. My current prints are more abstract than my previous work and I am enjoying the freedom of abstraction. They are colorful and wild, and therefore perfectly pay homage to my inspiration- flowers.

I am drawn to collagraph printing because of the unexpected results that it can produce. I may have an idea of how the print will come out, but my favorites are usually the ones that surprise me. I make the printing plates from found objects- sometimes natural elements such as grasses and leaves, sometimes recycled items like cereal boxes and plastic packing straps. When printing the plates, I overlap the textures and colors until I get something I like.

Due to the experimental way that I print, I make a lot of bad prints. Over the years I started making collages from my unsuccessful prints. This series of flower collages is the first time that I printed with the intention of making collages from them. I start by making the background textures- some are simple and some are as many as 6 or 7 runs through the press. I then print the flowers and start the process of tearing and assembling the collages. Since this is my first series of intentional collages, I am excited to see where this idea will lead me… 

Tenley Beazley's oil and encaustic images collage layers of nature together. Her work seems both fragile and robust at the same time, demanding quiet contemplation. Tenley is very active in the Richmond community bringing art opportunities to children and helping them to discover the beauty she finds in everyday life.

Dolan Geiman is a nationally recognized mixed media artist creating original paintings, collages, constructions, and limited-edition reproductions. Produced from salvaged wood, found objects, and other recycled materials, Geiman's eco-friendly artwork emerges from a folk art tradition infused with a contemporary, urban style. Motifs such as rural America, woodland creatures "specifically birds," and country music are popular and reoccurring themes, creating an artwork that introduces a modern aesthetic while remaining true to its rustic roots.

http://www.dolangeiman.com

Inspired by a quote from Brice Marden "line is an organism of growth," Abbey Wilson's art draws the eye in through one streak and leads it into an endless web. Unsure where to enter, the viewer becomes even more unsure where to maze. Caught in a spinning web, Wilson considers these lines organisms of growth: "one line feeds off of another, creating pathways of growth that are continuous. The patterns and relationships that I observe fascinate me and fuel the imagery used throughout my work."  

The glass objects and environments that I create serve as activators and preservations that speak about identity, history, memory, and tradition. I am interested in how values and traditions evolve and linger. My works act as a resuscitator between old and new, while often challenging and marrying different processes of manipulating glass. My characterizations, plots, and settings, are inspired by wandering and witnessing Rural America. The careful and directed orchestration of objects both found and made imply time, place, and persona within my constructed environments. The delineation between fact and fiction within my works becomes blurred. The distortion and illumination of “southern experience” and history is wrenched from its normal continuity and is presented a new. 

Laura Pharis's art combines a dreamlike state with an intense sense of wonder. Born and raised in Roanoke, Virginia, Pharis teaches studio art at Sweet Briar College where she specializes in drawing and printmaking. In 2000 she was named Virginia Artist of the Year by the Richmond Women's Caucus for the Arts.

Rob Tarbell's Struggles series confronts the nostalgia of stuffed animals with new narratives. Remnants of stuffed animals infused with procelain slip and fired, these memories are literally cremated, preserved, and transformed in subject, concept and material. As Tarbell explains,  "the name, Struggles, sounds like a familiar brand name and references the stuffed animal's path from found object to art object."

Kathryn Henry-Choisser explains "There are particular moments which temporarily illuminate the underlying complexities of life. They occur in thought, dreams, interaction, and day to day experience. The challenge of recreating, either symbolically or representationally, the images associated with these moments is what compels me to paint."  She certainly excels at the challenge, inviting you to glimpse at life's small moments.

About the Artist:  
I grew up in the suburbs of Buffalo, New York but spent most of my adult life living in the city (Cambridge, Ma.) We decided it was time to move when the house was falling down around us and the mice were taking over the kitchen. We now live in the country (Western Pennsylvania) on seven acres in an almost funky house that looks a bit like an ihop.

About her Work:
My pieces are fairy tales for the modern world. Like most folktales their story isn’t always revealed on first glance. They are (I hope) engaging enough to catch your eye again and again. Part of their charm is the tension between sweet and not so sweet. I use elements of cartoons, animation stills, dreams, and other references to weave my stories. To root the pieces in the world I use a fairly classical visual aesthetic.

They are made from basswood that is cut, stacked, shaped and carved using a bandsaw, rotary tool and sander. Elements are made from various materials and added to the structure which is then painted with multiple layers of paint, graphite and drawing.

Nicole Licht's creations are uniquely hand stitched with carefully selected materials. Soft sculptures that may double as keepsakes or toys, her work delights children and adults alike. And her beautiful embroidery and designs are sure to impress even the sewing aficionados.

An intimate look inside Maggie's house. Needle felted plant life housed in vintage containers. A perfect representation of the wonderful world of Maggie Smith.