BETTY AND HOWARD TAYLOR – MAIN GALLERY
Juried by Jared Ledesma, senior curator at Akron Art Museum, FRESH pushes the boundaries of what art can be—stylistically, conceptually, and technically—and challenges the viewer to see the world through a new lens.
Juror’s Statement
“I’m honored to be the juror for Summit Artspace’s 18th annual FRESH exhibition. I have a deep affinity for sculpture and imagery that is surreal, odd, taboo or unique. And I’ve always been interested in artists that push boundaries in some shape or form, either through materials or subject matter. Considering this, while reviewing applications for FRESH I paid close attention to objects that are difficult to classify into one distinct category, or objects whose materials or subject matter made me laugh, or works whose imagery might even seem grotesque. To me these artworks are incredibly fresh, and provide an insight into how artists in our community are broadening the definition of contemporary art. ”
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Special thanks to Bradley Hart, Summit Artspace resident artist, for photography of virtual exhibitions!
If you would like to purchase any art, please visit a staff member or volunteer at the front desk, or email natalie@summitartspace.org.
1
Joanna Mack | Full Sail | $400
Hand-dyed and commercial fabric, batting; machine sewn and quilted
17″w x 24″h
Artist Statement: On an open sea with blue skies, strong winds fill a boat’s sails and propel it forward. It’s as close to flying as we can experience on earth.
2
Barbara Bergsten | Technicolor Recall #2 | $1,200
Acrylic
30” x 24”
Artist Statement: Technicolor Recall series portraits a time and place gone. Bold, saturated colors are stark contrast to loss and loneliness felt.
3
Barbara Bergsten | Technicolor Recall #3 | $1,200
Acrylic
30”x 24”
Artist Statement: Technicolor Recall series portraits a time and place gone. Bold, saturated colors are stark contrast to loss and loneliness felt.
4
Lou Camerato | Empty Houses | $400
Assemblage, acrylic
22.5″ x 28″
Artist Statement: As an artists I have explored many mediums…I tend to land in the area of assemblage/found object art and mixed media; acrylic, watercolor and colored pencil. You will note that I often times include other media in my 3 dimensional work. I refer to my assemblage work as visual journaling..It is truly the preferred way to express myself as an artist. My work helps to create a personal experience between the work and the viewer. This piece entitled Empty Houses is an outside view of the dining room of a past residence of mine. The free writing written on the window frame is as follows: “Empty houses stand as sentinels to those who seek their refuge. They hold an inner spirit or vibe that calls ou to their potential residents. A house becomes a home when over time, its new occupants begin to create memories. The house retains our spoken words like magnets to metal. The newly applied paint on the walls absorbs the owner’s breath. Their fingerprints are embedded in the nails and screws used to repair the woodwork, and their beads of sweat seep into the wood while re-sanding the floors. As time passes, dwellers may leave their home for one reason or another. However, the dwelling records the history they created and it becomes an inseparable part of the house. Likewise, these memories are also etched in the resident’s minds, rarely forgotten or replaced.” L. Camerato
5
Elizabeth Prindle | Mama Took in Piecework to Support Us Kids | NFS
Wood, tintypes, thread, paper, thimble, porcelain shard
15.5″ x 12.5″
Artist Statement: My assemblage art explores birth and death, rites of passage, and social issues, as well my personal history. I primarily create in wood and metal materials I’ve collected from estate sales and flea markets. Old tools whose function is forgotten are a favorite starting point. Often the components guide me as the piece evolves. More than decorative objects, they are talismanic adornments for your environment. These mystical assemblages interact with the ambient light to cast shifting shadows inside the boxes themselves as well as projecting outward. My hope is that you will feel mystified, pulled in, and inexplicably intrigued as you, the viewer, free- associate with these collections of objects and attach meaning or stories to them, based on your own personal unconscious. Allow them to open conversations within yourself or with others. In this piece, I explore how sewing evolved from a task that women could perform to earn a living into a leisure activity. The colors of their clothing also evolved.
6
John Hill | Grandma | $300
Drywall, construction lumber, house paint, acrylic paint, tacs, paper
19.5” x 30”
Artist Statement: This work is about ghosts. Ghosts of your house and the ghosts from your life. I like the idea of leaving remnants in the walls, for future owners to find. This is one of those remnants, left by a past owner. The note is meant to give the owners a sense of peace if they see the ghost in the backyard.
7
Jeanne Fashempour | And then the evil clown melted | $75
Encaustic mixed media
10” x 10”
Artist Statement: Fear and a bit of whimsy, are what inspired this piece. I am afraid of clowns and I’m not alone. In the background of this defeated clown is the explanation of why we fear clowns, you will have to read it to understand. Clowns have been evil in disguise for centuries. Only his nose survived.
8
Luanne Bole-Becker | Carny Dreams | $375
Photographs, vintage toys & frames, metal, glass, wood, plastic, magnets, acrylic paint
28″w x 22″h x 18″d
Artist Statement: This photo/found object assemblage seeks to capture and celebrate the spirit of a carnival—a magical event to look forward to and explore. “Carny Dreams” is an interactive artwork that blends five original photographs from Ohio’s Canfield and Cuyahoga County Fairs with a variety of vintage items and paints, wood, metal, glass, and plastic. “Carny Dreams” inhabited my brain for quite some time. I’d been imagining, re-imagining, researching, and puzzling through so many visual and engineering decisions to get to the final artwork. Something particularly unique are the neodymium magnets I used with the mirror and zinc-iron bases to anchor items exactly where I wanted them. However, everything on the base can still be re-arranged, so the assemblage is playfully interactive for whomever eventually takes it home.
9
Andy Tubbesing | Ministry Of Waste Disposal & Obsolete Armaments, Sub-Level D7 | $500
Assemblage
17″w x 29″h x 12″d
Artist Statement: The Scrutinizers keep a tight rein on Glorious Home City, with their Sign-In-Triplicate dictum and Random Thought Checks. But beneath the Organic Matter Reclamation Plant, down in the Waste Disposal tunnels, it’s a less structured world. All kinds of antisocial types wander around down on Sub-Level D7. Incongruously, Sub-Level D7 is also the end-of-the-line for surplus weaponry, of which the Scrutinizers commission a lot. The stuff still works, and usually shows up with plenty of ammo. So watch your back down on Sub-Level D7.
10
Katie Mongoven | I Know Why My Favorite Color is Orange | $1,000
Hand-dyed cotton
31″ x 31″
Artist Statement: Over 25 years ago military supplies depot workers found me in rural China and I was given the name Qiū lián, which in English translates as ‘Autumn Lotus’. Though no one addresses me by this name and hasn’t addressed me by this name for 25 years, the name always floats in my mind. ‘Autumn Lotus’ carries weight, as a lotus can be a symbol of perseverance, strength, and life. A single lotus seed can lie dormant in the depths of a muddy riverbed for hundreds, even thousands of years, and one day germinate and grow. What seeds lie within me and are pushing to the surface? My embroideries are stitched portraits, stories stabbed into cloth, offering memories and reflections. Inspired by relationships and mundane and dramatic moments in my life, I recreate these raw and personal moments that touch upon a myriad of emotions in the semi-abstract form. A few years ago, I began collecting orange items. What began as an unconscious choice evolved into an intentional affinity for a color that described the life I wanted and the attitudes I wish came easily. As the little orange items and accessories grew in number, I became more acutely aware of deep-seated feelings of insecurity and doubt. The orange splashes of color stood for confidence and energy; small acts of defiance against these intrusive worries. With ‘I Know Why My Favorite Color is Orange’ I escalate these small acts and loudly confront these negative feelings.
11
Samantha Taifi | It’s Complicated | NFS
Cast Kozo fiber
36″w x 48″h
Artist Statement: Working dimensionally, while exploring materials and techniques is an intuitive process. Sometimes the content is concept driven, other times it is material driven. I enjoy working with the human form, as well as organic forms and shapes. In working with these forms, I like to expand and challenge the idea of what is a textile.
12
Muriel Tillman | Fractured, Sometimes Broken | $230
Fabric, batik, couching, embroidery, quilting
23-3/4″ x 34-3/4″
Artist Statement: When creating this piece, I thought of the myriad ways in which women are viewed by society. We are expected to be flawlessly beautiful and groomed at all times, sexy and sexual to rival the most successful porn star, educated with a lucrative career, all the while maintaining an emaculate home with 2.5 well behaved and instructed children involved in not less than 3 extra curricular activities. All this according to the idea of the day. We are Fractured, Sometimes Broken from the pressure.
13
Katherine Stokes-Shafer | Abstract on Fire | $250
Photograph
21.5″ x 21.5″ framed
Artist Statement: I have been working on abstracting what I am seeing. I was walking beside a huge train enginein a train museum and there was a two inch slit at eye height where you could look into the engine’s interior. They had simulated coals. I took this close up including the rivets on the outside and had it printed on metal so it would show the vibrancy of the red coals. It is mounted floating above the mat.
14
Roger Benedetti | Video Mix | $800
Pigment based inkjet print
43″w x 23″h Framed
Artist Statement: Video Mix is a combination of video, TV imagery, cut-outs and multiple exposures on film. The resulting transparencies were scanned, digitally enhanced and printed using Ultrachrome pigment based inks. It represents a temporal mix of technologies-video and digital and the understanding of an art object created in and perceived through different points in time.
15
Bridgett Emerson | Marriage Bonds I | $190
Digital collage printed on metallic paper: 1/10, edition of 10+1AP
12″ x 18″ print, framed without mat
Artist Statement: The world is full of contrasts: beauty and decay, loss and growth, harshness and delicacy. In all of my art, I use a variety of techniques to create realistic, abstract, or dreamlike images that I hope evoke a response in the viewer, whether that be curiosity, awe, interest, connection, comfort, attraction, appreciation, knowing, resonance, disquiet, fear, discomfort, or revulsion. This work uses public domain art elements in digital collage to express the horrors experienced by a target of domestic violence as well as the contrast between what the public sees and what happens at home in secret. The woman’s hands are shackled by their matching wedding bands.
16
Darryl Finney | Good Boy | NFS
Cast resin, epoxy, and wood
8″ x 8″ x 10″
Artist Statement: My submitted work is titled “Good Boy”. It is somewhat whimsical take on domesticating nature, taking fierce looking microscopic organism (the Tartigrade) and putting it into a completely different environment as a “pet”. Where it is loyal and trained, and even has a favorite toy that is proudly presents to the viewer.
17
Elizabeth Prindle | Fascination | $250
Metal box, glass bottle stoppers, feathers
21.5″ x 22″
Artist Statement: My assemblage art explores birth and death, rites of passage, and social issues, as well my personal history. I primarily create in wood and metal materials I’ve collected from estate sales and flea markets. Old tools whose function is forgotten are a favorite starting point. Often the components guide me as the piece evolves. More than decorative objects, they are talismanic adornments for your environment. These mystical assemblages interact with the ambient light to cast shifting shadows inside the boxes themselves as well as projecting outward. My hope is that you will feel mystified, pulled in, and inexplicably intrigued as you, the viewer, free- associate with these collections of objects and attach meaning or stories to them, based on your own personal unconscious. Allow them to open conversations within yourself or with others.
18
Emily Zepp | Repetition | $350
Image transfers with acrylic paint
36″ x 48″
Artist Statement: Drawing on my Graphic Design background, I bring digital resources into the painted space through indirect transfer techniques that are altered by direct painting strategies. When choosing imagery I consider formal elements first, and the content follows. I translate imagery with Photoshop adjustments like monochromatic hue shifts and overlayed color gradients. The painted-on stenciled letterforms emphasize the divisions created by the tiled paper, obscure sections of the transfer, and contrast with the purer white of the paper.
19
Amber M McElreath | Starry, Starry Night | $250
Mixed media collage
7”w x 16”h x 1 3/4”d
Artist Statement: “Starry, Starry Night” is about the love of night. It is about sky gazing.
20
Jeanne Fashempour | Rust Belt Garden | $290
Encaustic mixed media
12” x 12”
Artist Statement: This piece is a tribute to the steel industry which at one time was a backbone of this area.
21
Samantha Taifi | Mosaic Form | NFS
Steel
18″ x 18″
Artist Statement: Working dimensionally, while exploring materials and techniques is an intuitive process. Sometimes the content is concept driven, other times it is material driven. I enjoy working with the human form, as well as organic forms and shapes. In working with these forms, I like to expand and challenge the idea of what is a textile.
22
Brice Miller | Mirrored Mirrors | NFS
Photography
12 1/4″ x 15 1/4″
Artist Statement: This piece was made using traditional photography means, using two negatives of the same image, the building being the Cleveland Clinic. I then overlayed one negative with the other being flipped, this made the image come out as this symmetrical and surreal building.
23
Charles FELZEN Johnson MD | Dvorak’s New World Symphony | $1,500
Wood, circuit boards, CD discs, acrylic paint, India ink on poster board on Masonite
26″ x 47″
Artist Statement: How does the “abstract” artist get inspired? The “realistic” artist, like a photographer may rely on scenes to duplicate or render. This abstract artist is inspired by aphorisms, the news, and scenes that lend themselves to be abstracted. The piece I am submitting was inspired by Dvorak’s New World Symphony. How does one move from an auditory experience to a static visual construction? Visual art can use the element of time and motion (To wit Disney’s Fantasia) for expression. In this 3D construction I used wood, metal, circuit boards and CDs to express a city of “the new world” and the “flow” of technology. The themes from the first two movements are shown on two scales with the notes presented as wooden rods.
24
April Cameron | Destination Unknown #1 | NFS
Graphite pencil
8” x 8”
Artist Statement: My unique pencil drawings are very freeing for me to make. They come straight from my imagination so I don’t need visual aids or sketches. Unlike my paintings, I can easily work on them outside my studio. I just design as they develop. Each drawing is a new challenge and that is refreshing to me.
25
April Cameron | Destination Unknown #2 | NFS
Graphite pencil
8” x 8”
Artist Statement: My unique pencil drawings are very freeing for me to make. They come straight from my imagination so I don’t need visual aids or sketches. Unlike my paintings, I can easily work on them outside my studio. I just design as they develop. Each drawing is a new challenge and that is refreshing to me.
26
Ellie Payne | Foundation of Stability | $150
Sterling silver
2″ x 2″
Artist Statement: As you slide the sterling band on your finger, the rigid composition becomes hidden. What the wearer now sees is an organic and natural shape floating atop of their hand. When does this not occur in the world? Never. There is always a structure behind what you look at, a skeleton, a blueprint. My question is what does my final form look like? Who will I become, what will I become? I have my blueprint here in my hand, now what?
27
Amiya Smoot | Warehouse | $700
Photo print collage, acrylic
5″ x 4″
Artist Statement: The subject matter for my paintings often includes architecture that appears distressed. I’m most interested in demolition at the moment. I always use my photography skills in areas that seem rundown or uninhabitable, so I can then collage these photographs while adding a mixture of mark-making, organic forms, and changing perspectives. The goal is to create as much chaos as possible, hoping to confuse the viewer. I strive to create stress-provoking and visually undesirable environments.
28
Gwen Waight | slingshot off my mortal coil | $1,200
Found object assemblage
26” x 23” x 8”
Artist Statement: This is an assemblage that addresses the all too common fear of death. In the time of pandemic where anxiety is high thoughts change from ‘shuffling’ off one’s mortal coil to being ‘slingshot’ off my mortal coil.
29
Madison McSweeney | Tongues | NFS
Oil on canvas
22″ x 28″
Artist Statement: I am currently interested in a brighter, more eye-catching palette of attractive reds, greens, and blues, which is meant to allure the viewer. Displays of juicy, wet-on-wet paint are used to create beautifully grotesque forms of meat and flesh. I was initially drawn to the tongue as a subject matter because of one too many horrendous and tongue-filled macking sessions that left me with an aversion toward tongues.
30
Care Hanson | Catch a Dream | $400
Acrylic on canvas
24”w x 36”h
Artist Statement: My left handed canvas ~ a bit of healing therapy, both physical and motivational. My non-dominant hand is familiar with the act of using a brush to loosen up a stiff painting. Here, the tables are turned ~ it was the painting’s role to loosen an injured & stubbornly stiff wrist. It was certainly an interesting exercise. The end result still feels (and looks) like ‘mine’ but the palette & rhythms are quite new. The painting speaks to me of journey; the road to wellness, rejuvenation & peace. Climbing that jagged ladder of effort and hope
31
Carol Klingel | Losing My Bite | $450
Oil on cavas
16″ x 20″
Artist Statement: Dreaming of losing teeth can mean one has difficulty expressing oneself; it can indicate a sense of powerlessness or vulnerability; it can also mean that one hasn’t been truthful with oneself. I used to have this dream frequently.
See the Summit Artspace exhibit schedule for show details.
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