Reconciliation | Group Exhibition
2nd Floor Gallery
Reconciliation is “the act of causing two people or groups to become friendly again after an argument or disagreement.” Multiple local artists explore the human need to thrive in an environment that accepts differences of opinion on polarizing topics and call for tolerance of all viewpoints.
Creative Call Forum Statement from the Artists
These expressions of the journey to reconciliation are as diverse and unique as each artist, and include artworks from regular Forum participants and four local artists by invitation.
We are inspired as a forum to express ourselves as a part of the greater Akron/Canton community, with the desire to build bridges of reconciliation for all.
About The Creative Call Forum
As a grass-roots forum of artists, we represent seekers committed to following the teachings of Jesus, who reached out to the societal rejects of his day: tax-collectors, prostitutes, lepers and homeless beggars— “others” often excluded from normal life. However, our living faith relationship is often portrayed as an intolerant religious code, the opposite of the unconditional love towards our fellow human beings which Jesus taught.
Forum participants openly debate how to visually communicate Jesus’ message of love and reconciliation to God and to each other in a way that has cross-cultural application.
Our monthly forum idea was born while local artists Linda Tompkin and Lynda Rimke were gallery sitting for one of the Kaleidoscope shows at Summit Artspace years ago. We have conducted a safe space for having these discussion meetings in Akron and Canton ever since.
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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.
Judith B. Carducci
Bio
Judith B. Carducci, PSA, PSS, ASA, has been listed in Who’s Who in American Art and has received international recognition for her painting and superb drawing, in portraiture, figure, still life, and plein air genres. Her work has won top honors – Best of Show, First Place, Award of Excellence, Award of Merit, Purchase Awards and People’s Choice – in national and international shows. It has been featured and published in many books and art journals, world wide.
Recognized as one of America’s best portraitists, she is a Founding Member, Board Member, and faculty member of the Portrait Society of America, and served for 15 years as the first and only Chair of the Society’s Cecilia Beaux Forum dedicated to strengthening the role of women artists. Having herself experienced and conquered the career interruptions and late starts so often faced by women, and having taught for decades in continental America and Puerto Rico, Europe, South Africa and Australia, she is a role model and mentor to artists worldwide.
22- Judith B. Carducci | Sylett | $3,000
Shannon Casey
Bio
A graduate of Stow High School, Shannon Casey received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and minored in Studio Art at Kent State University. She studied portrait painting with Joseph Cintron at the Cleveland Institute of Art for several years as a non-degree student. Once an advertising copywriter, Casey now tells her stories in oil and charcoal.
Her artwork has been included in local exhibitions and juried shows in Northeast Ohio including at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, the Cleveland Botanical Garden, Peg’s Gallery at the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation and Summit ArtSpace. Casey was one of the founders of Uncommon ART in Hudson and helped coordinate the Hudson Art Hop series. Visit her online at www.shannoncaseystudio.com or by chance at her studio at 70 West Streetsboro Street, Hudson.
Statement
I enjoy creating figurative paintings and drawings that tell a story and I’m inspired by the night sky. I imagine Copernicus in a star-chart sweater, a procession of constellations, and scores of whimsical moons. My work reflects some of the individual stories of the heavens as drawn from mythology, the Bible and my imagination. Central to my artwork is Psalm 19, “The Heavens declare the glory of God.”
I work primarily in oils and enhance my paintings with mixed media like gold and silver leaf and sheet music. Family, friends and imaginary characters become part of my work. Some compositions are complete and I just put them on canvas or paper. Others are worked and reworked, revealing themselves over time.
4- Shannon Casey | Number the Stars: For Uvalde and Parkland | $375
Originally, this painting was called, “17 Stars: In remembrance of the students at Parkland.” But with the most recent school massacre, I felt compelled to remember the 19 students and two teachers who lost their lives at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. I used different levels to show the progression: from the innocence of childhood, to souls taking flight, and finally, peace, with the most recent arrivals nearest God’s open hand.
31- Shannon Casey | What the Angel Saw | $475
Fear. hope, disbelief — when the holy meets the ordinary, emotions are laid bare. When the women visited the place where Jesus lay after his crucifixion, they were met with an empty tomb … and a messenger of God.
46- Shannon Casey | Consider the Heavenlies | $525
Realizing that there is more to this life than what our eyes can see gives me perspective and keeps me looking heavenward to God for my hope and strength.
Judy Gaiser
Bio
Judy works primarily in oil on canvas. Always compelled to express herself visually, her paintings describe mythology, religion, dreams, and imagination as well as landscapes, still life, and figurative life studies. Judy sees her paintings as poetic expressions of her mental state.
Judy earned a Bachelor of Arts from Capital University and a Master of Studio Arts from Case Western Reserve and the Cleveland Institute of Art. She is a retired high school Art, English, and Theater Arts teacher.
Judy’s work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and shows where she has earned a variety of awards including the National Art Education Teacher/Artist Award (1993) through the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Fellowship. She is a founding member of The Group Ten Gallery Artists, and Emeritus member of the Akron Society of Artists.
Statement
5- Judy Gaiser | THE COVER UP | $1,800
I think of my works as poetic expressions of my mental state. Art is an outlet for my emotions and observations. I create the majority of my compositions in my mind and others are based on the manipulation of reality.
35- Judy Gaiser | THE WEDDING FEAST | $600
Some of my works are portrait studies of friends, models, and commissions. Others are based on mythology, still life, dreams and imagination. I have always felt compelled to express myself visually regardless of the potential for sales. I think of my paintings as a poetic expression of my mental state.
Amanda Margaretha
Bio
Having moved from Arizona, Amanda is now, an Ohio based installation artist. She holds a bachelors degree in Visual Art from the University of South Africa, where she is originally from. She first conceived the idea of making ephemeral installations with spices while living in the Middle East. She collects & categorizes spices that reflect traditions, rituals, food and history. The spices act as metaphors for “Being.” Her work primarily deals with culture, diversity, personal and national identities.
Statement
47- Amanda Margaretha | One New Humanity | NFS
The installation piece illustrates how all cultures from the 4 corners of the earth, are each unique, beautiful and flow together to create a beautiful tapestry.
Each spice in the piece can be traced back to a certain place from where it originated. Each spice has a moment in time where it was discovered, and when it spread across the globe. Each spice had its own unique purpose and impact.
Where man went, spice travelled alongside it, whether it was in little bottles, stowed away in luggage, large bags on camel-backs or containers on freight ships. The spices are metaphors for people, cultures, and how it all flows together to create beautiful connections. The end result of the installed piece will give us God’s bird eye view of an intricate tapestry that is our human race.
Susan Mencini
Bio
Susan Mencini is a 1980 graduate of Cooper School of Art in Cleveland, Ohio, and studied at Kent State University.
In 2000 she became a volunteer and member of the Cuyahoga Valley Art Center on Front Street where she has taken numerous workshops and classes. She began teaching there in 2007 and currently teaches an acrylic mentoring class for more advanced students, an fluid acrylics like watercolors class and an experimental acrylic and design class. In the fall of 2021, she began her sixteenth year as the Artist in Residence at Cornerstone Community School in Tallmadge where she teaches over 100 students, kindergarten through fifth grade.
In college, Susan’s major was Printmaking and she has incorporated some of its processes into her paintings. She primarily uses acrylics, with a transparent watercolor application.
Susan designed the postcard art for the annual Kaleidoscope Show held at Summit ArtSpace in Akron, Ohio, in 2006. She also had two paintings in the show, one receiving an Honorable Mention. In 2016 she won the coveted handmade glass Kaleidoscope via popular vote. She has won numerous awards in various shows at Cuyahoga Valley Art Center and in 2008 received a First Place for a body of work in the Artists of the Rubber City annual show.
Susan is a member of Cuyahoga Valley Art Center, Artists of Rubber City, Ohio Collage Society and an associate member in the Ohio Watercolor Society with a goal towards signature membership.
Statement
25- Susan Mencini | Who is in Your Circle? | $500
A series I go back to now and again is one on redemption, specifically what I call the colors of redemption. This concept is born out of a simple wordless children’s book used to tell the biblical story of redemption. Black represents sin, red His blood shed for us that makes us white as snow. Gold speaks of heaven and green where we will live forever if we believe in Him. In life we are redeemed from many things, whether it is a past and its mistakes or presently what we are living out.
Who is in Your Circle was started a while ago and resolved during the pandemic, while isolated away from others. Redemption colors are present. Do we allow others in, even tell them of Him or is it a realization that we are truly never alone with Him?
41- Susan Mencini | Edge of Redemption | $350
A series I go back to now and again is one on redemption, specifically what I call the colors of redemption. This concept is born out of a simple wordless children’s book used to tell the biblical story of redemption. Black represents sin, red His blood shed for us that makes us white as snow. Gold speaks of heaven and green where we will live forever if we believe in Him. In life we are redeemed from many things, whether it is a past and its mistakes or presently what we are living out.
In the piece Edge of Redemption, the colors represent a chasm with a figure on the edge of it. Is it ourselves or is it Him waiting for us?
Ja Miller
Bio
Hawaii-born Ja Miller is a Korean-American abstract expressionist and filmmaker, who has lived in Akron since 2003. Abstract expressionists Gerhard Richter, Jason Craighead, and Ty Nathan Clark have strongly influenced him, as well as street artists, Blek Le Rat and Shepard Fairey, and filmmakers, Jim Jarmusch and Sophia Coppola. Music plays a big role in inspiring Ja’s art and he considers mewithoutYou, Comrades, Tina Boonstra, and Sonic Youth particularly influential. Ja’s films have been accepted into Flickerings Film Festival, Highland Square Film Festival, and The Akron Art Prize Film Festival. His paintings have been accepted into a number of past Summit Art Space’s Fresh Art Exhibitions. Professionally, Ja is a filmmaker, photographer, and graphic designer. He studied photography and graphic design at Indiana Wesleyan’s School of Art.
Statement
10- Ja Miller | Lamentation (Violet’s Song) | NFS
When Violet experiences a significant loss in her life, she discovers that grieving can be a long and lonely journey (one that some say is fundamental to maturing our trust or our faith). In trying to move forward through the suffering, Violet asks some very hard questions and then waits for answers that may never come.
18- Ja Miller | Like a Scratch Across a Lens Made Everything Look Wrong from Anywhere We Stood (Can You Pull Me Off the Floor Again?) | NFS
“Like a Scratch Across a Lens Made Everything Look Wrong from Anywhere We Stood (Can You Pull Me Off the Floor Again?)” is an abstract expressionist work that explores the tension that exists when we find ourselves living in the grey space between hope and despair.
I have suffered from chronic nerve pain for over 16 years of my life, and there’s still no end in sight. As such, almost every painting I create contains little fragments of that story within it. I’m aware of that when I’m painting, but I’m also aware of the reality that everyone has their own experience of suffering and pain and loss. And while we all feel and respond to those moments in unique ways, I do think that one thing that sort of knits all of our personal strands of sorrow together is the long and costly search for bravery as we try and reconcile our hopes (that our suffering will end) with our despairing circumstances (that strongly suggest otherwise).
On the one hand, this piece functions as a sort of personal lament. On the other, I hope that it also reflects back to the viewer in a way that allows them to discover a bit of newness and meaning within their own story.
My work is heavily influenced and inspired by music. This piece contains many moments and thoughts from Tina Boonstra’s song, “Second Chance.” It also was inspired by mewithoutYou’s “Messes of Men,” “Goodbye, I!” and “Wolf Am I! (and Shadow).”
19- Ja Miller | Watching Sink the Heavy Ship of Everything We Knew (Try it Out Until You Believe) | NFS
“Watching Sink the Heavy Ship of Everything We Knew (Try it Out Until You Believe),” is an abstract expressionist work that was produced as a response to the song “City of Doubt,” by Tina Boonstra.
How do you reconcile your fear with your faith? How do you maintain hope when there’s no evidence of it? And how do you find courage when there’s a thousand more reasons to be afraid? It’s extremely hard to be brave when we perceive an absence of hope.
What I’ve found is that sometimes (or maybe it’s often), a song or an artwork or a film is the only thing that can provide bravery to non-heroic people like myself. The music and lyrics become a way forward through those dark moments when life is left disoriented by suffering.
This painting exists because a song led me to discover a little more hope and bravery as I face my own battles in life. In a similar way, I hope that the artwork can lead its viewers to discover a bit more courage and confidence as they navigate their way forward through their own doubts, and pain, and loss too. Hope is often silent, but She’s never not right by your side.
My work is heavily influenced and inspired by music. This piece was created in response to Tina Boonstra’s song, “City of Doubt.” It was also inspired by mewithoutYou’s “Messes of Men,” “I Never said that I was Brave,” and “The Sun and the Moon.”
Linda Miller
Statement
34- Linda Miller | Life is in the Blood | NFS prints available
Acrylic and tissue paper collage on discarded wooden for sale sign. The colors are representational. Red stands for the shed blood of Christ. Green for the new life He offers the world.
43- Linda Miller | Tree of Life | $750
Discarded surgical gloves covered in tissue paper, acrylics, and oil pastels.
The tree of life stands as a symbol of God’s Life giving presence and the fullness of eternal life available in God.
Scott Miller
Statement
16- Scott Miller | A Place of Prayer | $325
To pray for unity in the face of discord is not an attempt to overcome God’s Reluctance. It is seeking and laying hold of His highest will.
20- Scott Miller | The Harmony of Science and Faith | $175
“Those who speak of the incompatibility of science and religion either make science say that which it never said or make religion say that which it never taught” – Pope Pius XI
Lynda Rimke
Bio
Art has always taken on some form throughout Lynda’s life, from early award winning creations with poster paint in elementary school, through a degree in fine art at Kent State University.
During a twenty-year painting hiatus, Lynda pursued graphic design and painted with plants in her garden creations. Drawing remained Lynda’s primary concern, because excellent drawing and good composition are fundamental requirements for painting.
She began seriously painting again and fell in love with watercolor in 2004, a love that has remained. She has added pastel, and enjoys the challenge of watercolor and pastel in mixed media.
Lynda enjoys painting portraits, the human figure, and landscapes “en plein air” (on location) capturing shifting light and atmosphere.
Lynda surmises “As the digital design world grows more and more complicated, I long for the simplicity of paper and canvas.”
Statement
2- Lynda Rimke | 39 Lashes | $500
As I began to imagine the many journeys from alienation and suffering to reconciliation and restoration, the initial focus on all the evils done to human beings completely overwhelmed me, until I recalled the the foretelling of messianic pain and rescue written in Isaiah 53:
“Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed.”
For Good Friday 2015, I created Station III, where Jesus is flogged by the Roman soldiers, then dressed with a scarlet robe and a crown of thorns before his is crucified. I turned to photographs of the Shroud of Turin, because the image is a man who was flogged, crucified and pierced in his side. I chose to depict his back, but in truth, the lashes landed all over this man’s body.
DNA was embedded from a thorn bush native to Palestine, so I included images showing the thorns and type of crown typically woven in 33 A.D. — a full cap, and not the circlet often depicted in art.
Jesus taught “Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.” The process of depicting Jesus’ unjust condemnation and brutal humiliation with photographic imagery brought me closer to the historic reality of his teaching and his sacrifice on our behalf.
7- Lynda Rimke | Flight from Ukraine | $500
How could a “Reconciliation” show not include the outrage occurring in Ukraine? As an artist whose husband’s grandparents emigrated from Galicia to escape starvation and poverty in 1900, I wanted to paint something other than the sunflowers every other artist started painting after the Russian invasion. I began with the blue sky and yellow wheat fields of the flag, and added the national symbol, the Tryzub, which some theorize is not of a trident (Ukraine is land-locked) or of a diving non-native falcon, but of a native swan beginning to take flight. These swans are leaving the red chaos of death and ravished skies as refugees. On each swan I have written the grandparents’ surnames in Ukrainian, and added four wheat stalks to represent the children they later bore in Cleveland, Ohio. Their story gives me hope.
40- Lynda Rimke | The Colors of Relating | $1,000
The Akron Society of Artists hosted a live model session on the third floor of Summit ArtSpace during one of the 2009 Saturday evening Akron ArtWalks. I recall the evening sun backlighting these two close friends, who never stopped talking, in spite of feedback from several artists who wanted them to hold still! These two were fully there for one another and no one else the entire two hours … inspiring! George Danhires once told me that painting two models is not twice as hard but ten times more difficult, however these two must have set me on fire! The drawing was fresh, energetic and fully finished when the time was over.
I did not like how I created his hair, and the drawing was closeted for 12 years until the pandemic, when I had time to “fix” things. When framed with his new “haircut” and taken to an ASA critique, I was pleasantly surprised how many fellow members were enamored by the genuine camaraderie I had quickly and throughly captured.
Isn’t this the kind of relating we all long for, with nothing held back? To simply enjoy one another’s company for endless hours?
Rick Thompson
Bio
Rick graduated from the art institute of Pittsburgh in 1977. He worked as an art director in the Akron /Canton area from 1977 thru 1991. In 1991 Rick started Thompson Target Inc. , a company that designs and markets products for the shooting sports. In 2016 Rick became involved with an artist support Group called “The Creative Call Forum”. Meeting regularly with other artists from the area has helped to challenge and develop my art and creativity. “Thanks Guys”
1- Rick Thompson | ME! or WE? | NFS
6- Rick Thompson | Stamped Out | NFS
8- Rick Thompson | Standing in the Way of WE | NFS
11- Rick Thompson | Capital Loss | NFS
12- Rick Thompson | Me Monsters | NFS
17- Rick Thompson | Outside the Box | NFS
24- Rick Thompson | Great Minds think alike – Great Hearts think together | NFS
26- Rick Thompson | I’ve Changed my mind | NFS
28- Rick Thompson | Hear Him | NFS
30- Rick Thompson | Bottom’s Up | NFS
36- Rick Thompson | The Humble-Tumble | NFS
45- Rick Thompson | ME or WE | NFS
Linda Tompkin
Bio
Linda Tompkin is a realist painter working primarily in water based mediums, mostly acrylics. She is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society, and the Ohio Watercolor Society. She is a Prima Member of the Masterpiece Christian Fine Arts Foundation based in Oregon, and an elected member of the American Artists Professional League in New York. Locally she is an active member of the Akron Society of Artists and the Creative Call Forum. She has won many awards regionally and nationally and her work has been featured in many art magazines and books. Many of her spiritual paintings were started during worship services at St. Luke’s Anglican Church in Copley, Ohio. Having taught painting privately for over 25 years, she no longer is offering classes, but she spends all her free time creating new works of art in her beautifully restored Victorian barn in Copley.
Statement
3- Linda Tompkin | Shattered | $2,400
“Shattered” is all about a heart wrenching reaction to personal trauma. It is about despair and loss of vision. The shattered vessel symbolizes a totally broken spirit, the black knotted scarf symbolizes a stomach tied in knots, the tangled ribbons symbolizing a scattered rainbow represent loss of hope, no longer believing better times lie ahead.
14- Linda Tompkin | Elephant in the Room II | $2,100
“Elephant in the Room II” is about resolution. Something has created an uncomfortable situation which has created a barrier between two people or groups of people. The patterned fabrics represent the existing unrest. Is reconciliation in the air? Maybe. A window of opportunity is presented as a background for the unfolding drama. A pocket watch indicates that a time for conversation has come. An invitation for a resolution has apparently been extended and the “elephant” has entered the room. Two mugs have been prepared for the meeting. A candle representing enlightenment has been lit. A butterfly has landed near by representing transition and a sign of upcoming change or a new direction. The peace lily is included to suggest that, hopefully, there will be a successful resolution.
32- Linda Tompkin | Father of Compassion | NFS
The following scripture came to my mind when I noticed a wounded butterfly in my yard. I had been asked to paint before our congregation the following Sunday and I felt that this butterfly with a torn wing was an answer to my prayer for an idea of what to
paint that could bring a blessing. I envisioned God’s hand reaching down to care for it in its wounded condition.
2 Corinthians 1:3 tells us that God is a Father of tender mercy and God of endless comfort who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. He is always near and there to help us rise above life’s difficulties.
44- Linda Tompkin | Vessel of Light | NFS
“Vessel of Light” shows heavenly light flowing into a cracked vessel. It could be said that, in a way, each of us is a cracked vessel. With God’s love and power flowing into and through us we can bring life and light to the people He puts into our path.
Isaiah 49.6
Julie Yoho
Bio
I work mainly in soft pastels but use other media as well. My main inspiration is from creation. I have been drawing and painting from a young age and have a B.F.A. from the University of Akron in Drawing.
Statement
21- Julie Yoho | Joseph’s Cup | $399
As a young man, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. Years later he uses his silver cup, a symbol of his power and place in Egypt, to facilitate reconciliation between his older brothers, his father Jacob and the younger brother whom he has just met, Benjamin. There is a lot of drama and mystery in this narrative. It is a beautiful story of grace, humility, and reconciliation where you think none could exist, except for faith.
27- Julie Yoho | Once and for All | $499
In the law of the Old Testament, a scapegoat was chosen to take away the sins of the people. The priest would tie a scarlet cloth on the horn of the goat and send him into the wilderness. In the New Testament, it is revealed that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, once and for all. The scapegoat was not enough. In this painting are two sheep: the Lamb of God and his people, the church. The church can rest securely beside him because he has reconciled her to himself.
33- Julie Yoho | Altering | $499
This plant was able to survive its rocky, dry environment because it sent its roots deep into the reality of its circumstances. The flowers did not have to become something else. They reconciled themselves to becoming better daisies who thrived.
37- Julie Yoho | Thrumming Light | $599
This pictures the time of day when light mixes with darkness and an estuary where fresh water mingles with salt water. This environment creates a place for unique grasses and oysters to live in the marsh. These distinctive mergings are acts of reconciliation within creation.
Ransel Yoho
Bio
I am a retired IT guy with a great appreciation for the art of photography.
13- Ransel Yoho | Frozen | $350
15- Ransel Yoho | Reaching | $350
38- Ransel Yoho | Reunited | $350
42- Ransel Yoho | Luminous | $350
See the Summit Artspace exhibit schedule for show details.
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