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SUMMARY:Super Natural PEGGY JOHNSTON & VERA SCEKIC
DESCRIPTION:LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY (STREET LEVEL) \nPeggy Johnston\nArtist Statement\nMy love of paper made it almost inevitable that I would discover the book arts. Since crafting my first books 30 years ago\, I have explored bookmaking as an art as well as a craft. \nI love to be surprised by my work (and usually am). Often\, materials that I have collected inspire a piece. What would happen if I sewed a few hundred slide mounts together? How about coffee filters or heat warped polyester? Pine needles? Beads? Bicycle spokes? I just need to find out. \nI don’t always know what is going to happen when I start a work. As often as not\, an organic form emerges. I often say that I am not in control of my art. It controls me. I name my forms after they are completed\, frequently flipping through a pictorial dictionary until I spot something that resembles the sculpture. Other times\, I make up faux Latin names. \nAbout Peggy Johnston (Artist Bio)\nI graduated from the University of Wyoming with a double degree in Art and Education. Since then\, I have continued my studies in painting\, printing and the book arts. I’ve taught book art workshops in Oregon\, Colorado\, Wyoming\, Connecticut\, and Iowa\, and have studied with leading book artists across the nation. \nLocally\, I’m a busy artist. In addition to my own work\, I teach at the Des Moines Art Center. I have also taught in the public schools as a visiting artist\, working with k-12 students. Other opportunities have allowed me to teach at the University of Northern Iowa\, Iowa State University\, Simpson College\, Central College\, and Drake University. Occasionally\, I speak to local groups about my work and the book arts\, and conduct seminars for graphic designers and art directors. \nI was instrumental in the founding of The Prairie Book Collaborative\, a group dedicated to the book in all its forms. The group produced three books before disbanding in 2012. (A copy of each one is held in the special collections at the University of Iowa library.) My work is in public and private collections nationally and internationally. I frequently exhibit my work in local and national exhibitions. To date\, my work is included in twelve special collections around the country\, including the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington\, D.C. \nVisit Waveland Studio for more info about Peggy Johnston. \nVera Scekic\nArtist Statement\n“For the first time in all time a living creature understands its origin and can undertake to design its future.” \n-Robert Sinsheimer\, as quoted in A Crack in Creation \nMy art practice originates from an abiding interest in the life sciences and an ethos that combines chance occurrences with a systematic approach. It is an analog response to recent developments (such as CRISPR) that have enabled alterations to mammalian genomes and\nraised profound questions about human identity. Adopting the cell—life’s building block—as metaphor and armature\, I treat paint as if it were an organism\, exploring its material\, chromatic  and formal properties through a biological lens. \nI generate membranes of paint by mixing it with various thinning agents and pouring the viscous fluid on polyester and ceramic substrates. When dry\, the membranes are peeled\, cut\, spliced\, layered\, abraded and adhered to wood and canvas\, producing naturally unnatural\nhybrid forms that merge the manufactured and organic. \nThe process of creating the paint skins is repeated—frequently on top of existing pours—to mimic the cycle of growth\, repair and degeneration. Gravity is the sole constant in the production process\, underscoring the centrality of entropy and the tension inherent in a living system’s efforts to keep it at bay. Phagocytosis also comes into play as paint skins from earlier (disassembled) works are recycled and integrated into new cells. Framing the tattered\, abraded and misshapen cells within “perfect” circles and rectangles magnifies the relationship between precision and irregularity\, which animates all my projects. \nThe methodology guiding each work is time-intensive and multi-step\, incorporating at certain stages the “gestures” of the lab while inviting extended inquiry into the nature of paint. The surface is a record of my negotiations between opacity and translucency\, flatness and\ndimensionality\, expansion and containment\, chance and control. At the project’s core lies my argument: that painting remains relevant in a digital era\, and its ability to reflect essential questions about human experience and identity endures. \nAbout Vera Scekic (Artist Bio)\nVera Scekic lives and works in Racine\, Wisconsin. She has exhibited her paintings\, drawings and installations at art centers\, galleries and museums throughout the U.S. Recent solo and small group exhibitions include: Art Reflects Science (Prairie State College\, Chicago Heights\, IL)\, Twilight (Fitton Center\, Hamilton\, OH)\, Naturally Unnatural (Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center\, Birmingham\, MI) and Polymorphous Microtecture (Beverly Arts Center\, Chicago\, IL.) Scekic is a founding member of ArtRoot\, a grassroots initiative to revitalize the city of Racine by building arts infrastructure\, fostering connections and facilitating collaborations. Scekic is also the co-\nfounder and director of OS Projects\, a contemporary art gallery located in downtown Racine. \nVisit Vera Scekic’s website for more information. \n 
URL:https://octagonarts.org/event/super-natural-peggy-johnston-vera-scekic/
LOCATION:Octagon Center for the Arts\, 427 Douglas Avenue\, Ames\, IA\, 50010\, United States
CATEGORIES:Exhibits
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DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201010
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SUMMARY:Wax Cathedral KAT SILENT WATER
DESCRIPTION:LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY\n \nKat Silent Water is a printmaker based out of Ankeny\, Iowa\, working in woodblock and linoleum relief since 2014. She recently embraced the alchemical properties of encaustic painting in her latest body of work\, ‘Wax Cathedral’. Silent Water’s inspiration has taken root in Art Nouveau’s celebration of organic forms and cultural anthropology. \n \n\nSilent Water earned a Bachelor of Arts in Art and Visual Culture from Iowa State University in 2015\, with an emphasis in printmaking and painting. Her work has been exhibited across the state of Iowa and St. Louis\, Missouri\, in national group exhibitions. She also painted a Mural for the University of Colorado Boulder\, College of Music. \n\nAbout Kat’s Artwork: Wax Cathedral is a glance into a world we have yet to visit; the bee hive. The body of artwork celebrates the sisterhood and hard work of honey bees in North America. Capturing their sainthood of agriculture and modern struggles against incursion\nof mites\, fungi and disease with beekeepers as watchful guardians of the hive. \n \n\nCathedrals are seen as hallowed ground. When individuals walk through the threshold of the sanctuary\, they are transported to a safe place of spiritual solace. Cathedrals embellish every detail in their interior\, allowing daily worries and hardships to dissipate. It creates an unworldly and beautiful place\, as though you were in heaven itself. \n\n\nJust as these spiritual institutions are maintained amongst a community of like-minded individuals\, so is the hive of the honey bees. The unique fortress is founded on hard work and communication. It serves as an escape from the plague of predators and treachery. The worker bees build their interior with careful yet creative consideration. \n\n\nThe resilience shown in both the honey bees and beekeeper community have been the foundation of my artistic inspiration Although the enemies of mites\, fungi and disease threaten the bee’s hallowed sanctuary\, the beekeepers find ways to repair and mend\nthese colonies with research and patience. \n\n\nMaking the art beekeeping even more valued just like Kintsugi\, the Japanese art of repairing and beautification of broken objects. \n\nhttp://www.orthruspress.com/
URL:https://octagonarts.org/event/wax-cathedral-kat-silent-water/
LOCATION:Octagon Center for the Arts\, 427 Douglas Avenue\, Ames\, IA\, 50010\, United States
CATEGORIES:Exhibits
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SUMMARY:Southwest Visions TERRY BRIGMAN
DESCRIPTION:LOCATED IN THE COMMUNITY GALLERY\n \nAbout Terry Brigman: After graduating in 1970\, I went to work for a local company as a draftsman. In my spare time\, I painted\, sketched\, and created small pieces of artwork that I sold or gave away. Art and the creation of art has wound its way through my life for the next many decades. Four years later\, I left drafting and embarked on a career in the grocery business. The pay was substantially better\, and I was able to complete some art pieces on the side. I took some classes at the local college and joined the Foothills Art Center in Golden\, Colorado where I later went on to be a part of their “Shows on Loan”\nprogram. Being part of that program\, I became responsible for a one-person show at various government buildings\, offices\, non-profits\, and private companies for one to two months at a time. During this time\, I left the grocery business and went to work for the local utility company in Denver. In 1979\, I moved to Phoenix\, Arizona and joined the local artist guild. After a while\, I decided to broaden my field\, and possibly income\, so I went back to school and got a degree in graphic design. \n\nOver the next several years\, I started my own graphic design business\, got married\, had two kids\, and still found time to do my fine art. I created paintings\, portraits\, and a line of teeshirts. In 1994\, we moved to Des Moines\, Iowa. My art work slowed to a crawl between\nmany different jobs. The kids grew up and moved away. As my wife moved further into her career\, I kept busy with writing. I had always written poetry\, but one day I got an idea for a story. Eventually my writing became an obsession and my painting took a hiatus. I\npublished one book\, another followed as well as a half-dozen short stories. Since that time\, my writing has faded\, and I now paint more than I have in years. My artwork has been accepted into the Iowa State Fair for five years\, and I received an honorable mention in\n2017. I have also shown my work at the Octagon\, in the All Media Show\, three times. \n\nAbout Terry’s Artwork: I have gone from duplicating and practicing with my artwork\, in an attempt to hone my abilities and further my career\, to starting a conversation with my audience. I feel that with my later work\, I have succeeded somewhat in trying to communicate a thought or strike up a conversation. My work became my voice for how I feel about the world around me and how I try to make sense of it all. This work can be large and bold or small and demure. At times\, it is bright and colorful; other times drab and stark. I try to fit the medium with the tone of the content\, so my work reflects a mix of\nmedia. The results are a point of view that I would like to share. \n\nThe few pieces I am showing\, here\, are just some of my Southwest themed work; a discussion on the landscape and the indigenous people as I perceive it in today’s world. One piece\, in particular a portrait of my uncle\, Blackie\, speaks of my heritage. He is half Osage and quarter Cherokee.
URL:https://octagonarts.org/event/southwest-visions-terry-brigman/
LOCATION:Octagon Center for the Arts\, 427 Douglas Avenue\, Ames\, IA\, 50010\, United States
CATEGORIES:Exhibits
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