2019 Past Community Artist Spotlight Space Exhibitions

Habitual: Prints by Sarah B. Shallbetter

Habitual: Prints by Sarah B. Shallbetter

October 10, 2019

In this series of linoleum prints, I represent elements of unremarkable daily life imbued with amusing and quirky thoughts. While I employ drawing materials to assist in sketching out final resolve, I work primarily in printmaking because it allows me to construct an image through gradual and varied steps. Each step brings unexpected results. The most important thing is the recording of what the hand leaves behind.

My creative process is initially driven by a fascination with a particular object or idea. I work physically, carving the linoleum like a sculptor. I carve things down to their most essential parts. In several works the matrix is completely destroyed and leaves only one unique image representing permanence. Although these relief prints have been the main focus of my recent work, I am influenced by my relationship to the process and the domestic setting in which I create the work.

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Into the Woods: Paintings by Susan Mallory Sherman

Into the Woods: Paintings by Susan Mallory Sherman

April 04, 2019

April 4 – May 4, 2019

Reception: Thursday, April 4, 6 – 8 pm

Hours: Monday – Friday, 3 pm – 6 pm

The work in this show explores the relationship of forest to non-forest: I am drawn by those intersititial places where forest shades into glade, field, or meadow; as well as those dramatic places when suddenly the woods you’ve been climbing through open up into a view of the wider world. Some people look at such a view and say “ah” or pull out a camera; I have always been compelled to draw and paint what I see. By following paths around and through woods with pencil and paint, I find the hidden order within the forest landscape. Figures embedded in the pictures act as way-finders, showing the viewer paths into the woods where they can make their own stories.

Plain air studies and drawings are the base for oil paintings finished in the studio. Painting in the studio gives me the time and space to consider the push-pull of three- dimensional reality against the picture plane to capture the truths and ambiguities of the subject.

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