Vista Studios @25: New and Collaborative Work
Nov 12-29, 2015
Opening Reception: November 12th, 5-9pm
With the 2nd opening on the 19th, night of Vista Lights, 5-9pm
VS@25 Resident Artist Statements
Laurie McIntosh
“New Nest. Empty Nest.”
“Pages” Series
30 x 30
mixed media
Vista Studio’s resident artist, Laurie McIntosh, collaborated with local, Columbia novelist, Jodie Cain Smith, to create the mixed media piece “New Nest. Empty Nest.” This piece addresses the the different stages in their motherhoods. Smith, whose prose is displayed in each page panel, is discovering life as a new mother to her infant son, Bay, while McIntosh is learning to live within her newly emptied nest since her youngest son, Ike, left for college. McIntosh responds to this new place in her life by creating paintings using multi layered calligraphic marks and grounds, that are then deconstructed into smaller panels and reassembled and bound to create new visual relationships between the panels.
Stephen Chesley
“Time and the moment of things, the only thing that does not change is that everything changes and this too is the nature of the timeless keeper of the history of the universe, the oceans."
Growing up in Virginia Beach, where I could see the ocean from my window, has remained with me as a romantic, nostalgic, and reverent love of ocean paintings.”
Sharon Collings Licata
Sharon Collings Licata of Vista Studios is partnering with the band, Sunshine Delusions to create a series of sound and stone sculpture installations. These works will feature a stone sculpture paired with a musical interlude to envelope the viewer in a more complete experience. The first of these works will be a collaboration of one of Sharon’s Utah Alabaster pieces “Wave” with the song “Sriracha”. (currently featured on WUSC FM)
SUNSHINE DELUSIONS consists of Bruce Clark (guitar, vocals, bass & drums, composed the song ‘Sriracha’ and engineered the recording. Leslie C. Gilroy is backing vocalist, along with Fran Cardwell on backing vocals and percussion. William Glenn Christopher plays keyboards and the quartet play 60’s and beyond, novelty and fun songs! The band is about positivity, and maintaining a sense of humor in spite of obstacles.
Pat Gilmartin
Pat Gilmartin is looking forward to showing her new work in a new medium: fused glass. Although known for her terra cotta sculptures, Pat has now branched out to create functional and non-functional pieces in fused glass. Be sure to see her large selection of sun-catchers, priced for gifting.
Robert Kennedy
My introduction to art was my teacher, Gil Petroff, a wonderful watercolor painter who used a “wet on wet” approach to his landscapes.I continued to use watercolors until many years later I was able to rent a studio at 808 Lady Street and ventured into acrylic paints. My daughter, WayWay, was a studio art major in college and has been working in abstract watercolors and acrylics on paper or wood panels. I have recently been using watercolors again in an abstract form to depict the human figure so my daughter and I are walking the same path in art. I don't know if it is possible to pass a gene for the love of art, but it seems that I have done so in my daughter.
Eileen Blyth
I am collaborating with Blyth Allan Webb, a second grader from Logan Elementary.
At the start of this collaboration I thought Blyth was going to remind me how to approach my work with childlike wonder. I was surprised that at the age of almost 8, she was already losing that free from self expression. She is skilled at drawing and is intent on making images of the pictures in her head. This is a good thing. She is a dedicated practitioner.
I didn’t go into this with the idea of teaching her, I wanted her to be the teacher. She has been able to push through and regain some of that expressive wonder and recognize the difference. In the end we have taught each other.
Kirkland Smith
Kirkland Smith will collaborate with the artist who has been her greatest cheerleader and critique-giver over all the years she has been creating art- her mother, Martha Thomas. Martha has been painting portraits for over 35 years and the two collaborated on a mural in 2008 at the Columbia Museum of Art. They enjoyed working together so much that they plan to paint together again, this time a diptych which reveals their individuality as well as what they share in common.
Heidi Darr-Hope
In keeping with the theme of my current series of work, I decided to go Out On A Limb and ask my 3 year old grandson to be my collaborator for this exhibit.
I have been creating art for over 40 years and he is just beginning. Of course, he has had the preschool kind of art but not a real studio experience and he wants nothing to do with Crayons. Instead, he prefers all things that his Nana uses.
We have been playing with wide markers and thick graphite pencils, drawing fast lines, slow lines, thick curvy lines, quiet lines and very loud lines. We laugh and giggle at the shapes that our lines create and many times are very serious about what shows up on the paper. I love to watch as he loads the wide bristled brushes with paint and with focused attention glides the brush across the paper hesitating a bit as the color bumps into his drawn lines and shapes. He has been playing with painting on his drawings, and drawing on his paintings.
Creating for the joy of it, the two of us just getting lost in the process and seeing where it leads. Hope you will come and see where we end up.
Laura Spong
In addition to new work Laura Spong has an installation called Past, Present and Future that incorporates a work from the 50s, a present work,and a collaboration with a Clark Ellefson robot.
David Yaghjian
David and Ellen Yaghjian may or may not collaborate, but they will have work representing their proximity and subtle (or not so subtle) influence on one another in the VS@25 show.
Michel McNinch
I decided to invite two of my studio students to show their work in our show, because they are part of South Carolina’s future in the arts. Ellyse Bendillo and Lily Jenkinson are both strong, smart artists. Both graduated from the S.C. Governor’s School of the Arts and now attend college pursuing their artistic aspirations. For my part of the exhibit, I painted each girl trying reflecting something of their personality. They both hold a very special place in my heart, and I am delighted that this opportunity arose for us to show together.
"Chilly in Philly," 12x12, oil (Ellyse)
"Crowned," 12x12, oil (Lily)
