Gallery 92 West / Fremont Area Art Association

“Larger Than Life” Art Quilts by FiberWorks

The quilts featured in the Tracy Gallery were made by 12 textile artists from the Lincoln and Omaha areas who are members of Fiber Works, a group from seven cities in eastern Nebraska who have hundreds of years of quilting experience between them. They have been working together for about eight years to expand their knowledge and push the boundaries of their creativity. They learn from, inspire and support each other in all sorts of fiber art endeavors. The group has capped its membership at 12 so it doesn’t outgrow monthly meetings at members’ homes where they explore new techniques.

These aren’t your great-grandmother’s quilts, but they are rooted in the precise seams and intricate designs of bedcovers sometimes drafted to hang as doors or room dividers in rude prairie dwellings during pioneer days. Quilting has long been a mainstay of self-sufficiency; homesteaders had to take advantage of all of their resources, yet they found ways to make recycled products beautiful. Today quilting isn’t as much about recycling, but has grown into an amazing art form, incorporating modern and traditional techniques. These quilts are destined to grace a gallery wall, not brighten a bedroom.

Stitches in art quilts are created with free-motion quilting. That means rather than stitching in a straight line, the fabric is moved around as it passes through the sewing machine to anchor the batting between the top and bottom layers. The design dictates the stitch pattern. The quilters and artists invite non-traditional quilting techniques and media, such as buttons, cheese cloth, dyed fabrics and photographs printed into the fabrics. Fiber Works members include: Jo Drueke, Sheila Green, Merrilee Hansen, Dorothy Heidemann-Nelson, Cynthia Levis, Karen Murphy, Roxann O’Hare, Lynne O’Rourke, Cindi Pape, Peg Pennell, Marilyn Rembolt and Pat Stava.

Hinds Gallery: “Beauty Everywhere” Julie Collins – Mixed Media

Gallery 92 West is pleased to introduce Omaha artist Julie Collins, in her first solo exhibit. Through photos, paintings, and sculptures, Collins’ art explores the beauty of the everyday, and indeed the everywhere.

She describes her artwork as “seeing, capturing, and noticing the magical beauty of the simple things in life. ”Often lost in the hustle and bustle of our busy lives, plain, honest joys are too easily overlooked. Collins contends those things are around and readily available for us every day–we just need reminding! She enjoys finding “the hidden shapes, the dance of color, and the subtle movements that when combined, create endless compositions.”

Photography is the constant as well as the inspiration for creativity in Julie Collins’ work. Her well-developed and keen eye for finding surprises through the lens has led her to explore those images in other media. Not merely copies of her photographs, her paintings and sculptures have become instead a rendering of the mood and emotions experienced at that time.

The journey turns inward. “Photography and painting are a meditation for me. These tools still my mind, outside noise, internal noise, fade unknowingly, until soon I am only able to see and feel beauty everywhere and in everything.”

LOFT ARTIST FOR JUNE: Sara Womsat (Mixed Media)

The Reception for the May Exhibits will be held Friday, June 2nd from 5:00-7:00pm

Face: The Icons of Presence

Jane Tan Creti’s interest in iconography was first inspired by her brother. In the 1960’s he wrote icons for the New Skete monastic community in Cambridge, New York. In 1999, after several years of independent study, Tan Creti attended her first icon writing workshop held at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The workshop was offered by Vladislav Andrejev, master iconographer and founder of The Prosopon School of Iconology. Jane continued taking workshops around the country and eventually began hosting her own workshops in Omaha. In 2006, Tan Creti attended a full cycle of master classes.

Jane Tan Creti’s work is framed within the Prosopon School of Iconology (with roots in the Byzantine – Russian tradition of icon painting); her works are 24 karat gold leaf on wood panels written with egg tempera (in which egg yolk serves as the binder, holding the pigments together). Egg tempera achieves a luminosity in the finished icon that is a signature of 14th century Russian Masters.

For Tan Creti, each work is an act of prayer, connecting the writer and recipient in the context of the spiritual mystery being depicted. While practicing her art, Tan Creti senses herself releasing a deeply seated light that she feels will flow from her work to the observer. For Tan Creti, iconography is both art and ministry. Jane Tan Creti continues to facilitate classes for The Prosopon School, write commisioned icons and host iconography classes in her own studio.

Hinds Gallery: Fremont Public Schools Select Show Grades 5-8

Gallery 92 West and the Fremont Public Schools welcome the Select Show of artwork from grades 5-8 inthe Hinds Gallery through May 14. The Art Teachers from Fremont Middle School and Johnson Crossing Academic Center have chosen works representing the highest achievements of our local middle school student artists.

On Sunday, May 7th from 2-3 pm, special Awards in both 2D and 3D categories will be announced for each grade level. Please join us in honoring these young artists!

The Reception for the May Exhibits will be held Friday, May 5th from 5:00-7:00pm

Fremont Public Schools K-12 Art

Creative works from the K-12 art students of Fremont Public Schools will be on display in the Tracy Gallery during March. This multi-media exhibit highlights Youth Art Month, a national celebration sponsored by the Council for Art Education, and happily supported by the Fremont Area Art Association.

The annual celebration emphasizes the value of art education for all children and encourages support for quality art programs. The program recognizes skills developed through visual arts experiences

unlike any other curriculum subjects, including:

• Problem Solving

• Creativity

• Observation

• Communication

Hinds Gallery: 44th Annual National AgWeek Posters

The Reception for the Ag Poster Exhibit will be held Saturday, March 18 from 1:00-3:00pm

The Paintings of Robin Zagurski

Robin Zagurski is an artist, therapist, and social worker living in Omaha, Nebraska. She beganpainting in 2009 after many years of attending tothe spirits of others and neglecting her own. She initially began working in acrylics, but now works extensively in wax mediums. She enjoys working in cold wax and oil paint for the sheer joy of smooshing paint around. Her works focus on the luminosity of color that can be brought out by the wax when applied to a paper surface. She has found that wax allows for a freedom of experimentation that she had not found in acrylics.

Zagurski’s art has been shown at the Encaustic Art Institute in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and at the Niza Knolls Gallery in Denver, Colorado. She has a studio at the Hot Shops in Omaha.

Hinds Gallery: Effects of PTSD Paintings by Elizabeth Boutin

In 2014, I allowed access to a chapter of my life which had been tucked away for years…

From 2003-2006 as a military spouse, one of the many places our family was stationed included Ramstein Air Base in Germany. In 2005 I had the honor of becoming an American Red Cross Volunteer for Landstuhl Regional Medical Center. I helped the nurses tend to our soldiers who were wounded during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom, it exposed me to the soldiers’ wounds, both external and internal. Each day I volunteered there were so many faces, so many stories, and so many wounds from too many soldiers. Using a journal helped me cope with my experiences at the hospital. This was my first encounter with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Anxiety, long endless stares, sadness and depression were just a few of countless symptoms witnessed at the hospital.

On November 5th 2010, PTSD became even closer to me than I could ever have imagined. A good Army friend of mine took his life due to PTSD.

To this day, I have friends who suffer from this disease. Soldiers have difficulty after a deployment adapting back into society. They can’t sleep, take numerous medications, drive cautiously to the store, or jump at the slightest sound of a loud noise. They struggle every day.

In 2014 I began to open my journal and display it…on canvas. Effects of PTSD is a series devoted to expressing just that, the effects. The objects used in the painting can be recognized by the viewer, but represent symbolize a deeper meaning. While studying Art History, I was intrigued by an early 17th century genre of still-life paintings in the Netherlands known as Vanitas. These collections of paintings and the objects within held symbolic meaning—some of artwork takes on different meanings; usually the title leads the viewer to these meanings.

The use of oil paint affords a liberality to mix colors and a lengthier drying period. Painting in oil allows me to soften certain areas on the canvas with the help of a soft, dry brush. For this series the use of certain colors are found in all of the paintings. The color Paynes gray is used mainly in backgrounds, so the viewer experiences a more subdued feeling. The color of Payne’s gray, not too bright and not too dark does that, it is, plus it makes the viewer take in what they see in the foreground of the work. Yellow ocher. can be seen in highlights and shading on certain subjects in the paintings, helping to push out the subject within the painting but quietly, not vibrantly. I work with transparency and opacity. I don’t mind having the canvas appear through some of my subject matter, especially in areas requiring the color white, or areas of texture. Letting the brushstrokes be seen mostly in the backgrounds of the paintings, gives a sense of movement.

My time at LRMC will always be a part of me and someday my journal from paper to canvas will be complete.The use of representation and symbolism in my work will continue in my paintings. Becoming an art historian and an artist has enabled me to express my encounters at LRMC and utilize these tools to bring awareness for the audience in my series Effects of PTSD.

Please join us for an Artists’ reception for the February Gallery Shows  it will be held FRIDAY, February 10th, from 5-7 p.m.