humanities

Painting, Print Making

Vignette: Adrienne Miller

Artist Adrienne Miller

Artist Adrienne Miller

The Community Foundation of Louisville, in partnership with Louisville Visual Art, has presented Louisville-based artist and printmaker, Adrienne Miller, with the fifth annual Mary Alice Hadley Prize for Visual Art. The $5,000 award is an opportunity for local artists to enhance their careers through a targeted enrichment experience.

Miller will use the prize to research the landscape and art historical influence of the Four Corners area of the American Southwest. The two week trip will cover close to 2,000 miles in a loop through the Four Corners region and will include a variety of stops, including several different pueblo ruin sites, printmaking studios in Albuquerque, The Georgia O’Keefe museum and archives, several National Parks, energy vortexes in Sedona, and several large earth works in the region.

"Keep Out/ Stay In" by Adrienne Miller, 16x20in, acrylic gouache and colored pencil on mylar (2016), $600 | BUY NOW

"Keep Out/ Stay In" by Adrienne Miller, 16x20in, acrylic gouache and colored pencil on mylar (2016), $600 | BUY NOW

“I want the experience to be transformative and immersive so that I come away feeling as though the experience really was a tipping point for me,” said Miller of the Hadley Prize enrichment experience. “I want to return to Louisville renewed to create a whole new body of work.”

"Come With Me Into The Void" by Adrienne Miller, 16x20in, acrylic gouache and colored pencil on mylar (2016)

"Come With Me Into The Void" by Adrienne Miller, 16x20in, acrylic gouache and colored pencil on mylar (2016)

Miller’s images are hybrids of the representational and abstract that explore the human experience of constructed space. “Within the tradition of landscape art, the term picturesque refers to a view where the human presence is apparent,” states Miller. “We are often presented with a view or vista for our consideration. When viewing a landscape we are allowed to be objective, but when viewing ourselves, does that perspective change?”

“Within the delicacy of the Mylar drawings, I am beginning to break apart the environments into tiny details such as potted plants, ladder rungs, or the tilt of a roof line. For me, the landscape I embody on a daily basis is the idea of the home, an interior and much more intimate space. In some, the details explain a building interior while in others it appears to be just outside, similar to a residential yard space. The fluttering of the Mylar layers serves to remind the viewer of the constant state of change these sort of psychologically charged places experience. Through changes in perspective and unrealistic coexistence, the work encourages the viewer to address their own environments as well as themselves.”

"Man Made Islands" by Adrienne Miller, 32x40in, acrylic gouache and colored pencil on mylar (2017), $1200 | BUY NOW

"Man Made Islands" by Adrienne Miller, 32x40in, acrylic gouache and colored pencil on mylar (2017), $1200 | BUY NOW

The $5,000 M.A. Hadley Prize is awarded from the George and Mary Alice Hadley Fund at the Community Foundation of Louisville. The endowment was established in 1991, and it supports the arts and humanities, particularly visual arts, crafts, theater and the Louisville Free Public Library. The award is a partnership between the Community Foundation of Louisville and Louisville Visual Art, which managed the application process.

Hometown: Memphis, Tennessee
Education: BFA, Studio Art with an emphasis in Photography, Murray State University / MFA, Studio Art with an emphasis in Printmaking, Northern Illinois University
Website: http://www.adrienne-miller.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ay_dree_un/

"Man Made Islands (detail)" by Adrienne Miller,

"Man Made Islands (detail)" by Adrienne Miller,

"Maintaining the Overgrowth" by Adrienne Miller, 32x40in, acrylic gouache and colored pencil on mylar (2017), $1200 | BUY NOW

"Maintaining the Overgrowth" by Adrienne Miller, 32x40in, acrylic gouache and colored pencil on mylar (2017), $1200 | BUY NOW

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Drawing

Vignette: Michael McCardwell


As The Eyes Close We Lose Sight – from Michael McCardwell’s “The Death Snake.”


"The Death Snake" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

"The Death Snake" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

Michael McCardwell’s drawings are dense in their collective linear construction yet loose enough to clearly communicate the fantastical imagery. The artist plays with our expectations by drafting forms that are highly suggestive of spaceships – science fiction forms from a bygone era in which stalwart heroes with bulbous ray guns occupied the galaxy. His forms conjoin to form larger, interconnected spaces, and at times, a long, snake-like shape. It all seems very playful.

Yet can we be absolutely certain of what McCardwell has on his mind? The use of clearly defined line and shape in virtually every square inch of the field is also a formal academic exercise in composition, and in “The Death Snake,” his statement considers mortality in stages reminiscent of Shakespeare or Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. Either way, there is an almost giddy emotional quality to these pieces, and perhaps the one certainty is that, even in the darker themes, this artist seems to find joy in his work.

"Orange Cross" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

"Orange Cross" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

Besides being a studio art and humanities teacher for 27 years at Henry County High School, McCardwell has taught art at the Kentucky Community and Technical College System campus in Shelbyville, Spalding University in Louisville, at the former Shelbyville branch of Lindsey Wilson College, and taught basic skills such as reading, math and English at the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange. He was twice a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow.

McCardwell has work in private collections in the United States, Europe and Japan, and has been accepted into juried shows in California, Ohio, Illinois, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Hometown: Shelbyville, Kentucky
Education: BFA Murray State University, Kentucky, 1971; MA (Drawing), Morehead State University, Kentucky, 1974

"Shadow" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

"Shadow" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

"YHWA" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

"YHWA" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

"Picture" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

"Picture" by Michael McCardwell, 18x24in, ink and colored pencils (2017), $350 | BUY NOW

Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.

Are you interested in being on Artebella? Click here to learn more.