Artists Talk with LVA: February 23, 2023

REMEMBRANCE, an exhibition honoring the late Lida Gordon featuring Bette Levy, Elmer Lucille Allen, Denise Furnish, and Melinda Snyder, opens at PYRO Gallery on March 3 and runs through March 26, 2023.

“As an artist, I am interested in using historic handwork techniques to create contemporary art and to address personal and societal issues. It is important to me to use these skills in an increasingly technological/virtual world and to maintain an ongoing relationship with the past. 

 For the past 20+ years, I have been a hand embroiderer, using vividly colored silk thread on black grounds. This approach intensifies thread colors and creates strongly contrasting figure-ground relationships. Over time, I have developed a personal language of stitches that enables me to "paint" or "draw" with thread on fabric.  My subject matter is based on the photographic studies that I abstract and manipulate to emphasize seemingly inconsequential structures.  I am interested in textures and how to give form to structures through the layering of stitches and the use of color.  Labor- and stitch-intensive, my work often takes considerable time to research and complete.  It is the very detail of this work, however, that provides a meditational focus”.

The Sanctuary Project is a collaborative performance art initiative with Louisville Visual Art taking place on March 3 & 4 at LVA. Two of the five participating artists, Joyce Barbour and Magnolia Hensley came to talk about it. Joyce is a multi-media artist and teacher and Magnolia is an actor and improv artist.

Five artists create performances around the idea of sanctuary using a variety of media, space, time, spoken word, and music.

Joyce Barbour. Amy Davis. Magnolia Hensley
Sara Noori. Taylor Sanders Curated by Keith Waits

Artebella On The Radio: December 16

Vidalia Unwin, Joyce Barbour, & Alexis Kite talk about their work and the experience of being a trans artist in Louisville. Tune in to WXOX 97.1 FM/Artxfm.com each Thursday to hear Keith Waits talk with artists.

Joyce Barbour (She/They) is a transfeminine multimedia artist focusing primarily on sound and installation. Conceptually, Barbour’s work often explores the therapeutic possibilities of art and the idea of creativity as a communal effort. Collaboration is a strong part of her creative practice.

Explore Barbour's music and sound art project further at the Psychic Skin bandcamp page. For more video work, check out the small family Vimeo page.

Alexis Kite is a Louisville artist in the mediums of music, cartooning, and being an Art Hoe. Her main work in the ongoing diary comic Is Life. She was the guitarist for the trans radical punk band Bathroom Laws, and will eventually re-establish her current music project, Syldra. Lexi is also known for being a bimbo and loving 80's era video gaming.

Vidalia Unwin is an actress and playwright who studied creative writing at the University of Louisville and studied theater unofficially at Bellarmine University. Her full length credits include Domesticate, Punk Snot, Broken Iris, and The Ballad of Night Moose (co-written by Lex Mitchell). Her short plays include Cruise Control, Hunting For Jackalopes, and Hiding on Jupiter. She has worked with several Louisville theatre companies including Derby City Playwrights and Looking for Lilith Theatre Company.