Q&A: Painter Teresa McCarthy

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"Art used to feed my belly, now it feeds my soul." - Teresa McCarthy

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"Mommy & Me: Elephants" by Teresa McCarthy, 36x36in, oil on canvas (2016), $425 | BUY NOW

Who or what inspires you now?

My father, Joseph E. French was a commercial artist for 40 years. My favorite signs that he designed were the iconic Toy Tiger sign on Bardstown Rd and Hungry Pelican. Just prior to my 25 th birthday he asked me what I wanted and I said “a portrait of my boys.” I have cherished a number of his paintings since that day. My husband Keith has been right there with me since I was a teenager.

What is your favorite music to listen to when making art?

My husband Keith McCarthy plays guitar and is a singer songwriter, so I listen to his music and him playing cover songs. Folk songs from my childhood by Peter Paul & Mary make me especially happy. I was once in Kauai with Keith and some friends and we were in Hanalei where we happened to find a little shop with Peter Paul and Mary’s greatest hits and tooled around the country side in a convertible listening to Puff the Magic Dragon in the land of Hanalei, very cool.

"Mommy & Me: Giraffes" by Teresa McCarthy, 30x14in, oil on canvas (2016), $425 | BUY NOW

Favorite movie?

I love to watch movies and I usually have a canvas in front of me if the TV is on. I’ve probably seen the movie Blow too many times, if that’s possible. Any movie with beautiful cinematography I enjoy. I also enjoy the occasional binge watching of a series on Netflix.

What are you reading right now?

I don’t spend much time reading, but I will listen to audio books when we travel. I also sketch future watercolor paintings when I travel.

If you were given a $100,000 what would do with it?

If given $100,000.00, I would further my education in the arts and continue sharing what I learn with others. I am the fine art instructor at Michaels on the Outer Loop, in Louisville and I would continue to do what I love. I also do painting classes in my home.

What does art mean to you?

The art produced by my father was the primary means of supporting our family when I was a child. So art fed my belly and now it feeds my soul.

What's the most challenging part when starting on a piece of work of art?

The only challenge in starting a piece of artwork for me is securing the time to start on it. I finish my projects and don’t leave things undone. I take photos all of the time so that I won’t forget an idea until I get to it. How long do you usually spend on a specific piece of art? Of course, size and medium make a difference on how long a particular piece of art takes to complete. Oil paintings take the longest because of drying time, but on average a portrait takes 20 to 25 hours for me to complete and a landscape takes about 8 hours. Some small acrylic and watercolors I can finish in 3 to 5 hours. I know how long a painting will take me to do, but I’m very patient and I don’t let time dictate when I finish a painting. My favorite painting is always the painting I am working on currently.

If you could meet any celebrity who would it be and what would you ask them?

If I could meet any celebrity, I’m thinking it would be Stevie Nicks, I would ask her if I could wear one of her onstage outfits.

Name: Teresa McCarthy
Hometown: Louisville, KY
Age: 55
Education: Attended St. Agnes and Durrett High School; obtained Broker’s License in 1986

"WWW: Watching Waiting Wolf" by Teresa McCarthy, 16x14in, oil on canvas (2016), $425 | BUY NOW

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Entire contents copyright © 2016 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: Cheryl Chapman

"High Wire" by Cheryl Chapman, 20x20in, oil on canvas, $1300 | BUY NOW

As is true of perhaps most artists, each of Cheryl Chapman’s paintings is something of a journey, but Chapman doesn’t always know where exactly she will wind up. Working by instinct fashioned over a solid intellectual foundation, she works in intimate concert with her medium, whether it be oil, her primary choice, graphite, charcoal and occasional collage on panel or canvas. 

“My painting is non-objective picture making in the tradition of abstract expressionism. Color and line are the dominant elements particularly focusing on the shared ground of communicative and pictorial symbols. I endeavor to explore the place where communication becomes communion. Paintings are produced with that goal in mind but are never planned; they happen.”

Patterns emerge in Chapman’s paintings that call to mind textile work, and the marks function in the same overlapping fashion: woven brushstrokes that build a dense interplay of space and surface, illusion and reality, that represent the essence of abstract expressionism.

Chapman has work in the collections of University of KY AB Chandler Medical Center, Brown Forman Corporation, Louisville, KY, PNC Financials, New York, NY, Good Samaritans Secondary Academy, Delhi, INDIA as well as in the Congressional Office of the Honorable John Yarmuth, Washington, DC.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 60
Education: MFA, University of Kentucky
Website: http://www.cherylchapmanstudio.com
Gallery Representative: Galerie Hertz (Louisville, Kentucky) New Editions Gallery (Lexington, Kentucky) and Elder Gallery (Charlotte, North Carolina)

"Attic Dream" by Cheryl Chapman, 48x60in, oil on canvas, $4800 | BUY NOW

"Runaround" by Cheryl Chapman, 60x48in, oil on canvas, $4800 | BUY NOW

"Sea Change" by Cheryl Chapman, 36x36in, oil on canvas, $3000 | BUY NOW

"Wild Card" by Cheryl Chapman, 48x48in, oil on canvas, $4200 | BUY NOW

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Feature: Murals Reflect A Spirit Of Collaboration

Karl Otta at work on his mural at MAPPED OUT.

All artists begin with a blank space - a page, a canvas, a block of stone. A wall is, in theory, no different: an open invitation to fill a space with creative design and expression. Yet perhaps it takes a little more vision to imagine filling the side of a building with something that is not a billboard. Instead of presenting the public with a commercial advertisement, why not something that captures the flavor of the neighborhood and inspires community engagement? 

Braylyn Resko Stewart puts the finishing touches on his MAPPED OUT mural.

Murals exist around Louisville; created by individual artists and often sponsored by community organizations and neighborhood groups, but these efforts, however laudable, are, by and large, disparate projects occurring without synchronicity. They are positive in their impact and done with the best of intentions, but what if these earnest initiatives could be expanded, and given infrastructure to support the desire?

In answer to those questions, Louisville Visual Art (LVA), in partnership with the Center for Neighborhoods, has launched MAP (Mural Art Program) a long-term, sustainable public art program that engages local businesses, professional artists, Louisville Metro, and the greater Louisville community in the creation of large-scale murals to celebrate our city's unique identity and enhance civic pride.

The collaboration was functionally born out of a mural project in Hikes Point in which CFN had engaged with artist Liz Richter to plan and execute a design on a lengthy expanse of wall on the Big Lots building at 3938 Taylorsville Road. In developing her proposal, Richter reached out to LVA’s Director of Education and Outreach, Jackie Pallesen. “That was in late Fall 2015,” remembers Pallesen. “Liz knew community outreach would be important. And she knew we had a lot of experience with that.”

Liz Richter details her Hikes Point Mural and the process behind the project.

That element of Richter’s proposal resonated strongly with CFN Director Tom Stephens, and after she was selected, the communication continued with LVA after both organizations found themselves crossing paths on the hunt for funding. Although CFN had an initiative for public art, P.A.I.N.T. (Producing Art In Neighborhoods Together), it still saw the use and value of collaborating with LVA. “We could have perhaps figured out the answers to some of he questions ourselves, but why not go to the experts instead?” explains Stephens.

Liz Richter working on the public mural at MAPPED OUT.

Such a comment points to the shared elements of each organization’s mission, the need to empower diverse community voices while enhancing Louisville's public spaces through the visual arts, and how natural it is to pool resources to better accomplish that goal. Partnerships such as this are essential and becoming more and more common because they make sense. 

The Hikes Point project came about not long after the LVA education team’s research and development for MAP, which had included visiting neighboring cities and meeting with their counterparts in other organizations such as LexArts in Lexington and ArtsWave in Cincinnati. 

Synchronicity was also a factor in providing a first, official salvo in launching MAP, when Ashley Trommler of strADegy Advertising approached LVA with an original design for a mural, called “Flourish.” Trommler had been touring the city looking for just the right location for her inspirational message when she spied a large wall on LVA’s Portland location that felt perfect. 

Mural designed by Ashley Trommler and executed by Ashley Brossart & Alyx McClain. Located at Louisville Visual building in Portland (Louisville, KY).

The newly installed "Flourish" mural was painted by Louisville artists Ashley Brossart and Alyx McClain, and unveiled on July 28. "Flourish embodies the spirit of collaboration between LVA, Center for Neighborhoods and Louisville Metro. Having this mural on our building signifies our commitment to making Portland a creative hub for our city. MAP will create opportunities for local artists and business owners to enhance community engagement and development," said LVA Executive Director Lindy Casebier. 

Mo McKnight Howe, owner of Revelry Boutique Gallery and Board Member for LVA and the Fund for the Arts, worked with LVA’s education team on developing MAP, and organized a kick-off fundraiser at the Garage Bar on August 19 that featured live painting by artists, Karl Otto, Pat Stephenson, Alyx McClain, Ashley Brossart, Braylyn Resko Stewart, Vinnie Kochert, and Liz Richter, with the 8’ x 8’ panels being auctioned on-line during the event. Says How, “Art has a great affect in transitioning neighborhoods. Louisville needs more murals and MAP is the answer to this need.”

Vinnie Kochert at work on his mural at MAPPED OUT.

Artists at work on the mural at MAPPED OUT.

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This Feature article was written by Keith Waits.
In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, www.Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.

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Photos by Sarah Katherine Davis. Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved. 

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Vignette: Andrea Alonso Salinas

"Gray Center" by Andrea Alonso Salinas, 24x24in, oil on canvas (2015), $600 | BUY NOW

When painter Andrea Alonso Salinas states that she paints, “…places that can only be in the imagination and are simply not possible in the physical world,” she gets to heart of how abstraction is born from an artist’s concentration on reality. It is the artist’s job to interpret and comment on what they see in the world, and to spark that same fresh perspective in the viewer. Not to reassure but to challenge the routine perception of our daily existence.

"Suburb By Sunset" by Andrea Alonso Salinas, 24x24in, oil on canvas (2015), $600 | BUY NOW

In “Suburb,” Alonso Salinas maintains a tenuous foothold on recognizable space, spinning the residential neighborhood into a vertiginous swirl of color and form. In “Center” she has taken up a monochromatic palette, which further removes the particular associations we have seen in her previous work and allows the abstraction to dominate even more than usual.

Alonso Salinas was a finalist in Pitch Night Louisville 2016, sponsored by ArtPrize and 21c Museum Hotel this year. Currently, she is working on interior design projects, and various private commissions. Her artwork will be featured in Art Yellow Book #2 2016, by CICA Museum. Alonso Salinas’s paintings have been exhibited at Revelry Boutique Gallery in Louisville, KY, and the “O” Gallery in Nashville, TN.

Hometown: Monterrey, Mexico
Age: 30
Education: Architecture degree University of Monterrey, Mexico; MBA in Administration, Rioja University, Madrid, Spain.
Website: http://www.art-ark.com

"Hidden Corner" by Andrea Alonso Salinas, 30x24in, oil on canvas (2015), $400 | BUY NOW

"Landscape Through The Window" by Andrea Alonso Salinas, 69x42in (composition size), oil on canvas (2016), $900 | BUY NOW

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Written by Keith Waits. Entire contents copyright © 2016 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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