Vignette: Laurie Fader - Open Studio Weekend Artist

“Making the painting is a mysterious and compulsive search for an emotional reality.”      – Laurie Fader

Abstract art is a loaded phrase, words that conjure as much misunderstanding as mystery. In the simplest terms, perhaps the best thing we can say is that abstraction is universal - artists tapping into the subconscious to elicit emotional reactions and develop visual relationships through elements of color, shape, and texture. The same equation is typically at work in representational art, but with those elements fashioned within the familiar.

"Big Toe" by Laurie Fader, oil, 48x42in, 2017, $3200

“Unconscious, subversive preoccupations are the driving force behind my paintings,” is how Laurie Fader puts it, “stabilized and excavated through the use of light and woven shapes of color. Making the painting is a mysterious and compulsive search for an emotional reality. Visual touchstones reveal complex psychological and intellectual states, contained within fragile, blistered and bubbled boundaries. It has become a metaphor for our political landscape as well, polarized and charged with dichotomies.”

"Plumage" by Laurie Fader, oil, mixed media on paper, 19x15in, 2017, $2200

Fader came to the abstract. Like so many artists, after years of representational work: “Freed from the perimeters of painting the landscape on site, which caught my interest for twenty years, now color can lead in a way it could not before. And with color comes delight in a different sort of visual and emotional journey.”

Fader is Associate Professor and Chair of Academic Affairs at Kentucky College of Art + Design at Spalding University, where she teaches Drawing II, Color and Design, Color and Design II, and Painting II. Since joining the faculty in 2010, she co-authored the BFA program before becoming Chair in 2011. In addition, she organized a Study Abroad Program and took 3 students to Umbria, Italy.

Earlier this year she finished an Artist’s Residency at Scuola Grafica in Venice, Italy.

Laurie Fader will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. Her studio, located in the Germantown neighborhood, will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.

Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Age: 60
Education: BS, Honors, New York University, NYC; MFA, Painting, Yale School of Art.
Website: lauriefader@squarespace.com

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"Charted Territories" by Laurie Fader, mixed media on paper, 22x18in, 2017, $2500

"Shroud" by Laurie Fader, mixed media, 13x19in, 2017, $2200

"Diversity" by Laurie Fader, mixed media, 32x28in, 2017, $2200

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

Vignette: Claudia Hammer - Open Studio Weekend Artist

Beauty In Everyday Objects

"General Electric" by Claudia Hammer, 20x20in, 2017

The Greeks saw the divine in themselves and depicted the gods in human form, and for thousands of years it was deemed that art should only celebrate the extraordinary. Eventually artists found grace and beauty in the common people in society, and Modern Art found worthwhile subjects in the mundane and ubiquitous. Think of Pop Art’s fascination with media and advertising.

Claudia Hammer has a considerable reputation for painting portraits, and the human figure, but more recently she has turned her attention to static objects.
“Drawing or painting the figure has always been a pleasurable challenge,” says Hammer. “However, in the last few years I have really have been loving the still life. I seek the beauty in everyday objects like coffee cups, scissors, marbles, crossword puzzles, bottles, and appliances. In focusing on these items I hope to show gratitude for the overlooked but useful things that engage us in life.”

There is a thick layer of nostalgia over the objects Hammer chooses to paint. How many of the current population has ever seen an old-style, black rotary telephone? We have fancier electric mixers in today’s kitchens, but the sleek, mid-20th century design of the one we see here is classic. It might give us a warm feeling to remember our grandmother’s kitchen or grandpa’s workbench, but could it be possible that the utilitarian tools of their day were actually this beautiful? Hammer renders the objects with a sufficient degree of realism to impress us with her technique, but there is also an atmosphere, crafted from evocative background textures and a sophisticated sense of light, that places these things in the realm of misty memory.

"Old School Communication" by Claudia Hammer, oil on wood, 20x20in, 2017

Hammer will be showing at PYRO Gallery, where she is a member, with Mary Dennis Kannapell. The exhibit, called Modern Muse is scheduled for April 12 - May 26, 2018.

Claudia Hammer will be participating in the 2017 Open Studio Weekend, sponsored by Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute. Her studio, located in the NuLu neighborhood, will be open the weekend of November 4 and 5. Tickets for Open Studio Weekend will go on sale October 16. Click here for more information.

Hometown: New Albany Indiana
Age: 67
Website: http://www.claudiahammer.com/
Instagram: Claudia Hammer
 

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"Singer Sewing No2" by Claudia Hammer, oil on panel, 20x20in, 2017

"Tools and Orbs working together" by Claudia Hammer, oil on panel, 24x30in, 2017

"Old School Communication" by Claudia Hammer, oil on panel, 20x20in, 2017

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

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Feature: Bill Fischer

"Marketplace" by Bill Fischer, oil on board, 1954. Courtesy of the Hite Art Institute.

Louisville Visual Art (LVA) and the Community Foundation of Louisville (CFL) have announced the Bill Fischer Award for Visual Artists from the Artist Bill Fischer Foundation for Working Artists at CFL. The Fischer Prize is designed to make a meaningful impact on the career of a visual artist residing in the Louisville Metro Area by providing support in the form of grants for the execution and exhibition of artwork and other efforts to foster a professional career as a visual artist. Submissions are now being accepted here. Deadline is October 9, 2017.

"Cookie Scheckles" by Bill Fischer, lacquer on board, circa 1970. Courtesy of the Hite Art Institute.

Bill Fischer is 98 years old, and was an artist and collector his entire life, exerting no small influence on other artists through direct example and by endowing programs and scholarships through the University of Louisville’s Allen R. Hite Institute.

Fischer began painting at a young age, and displayed early work from when he was 14 years old in his home more than 70 years later. His professional gig was as an illustrator for the Courier-Journal in 1936, but left the job over a pay dispute. Although he was a successful business owner throughout his life, Fischer never stopped making art, never stopped pursuing opportunities to grow as an artist. One particular story places Fischer at an historic moment in Mexican Art History.

Stirling Dickinson (from Chicago) founded Escuela de Bellas Artes, which would become one of the most significant cultural centers in Mexico, in or about 1936. It was located in an old convent in San Miguel de Allende. After World War II, the school qualified for students on the G.I. Bill and therefore attracted a good many U.S. veterans interested in studying art. In 1948, Dickinson hired renowned Mexican social realist painter David Alfaro Sigueiros to teach. It was at this time that Bill Fischer and his wife moved to San Miguel and rented a furnished house. 

Unfinished 1940s mural painted by David Alfaro Siqueiros, in Escuela de Bellas Artes, a cultural center in San Miguel de Allende, Gto.

Fischer, on the G.I. Bill, enrolled in Bellas Artes, working, along with a half a dozen other students, for almost a year with Sigueiros on an ambitious mural, doing mostly outline design. During 1949, the U.S. became convinced that, under Siqueiros, the art school had become infested with communists, (this was the height of the “Red Scare” and McCarthyism in the U.S.) and so the G.I. Bill accreditation was rescinded, and most of the students left. Dickinson and Siqueiros had an altercation, resulting in Siqueiros being knocked down a staircase and resigning, leaving the mural uncompleted. Fisher stayed on for a while longer, but then returned with his wife to Louisville, where he started his own business.

He continued to work as an artist, participating in the “Magnificent Mile” art exhibit in Chicago in the late 1950s and the “Interior Valley” exhibit at the Art Museum of Cincinnati. As his career developed he never restricted himself to any one style or medium. If you collected Fischer’s work, you are as likely to have a landscape as you are a cityscape, as likely to own a sculpture as a painting.

Fischer also completed public work including several murals for churches and synagogues. Most notably, he created the stained glass windows for the Keneseth Israel Synagogue on Taylorsville Road.

 
 

2011 photo of Bill Fischer by John Nation for Louisville Magazine

"Fiesta in the Rain N.D." by Bill Fischer, Lacquer on board. Courtesy of the Hite Art Institute

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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Vignette: B.G. Lewis

“Painting is a journey where I can explore color and textures, play with brush strokes and create my ‘perfect’ version of the world." - B.G. Lewis

"Twigs and Twine" by B.G. Lewis, acrylic, 11x14in, 2017, $175

B.G. (Bobbie Gayle) Lewis is a self-taught Kentucky artist finding her passion in painting after a professional career in the medical field. The Garrard Community resident enjoys teaching painting classes to children and adults at the Community Arts Center located in Lancaster, Kentucky. 

Although she didn’t formally study art, Folk Artist, Janice Miller, was an early mentor for Lewis, as were painters Jerry Yarnelle and Pat Banks. Currently she is studying portraiture with Chantel Barber.

“It started with just one painting. From the beginning an empty canvas stirred my creative juices. Once begun, the painting takes on a life of its own, leading me from hobby to art. Painting fills me with a sense of accomplishment and integrity, and has proven a most amenable vehicle for translating inner vision into outer reality.”

“Although I work quite deliberately, consciously employing both traditional and innovative techniques, my unconscious is the undisputed project manager.
The creative nature of painting frees my imagination and provides many opportunities for happy accidents and grace to influence the finished product.”

“The world around me inspires and invigorates a renewed sense of creativity. Awed by the mystery of how creation occurs, I strive to produce art that represents the world in a ‘perfect’ state.”

"Cardinal Knowledge" by BG Lewis, acrylic, 8x10in, 2017, $150

Even as she develops, Lewis’ work still display her roots in the primitive aspects of Folk Art. In “Cardinal Knowledge” her use of vintage newspapers from 1930's in her background is an individual connection to an aged and nostalgic sensibility, one that connotes pre-World War II America and the Great Depression.

Lewis’ art is on exhibit at Maple Tree Gallery, Boyle County Arts Council in Danville Kentucky as well as the Grand Theater and Garrard Community Arts Center, in Lancaster Kentucky. She has exhibited in multiple shows in Kentucky and has sold her artwork to collectors across the country. 

Hometown: Lancaster, Kentucky
Education: Self-taught
Website: garrardarts.com

"Morning Melody" by BG Lewis, acrylic, 11x14in, $175

"Showers of Blessings" by BG Lewis, acrylic, acrylic, 10x24in, $175

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

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Vignette: Richard Shu

"Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I can remember and I remember more than I can see" Let me help you "see" what you may not remember and "remember" what you may not see!” - Benjamin Disraeli

"Low Tide in Saint Michel" by Richard Shu, watercolor, 12x14in, 2017, $780

67 year-old Taiwan-born artist Richard Shu calls himself an “urban sketcher.” After a long and noted career as an architect, he documents his extensive travels in watercolor sketches executed with a sure eye for the fundamental design elements of a scene. As a medium, watercolor welcomes certainty in the choice of color and the placement of marks, and Shu’s careful study of his subjects is evident in the work, an almost naïve application that expresses a sophisticated sensibility.

Shu views his paintings as an ongoing document of his life experience “My art is part of my journey through watercolor, I travel, sketch and paint the image and space that I see.” The images have an immediacy about them that reinforces the idea of a sketchbook, or perhaps even closer to a diary, capturing impressions of a time and place with a brush instead of words.

“I started my journey when I was 12 years old, when my parents sent me to Guayaquil, Ecuador from Taipei, Taiwan. It was in Ecuador that I started to study architecture, but finished my undergraduate study in Madrid, then was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania for my graduate studies. After graduating, I found work in Chicago with the international firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. I moved to Louisville in 1982, worked for a local architectural firm for 2 years, then started my own Design Build firm and practice till 1999.  In 2000 I transitioned into a total different career in the investment field. I am retired now and back on exploring the creative passion that I missed for so long.”

Name: Richard Shu
Age: 67
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: MA, Architecture, University of Pennsylvania.
Website: richardshuarts.com
Instagram: mistashu

"The Harbor" by Richard Shu, watercolor, 12x14in, 2017, $800

"Low Country" by Richard Shu, watercolor, 12x14in, 2017, $780

"El Capitan" by Richard Shu, watercolor, 14x14in, 2017, $850

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

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