Student Showcase: Kathryn Combs

"Pope Lick Monster" by Kathryn Combs, Lithograph with screen print, 18x25in, 2017, $425

Although Kathryn Combs’ image is a simple, albeit dynamic, point-of-view of a train trestle, the incomplete fields of text that fill in the open areas of sky hint at something else; an urban folk legend placed in southeastern Jefferson County that positions the highly-placed train crossing as the home of a hybrid creature known as “The Pope Lick Monster.” The legend includes that the “sheepman” lured young people out onto the trestle, and the facts are that more than one tragic death is tied to the location, which the artist follows through on with grisly, yet enigmatic, suggestion.

"A Story About 1960" by Kathryn Combs, Lithograph, 18x10in, 2017, $200

“My work explores the relationship of individual history and common experience. In my art, I combine technology with traditional print media in the form of digitally rendered images put to a plate with any combination of lithography, screen printing, etching, drawing, collage and hand coloring. For each print I conduct intensive research, tapping into public records such as geographical maps, photo archives, and biographical databases. I am also inspired by firsthand accounts, local legends, and oral history. Using these resources, I compose images that contrast familiar scenes with unusual and uncanny features. I like using elements within my prints that play on the viewer’s visual literacy. Glassware and keys become shorthand for domestic life, historical photos of small towns are synonymous with Americana, and famous artworks are tantamount to our entire experience as viewers of art. I interrupt this visual code with color, drawing, and layering of visually represented data (e.g. maps or charts). These interruptions tip off the viewer that there may be more to the image than expected, and convinces them to take a second look.”

Combs uses archival photography to connote specific places and/or times from the past, attempting to connect history to present experience in a combination of collective memory and contemporary printmaking technique.

Combs’ work will be included in the Senior Thesis Exhibition scheduled to open March 1st at the IU Southeast Barr Gallery in New Albany, Indiana, as well as the Annual Juried Student Art Exhibition, Juried Exhibition, Indiana University Southeast, which runs through February 18, 2018, and was curated by Amethyst Beaver (21c). 

Hometown: Crothersville, Indiana
Education: BFA candidate in Printmaking at Indiana University Southeast - Graduating in May
Website: www.kathryn-combs.com
Instagram:@kathryn.combs.art

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"Aaron" by Kathryn Combs, From "Looking Longer" series, Screen print, 15x20in 2017

"Christi" by Kathryn Combs, From "Looking Longer" series, Screen print, 15x20in 2017

"Michelle" by Kathryn Combs, From "Looking Longer" series, Screen print, 15x20in 2017

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

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Vignette: Cori Hills

"I've chosen to use my (negative voice) as an artistic tool for healing and self-discovery.” - Cori Hills

"Never Let Go" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x2ft, 2014, $2500 (Prints unavailable)

Visual art in the 21st century is constantly merging, different trends and mediums of expression connecting or even sometimes colliding into one another. In the work of Cori Hills we see a print maker embracing the bold, graphics of graffiti art in hand-carved woodcuts that are then worked into with acrylic and spray paint.

“My work is a psychological exploration of traumatic events faced as a child,” explains Hills. “Through word and image, I personify the co-dependent relationship between my inner demons and inner child. Each plank of wood is a conquest, one of which I have complete control. We all have that negative voice inside us. I've chosen to use mine as an artistic tool for healing and self-discovery.”

The “demons” Hills makes reference to manifest themselves in the images we see here, a satyr-like species that crosses a tiger with a ram, the figures seem more maternal than carnal, trading the satyr’s sexual appetite for an unsettling combination of bestial nurturing and violation. The facial detail is unique, a saddened visage carrying religious symbols that is filled with portent and dread, if not actual evil.   

In 2017 "Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds You" was included in Image & Word: A Text-based Art Exhibition at Kaviar Forge and Gallery. The pieces "Never Let Go," and "Meat," are currently at the Tim Faulkner Gallery as a part of their winter show.

Hills, a Florida native, moved to Louisville in 2009. Cori graduated from the University of Louisville with a B.A. of Fine Arts in 2017. Her specialties include printmaking, painting and illustration.

Hometown: St. Augustine, Florida
Education: BA, Fine Arts, University of Louisville, 2017
Facebook: Original Artwork by Cori Hills

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"Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You" by Cori Hills, Print series of 10,  black ink on Asian paper, 4x3ft, 2017, $400

"Don't Bite The Hand That Feeds You" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x3ft, 2017, $3500 (Prints unavailable)

"Meat" by Cori Hills, Acrylic paint, spray paint on hand-carved woodcut, 4x3ft, 2015, $3000 (Prints unavailable)

"Natural Perversions" by Cori Hills, Print series of 10,  black ink on Asian paper, 4x2ft, 2017, $350

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

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Vignette: Elizabeth Foley

"Making the work becomes a journey of balance in and of itself." - Elizabeth Foley

"Enso-Clarity" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut and collagraph, 26x38in, 2015, NFS

“My work focuses on the interplay of lives and the concept of life-balance, explains Elizabeth Foley. “I explore the circle as a resolved but potentially irregular shape, representing both the balance and variety we all strive for in our lives. How is wholeness achieved and what tips the circle off center? What distracts from the main circle? Does wholeness come at the price of predictability?” 

Printmaking need not avoid explorations of depth in form and space, yet it would appear to be a common trend in contemporary art that prints be concerned with surface, texture, pattern, and field. Of course, this technical and compositional observation doesn’t restrict depth in subject or theme. Much to the contrary, the embrace or even celebration of 2-dimensional surface art by working print makers calls attention to the profundity of abstract and limited representational imagery. Foley shows how much the opportunity for suggestion and meaning in her work depends on the invitation to the viewer inherent in abstraction.

"Revolving" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut collagraph, 21x21in, 2017, $600 (unframed)

“The vibrant dialogue between shape, color, and pattern invites viewers into the work. I create spaces in which the viewer feels involved in the work: being both delighted and challenged. The colors activate the imagination; they influence and play off each other in order to shift and tilt planes of information. Overlapping transparencies create the illusion of distance and scale, as well as deepening relationships between shapes.”

Foley uses relief, monoprint, and collagraph techniques together to make unique images from the same plates – “a potential template for life balance”. She is currently exhibiting in "Venn Diagram" Work by Blake Snyder Eames & Elizabeth Foley, running through December 18, 2017 at The Grand Theater, Frankfort, KY, and will be participating in the Sixth Annual Black Friday Art Sale at Loudoun House in Lexington, December 1 from 6-9pm and December 2 from 2-7pm

Foley was also selected to be a part of the inaugural Hadley Creatives Program, a 6-month learning and engagement experience for local artists who are at a pivotal point in their careers administered by The Community Foundation of Louisville and Capital Creative.

Permanent Collections
Bluegrass Printmakers Cooperative Saint Joseph Hospital
Chase Bank, Cincinnati, OH and Louisville, KY Saint Joseph Jessamine County Emergency Treatment Center
Good Samaritan Hospital Southern Graphics Council
Kentucky One Health Alliance Tiger Lily Press
Keystone Financial Group University of Arizona
LexArts University of Kentucky Hospital
Littler Mendelson, P.C. University of Miami
May Department Store Washington University School of Art
Ohio University School of Art West Virginia University
Ohio University Alden Library

Hometown: Wellesley, Massachusetts
Education: BFA, Graphic Design, Washington University, 1990; MFA, Printmaking, Ohio University, 1997; M.Ed, Secondary Education, Ohio University, 1997
Website: foleyprints.com
Instagram: @foleyprints

 

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"Candy Colored Sky" by ElizabethFoley, woodcut, 38x26in, 2016, $900 (unframed)

"Coming Home" by ElizabethFoley, woodcut, 21x21in, 2015, $400 (unframed)

"Floating Candy" by Elizabeth Foley, woodcut collagraph, 38x26in, 2016, $900 (unframed)

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

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Feature: Studio 2000 - Making It Count

Studio 2000 students at the start of the program.

On a hot and humid July afternoon at the Shawnee Arts and Cultural Center, the gym is alive with the sounds of basketball - the hard, sharp squeak of shoes on the wood floor and the pounding dribble of the ball up and down the court. But adjacent to the gym, 14 young high school students are working diligently, focused and oblivious to the soundtrack of frenetic activity only a few feet away. They are earning money over the summer - by making art.

Studio 2000 was for several years an initiative of Louisville Metro Parks and Recreation to foster young artists by paying them to create. It was, in effect, a summer job. After a time, it was suspended, but it was resurrected in 2015 as an ongoing partnership between Metro Parks and Louisville Visual Art (LVA). Studio 2000 pairs high school students who aspire to be visual artists with professional artists to work in clay, fiber and mixed media. Each participant receives a $500 stipend at the end of the eight-week session.

The program culminates with a public exhibition and sale on August 3 at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Proceeds from this sale are recycled through Studio 2000 to support future programming.

Instructors Ehren Reed & Simon Gallo

Managing the program for LVA is Outreach Coordinator Ehren Reed, who reviews the applications and supervises the classes. She is also one of three teachers, along with Simon Gallo and J.D. Schall. Reed works with fibre arts, while Gallo, a printmaker, handles 2-D mixed media and Schall focuses on ceramics. Reed and Schall have participated since LVA became involved three years ago, and this is Gallo’s second year.

Carol Watson, a student at Presentation Academy, applies hot wax with a brush to fabric, part of the Batik process of dying cloth that is a staple of visual arts education. She explains that she is very active in arts in school, and will be the President of Presentation’s chapter of the National Art Honor Society (NAHS) in the coming school year. Next to her, Jenee’ Whitt uses one of two sewing machines to hem a small piece of Shibori-dyed fabric that will become a table decoration. A student at Butler Traditional High School, her ambition is to be a fashion designer, and normally she fills sketchbooks with her ideas, but she has no other access to a sewing machine, so this constitutes a rare opportunity for hands-on fabrication.

Joseph Falcon & Lilah Pudio

Also in the fiber group is Lilah Pudio, who is felting, patiently but steadily working a 6” x 8” field of alpaca with a small tool so that it becomes a handmade piece of fabric. Although she is anxious to make progress, the tool contains several very sharp, barbed needles, so the work demands caution. Only moments after Pudio demonstrates the process, Reed, who is working with the same tool, shouts out after catching her fingertip on a needle, dancing around the room sucking on her wounded digit. Despite the pain, it is a lighthearted moment, and Reed laughs as she explains: “We’re definitely the most dangerous area down here: needles, sewing machines, hot wax!”  

Joachim Uy

There doesn’t appear to be any such risk at the 2-D station, where Simon Gallo oversees a variety of techniques. Ella Gorstein is happily painting multiple images of a corgi that will be sold at the upcoming sale, while DuPont Manual HS student Braeden Helby concentrates on painting an original design on a skateboard deck, although he’s not happy with it right now. “But it’ll get there,” he assures me. “I’ll make it work.” Across the table from him Joachim Uy is sketching a design in a sketchbook. This is the Male Traditional Senior’s second year in Studio 2000, and he understands that he is fortunate to have had the experience. Working now in the final days of the 2017 iteration, he is intent to complete more work. “Make it count,” he says in a low, soft voice.

TaneJa Eden with Instructor J.D. Schall

At the back of the room, four young women are industriously producing work in clay. TaneJa Eden from duPont Manual takes a break to eat a plate of homemade food delivered by her younger sister. Another artist returning for a second year, Eden worked in the 2-D section last year. “But we feel it is important to mix it up for returning students,” explains Clay Instructor Schall. “Give them different experiences.” Interestingly, a common motif in this summer’s ceramics work is the octopus. Elizabeth Hill (Corydon Central HS) is attaching octopus tentacle legs to her box project, while Andrea Priddy (Academy @ Shawnee) is in the last stages of an octopus teapot that is somewhat astonishing. “We all came up with the octopus idea on our own,” Priddy claims shyly. “We all had octopus sketches in our notebooks.” She seems appreciative when I note the suppleness in the shapes that wrap around her form so that the handle and the spout emerge as tentacles.

Braeden Helby  & Justina Grossman

Elizabeth Hill & Andrea Priddy

Fiber Group
Joseph Falcon - Academy @ Shawnee
Donielle Panky - Butler Traditional HS
Lilah Pudio - duPont Manual HS
Carol Watson - Presentation Academy
Jenee’ Whitt - Butler Traditional HS

2-D Mixed Media Group
Ella Gorstein - duPont Manual HS
Justina Gossman - Academy @ Shawnee
Braeden Helby - duPont Manual HS
Synclaire Thomas - duPont Manual HS
Joachim Uy - Male HS

Ceramics Group
TaneJa Eden  - duPont Manual HS
Elizabeth Hill - Corydon Central HS
HaYoung Oh - duPont Manual HS
Andrea Priddy - Academy @ Shawnee

Getting Out Of The Studio

This year the program was expanded to encompass public art in the form of a mural executed under the guidance of artist Casey McKinney. A wall on the side of Christ Way Missionary Baptist Church facing Floyd Street had been the target of random graffiti that necessitated costly clean-up, and when the church administrators reached out to LVA because of their MAPped Out program, Ehren Reed thought of beginning a new track for Studio 2000 that covered murals. “I was able to reconfigure the budget to introduce this new element that is so in line with our mission.”

Christ Way Missionary Church Mural

Filming underway at the Christ Way Missionary Church Mural.

The Studio 2000 mural was conceived and executed by these students:

Grady Gartland - duPont Manual HS
Nina O’Brien - Atherton HS
Milo Quinn - Fern Creek HS
Zavier Stewart - Eastern HS
Olivia Tierney - duPont Manual HS

McKinney gave his young charges a crash course in community murals with visits around town to some of the many mural projects completed in recent years, and the design concept was developed by the students themselves. Their first choices for inspirational message were a bit wordy for a large-scale mural on a schedule, so McKinney encouraged them to search a bit more, and the Robert Ingersoll quote “We Rise By Lifting Others” was selected.

Braeden Helby

Details of the mural will be reproduced as notecards and available for purchase as part of the sale on August 3.

Studio 2000 Exhibit and Sale
Thursday, August 3, 5:00-7:00pm
Actors Theatre of Louisville, 316 West Main Street
Sale Preview: 5:00-5:30 p.m. Sale 5:30-7:00 p.m.

Studio 2000 Mural Unveiling
Sunday, August 6, 12:00-2:00pm
Christ Way Missionary Baptist Church, 237 E. Breckinridge Street

Ceramic pieces waiting to be fired.

Andrea Priddy working on her octopus teapot.

HaYoung Oh

Donielle Panky & Carol Watson at the sewing table.

Written by Keith Waits. Photos taken by LVA staff members. Entire contents copyright © 2017 Louisville Visual Art. All rights reserved.

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Vignette: 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

“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)

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

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,

"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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