“The optical quality of glass is my muse,” – Whitney “Bloom” Olsen.

"Rosy Retrospection" by Whitney Olsen in collaboration with Keegan Kruse, Light refraction photos, 7 - 22x22in frames, 2017, $500 each — "Rosy Retrospection" by Whitney Olsen in collaboration with Keegan Kruse, Light refraction photos, 7 - 22x22in frames, 2017, $500 each

Whitney Olsen, aka as Bloom, is a multi-dimensional artist working with glass, light, mixed media and “…multiple dimensions to indulge in the conversation of being.” If your first thought of glass art takes you to a place of vessels, Bloom’s work will upend those expectations.

“My work exists in the intersection between the corporeal and the imagination, where the fixed and infinite collide through tangible and intangible layers of energy. The optical quality of glass is my muse, translating our ephemeral understanding of the here and now through veiling multiple materials. Illusion is the gateway into my liminal world…”

"Absolute #3" by Whitney Olsen, Mixed media on wood, 58x30in, 2017, $1500 — "Absolute #3" by Whitney Olsen, Mixed media on wood, 58x30in, 2017, $1500

Bloom’s glass pieces are most often components in larger installation sculptures in which light is an active medium. The glass becomes a lens almost as assuredly as if we were peering through a kaleidoscope, and the work begins to shape the viewer’s perception of the environment the piece occupies.

“There is an energy that we possess that feels like butterflies fluttering inside us, it feels like we are going up to the top of a roller coaster. It’s an unsettled, scary but thrilling, anxiety that is beautiful and basic, and it’s so real because it’s your body telling you that you are alive. It’s called passion; the moment when you finally go outside of your comfort zone and you really start to listen to what you want, and you go for it. To be dangerous because it is necessary, and you are happy all the time since you are not missing out on what life has to offer because you are living the way you want to live. To be yourself; being wholly, soulfully, be-you-tifully YOU, like a flower. I want everyone to bloom.”

Since graduating from the Hite Institute at University of Louisville, Bloom has studied glass and neon at Penland School of Crafts and Pilchuck Glass School.

In 2017, Bloom exhibited as a part of Crossing Borders at the Huff Gallery at Spalding University, and had a solo show, Perennial Being at Tim Faulkner Gallery in Louisville.

Age: 25
Hometown: Crestwood, Kentucky
Education: BFA in 3-D Studios, Concentrations in Glass & Sculpture, University of Louisville, 2015
Website: www.whitneyolsen.com
Instagram: whitnaastyy

"Day Dreams" by Whitney Olsen, Blown, cold worked, slumped, etched glass, metal and light, 48x72in, 2015, $12,000 — "Day Dreams" by Whitney Olsen, Blown, cold worked, slumped, etched glass, metal and light, 48x72in, 2015, $12,000

"Ethereal Study #3" by Whitney Olsen, Hand blown glass, video, dimensions vary, 2015, $8000 — "Ethereal Study #3" by Whitney Olsen, Hand blown glass, video, dimensions vary, 2015, $8000

"TH(is) you and me and everyone else" by Whitney Olsen, Mixed media installation, dimensions vary, 2017 — "TH(is) you and me and everyone else" by Whitney Olsen, Mixed media installation, dimensions vary, 2017

"Neon Bloom" by Whitney Olsen, Neon glass & painted plexi, 14x28in, 2017, $650

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

Sculpture, Mixed Media

Vignette: Allison Schwartz

Guest User · January 5, 2018

“Not all art needs to be so serious or grim, especially in today’s world.” – Allison Schwartz

"Sleepy" by Allison Schwartz, Ceramic, wood, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, flocking, 25x12.5x11in, 2017, $500 — "Sleepy" by Allison Schwartz, Ceramic, wood, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, flocking, 25x12.5x11in, 2017, $500

‘Cute and cuddly’ is anathema in the world of ‘serious’ fine art. But these sculptural forms from Allison Schwartz dare to introduce the motif of domestic cats into the mix by embracing any perceived lack of gravitas with bright and bold colors and textures that cry out for you to run your fingers through them. Yet there is also something a little unorthodox in these feline characters, as Schwartz explains:

"Brat" by Allison Schwarts, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 15x16x17.5in, 2017, $500 (base not included) — "Brat" by Allison Schwarts, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 15x16x17.5in, 2017, $500 (base not included)

“Sea is for Catfish is an installation of fictional creatures that are half cat and half fish, which is based off my love of felines and all aquatic creatures. The contradiction and uncanny nature of their ‘existence’ expresses the unnatural and non-native feeling of pure happiness in my life.”

“Each sculptural catfish is a combination of ceramic, wood, expanding foam, faux fur and acrylic paint. I love creating texture and strive to reveal the unexpected – or in this case – very familiar textures. These catfish are covered with an extremely soft faux fur, enticing its viewer to interact.”

So Schwartz is more concerned with the visceral experience than any overriding intellectual thesis for her work, so that one might argue that it has a more important connection to expressionist traditions. The synthesis of two distinct species that are historically seen as being at odds communicates a subversive unease that reflects the artist’s own emotional struggles: “My work comes from a desire to connect with others without using words. Recently, I’ve been overcome with a sense of euphoria whereas I had been in a constant haze of anxiety. My hope is that the viewer walks away experiencing the same strange happiness I find daily.”

Schwartz is a recent graduate of Northern Kentucky University and just had work in the Main Gallery on that campus.

Age: 23
Hometown: Lancaster, Kentucky
Education: BFA, Spatial Arts, Northern Kentucky University School of the Arts, December 2017
Instagram: @al2lison

Scroll down for more images

"Cleaner" by Allison Schawrtz, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 16x15x13in, 2017, $500 — "Cleaner" by Allison Schawrtz, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 16x15x13in, 2017, $500

"Scratcher" by Allison Schwarts, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 12.5x14x24in, 2017, $500 (tower not included) — "Scratcher" by Allison Schwarts, Ceramic, expanding foam, faux fur, acrylic paint, wood, flocking, 12.5x14x24in, 2017, $500 (tower not included)

"Large Cat Tower" by Allison Schwartz, Wood & foam, 32x24inx5ft, 2017, $500 (catfish not included - tower not built for real cats but could be adapted)

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

Mixed Media, Sculpture

Vignette: Miranda Becht

Josh Jenkins · July 28, 2017

*"The sweet nostalgic sadness of something lovely and lost. (Order)" by Miranda Becht, 13x68x5in, tinted cast resin, flocking, lace, shelves (2016)*

“An imagination is a powerful tool. It can tint memories of the past, shade perceptions of the present, or paint a future so vivid that it can entice… or terrify, all depending on how we conduct ourselves today.”– Jim Davis, from Garfield “Alone,” October 23, 1989

Artist, Miranda Becht — *Artist, Miranda Becht*

Miranda Becht is having a moment. One of only three students in the University of Louisville’s MFA program at the Hite Institute of Art, she is taking her three degrees and wasting no time positioning herself to have a positive impact in the Louisville and Southern Indiana arts community. This fall, she will be teaching foundation art courses as an Adjunct Professor at Bellarmine University, and be working as a instructor in LVA’s Academy program for high school students. She also has recently been offered an adjunct position at IUS. At the same time, she will a part of the St. James Court Art Show Emerging Artist Program and has been commissioned to create public art through the Jeffersonville Public Art Committee, Powering Creativity.

Becht’s work has largely been installation based, exploring how memory and nostalgia form our idea of the past: “I have always seemed to long for some sort of metaphorical home located somewhere in the past. Homesickness is defined as the longing for a particular home, nostalgia as a longing for a lost time. Nostalgia may carry with it a yearning for home, but it is a home faraway in time rather than space. Nostalgia, oftentimes used to refer to something sweet and pleasant, is bittersweet. It is the longing for something that is unattainable.”

*"I can feel your sweet decay." by Miranda Becht, 38x73x73in, wood, sticker paper, acrylic paint, cast resiin, linoleum, found objects (2017)*

“As a society we tend to idealize our vision of the past, particularly our vision of home. Our idealized notion of home presents itself as a supposedly traditional form of domestic life, but bears little relation to the way people actually lived. This concept of a cozy home full of family love is an invented tradition. Inevitable in our linear understanding of time, we are constantly being uprooted from home and from the past. Because of the fallibility of our memory, the past and home as we remember them, no longer exist. I mourn for a home that perhaps I never had.”

*"The sweet nostalgic sadness of something lovely and lost. (Order) (detail)" by Miranda Becht*

Becht cites “The pleasant, nostalgic sadness of something lovely and lost. I would sit and play with an odd, white vessel, full of wonder about its use and its origin. This vessel seemed so big, so white and pure, so curious. My grandmother told me it was a bedpan, but it wasn’t until much later in life that I realized just what a bedpan was. My most cherished childhood memory is soiled with urine and feces. Lost innocence often takes the guise of idealized memories. My work is a vehicle for my fetishized, fragile memories. I am pressured to be the object of desire… this untrue illusion, the ideal.”

Becht’s work is filled with mid-20th century design layered with a cotton-candy colors (she seems especially fond of pink), which adroitly captures the unique collective memory of what is arguably the most idealized period in modern American history, the 1950’s. The artist reminds us that what seems too good to have been true, often is.

Age: 31
Education: MFA Sculpture, University of Louisville, 2017; BFA Ceramics, Indiana University Southeast, 2012; BA Printmaking, Indiana University Southeast Minor Psychology, 2012
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Miranda.indiana/

*"I can feel your sweet decay (detail)" by Miranda Becht*

*"In Hiding" by Miranda Becht, 119x64x24in, wood, cast resin, acrylic paint, shag carpet, embroidery floss, light fixture (2017)*

*"Underside" by Miranda Becht, 96x96x66in, wood, screenprint, cast resin, rug, embroidery floss (2016)*

*"What’s a dream and what is real? (Entropy)" by Miranda Becht, 84x54x6in, wood, cast resin, hydrocal, embroidery floss, lace (2016)*

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

Drawing, Painting, Sculpture

Vignette: Bailey Roman

Josh Jenkins · June 27, 2017

“I understand the rules that have been presented to me, take the previous results into account, then more-or-less throw them out.” – Bailey Roman

Looking at the work of Bailey Roman raises a question: are these faces, with their contorted, lopsided visage, a deliberate deconstruction of conventional beauty? They are certainly distinctive and full of character, personalities that feel pulled from the fringe of society, malformed outcasts demanding our compassion.

Roman juxtaposes self-awareness and subconscious feelings against modern societal standards. “I also tend to take a lot of idioms way more seriously than their original intent; for example, in the past I have used the phrase ‘the lights are on but nobody’s home’ and used it as commentary for society’s various criticisms and standards for intelligence.”

*"It's Only The Second Semester and I'm Already Emotionally Exhausted; Maybe I Should Eat a Burrito" by Bailey Roman, 24x24in, oil on canvas (2017)*

“I draw influence from German Expressionism, Post Impressionism, contemporary media and, most importantly, the greats from stop motion puppet fabricators such as Francesca Berlingieri Maxwell and Henry Selick. More recently, I have been stretching the boundaries of what my chosen mediums. I understand the rules that have been presented to me, take the previous results into account, then more-or-less throw them out to see what new two dimensional effects, tactical textures, and interactions the viewer can have with my work.”

“In ‘Logan’, I use the polygons as a tool to highlight the first things the viewer would typically notice from the piece. I also take the liberty of using influences from both Pop Art and Golden Age comic book art. I use the two periods and place them into a more contemporary anatomical study.”

*"Anubis, The Dragonfly and the Warrior" by Bailey Roman, 15x7x10in, ceramic and glaze (2017)*

Roman is featured in From the Sculptures That Look Like Drawings series at The Tim Faulkner Gallery, and she will be included in Louisville Artisan Guild's 44th annual exhibit From the Soul of the Artist that will be held at Kore Gallery July 5 through July 30. There will be an Artist Reception July 13th, 6 – 8 pm.

Age: 19
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Education: Ballard High School (honors program graduated 2016) Murray State University (Studio Art major, currently working on my Bachelor of Fine Arts with a minor in art history)
Gallery Representation: The Tim Faulkner Gallery
Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/RamRenard/

"Touch Of Death" by Bailey Roman, 14x14x14in, ceramic, acrylic, plaster (2015), $315 | BUY NOW — *"Touch Of Death" by Bailey Roman, 14x14x14in, ceramic, acrylic, plaster (2015), $315 | BUY NOW*

*"Logan" by Bailey Roman, 22x28in, ceramic and glaze (2016)*

*"GPF" by Bailey Roman, 9x9.5x11in, ceramic and glaze (2017)*

*"Day N Night" by Bailey Roman, 11x14in, ink on paper (2017)*

Sculpture

Feature: Falls Art Foundry

Josh Jenkins · June 6, 2017

For many, many years, the Bright Foundry was the primary metal arts foundry in Louisville. Even after founder Barney Bright’s death in 1997, the facility functioned under the stewardship of Barney’s son, Jep Bright until April 2016.

Artists: Matt Weir, Tamina Karem, and Scott Boyer — *Artists: Matt Weir, Tamina Karem, and Scott Boyer*

Matt Weir, Tamina Karem, & Scott Boyer all worked at Bright Foundry, and knowing Jep was thinking of shutting down, had talked to him about purchasing the equipment and opening a new Bronze metal casting foundry on property they intended to lease on Portland Avenue, just across the street from The Table restaurant. They followed through and have now moved the contents of Bright Foundry into that location at 1715 Portland Avenue. They are still sorting things out, but are already working on projects and some small casting contracts.

Barney Bright’s River Horse statue at 6th & Chestnut was, of course, cast at Bright, as was Ed Hamilton’s York statue on the Belvedere, Bob Lockhart’s Robert Bellarmine statue on the campus of Bellarmine University, and many other local sculptures. Over the years there seemed to be plenty of work, so the Falls Art Foundry team are confident about the opportunity for work once they are fully established. But the journey to that result will require a lot of work - and money.

*Building plans by Mose Putney Architect*

The building, with over 55,000 square feet of space, high ceilings, and land allowing for expansion, is ideally suited to the task, but it will require modifications that will run in the neighborhood of $350,000 before the three will have met all of their goals.

Currently, the location satisfies much of the needs for the functioning foundry, with some changes needed in the floor to accommodate furnaces, extension of some interior walls to the high ceilings, and a second double wide door, but the team also has ambitions to develop what Boyer describes as, “our ideal foundry,” (the new building is about 19,000 square feet larger than Bright Foundry). Plans include building an annex to house retail and educational spaces that would enable outreach to the community. “Our long-term vision is for a sculpting campus,” explains Karem.

*Artist, Tamina Karem with one of her recent pieces*

Between them, the trio can boast 40 plus years of experience working at Bright Foundry, and offer what Weir describes as, “a diversity of experience in materials and practices,” positioning them to be a full-service operation for artists in the area. “All foundries are collaborative efforts run by artists or, at least, craftspeople,” states Boyer, as he explains that the artists working to caste a bronze piece have a significant impact on the final result, often as much as 1/3 of the surface might change during the process. The observation underscores the importance of the relationship sculptors develop with a specific foundry. Bright Foundry enjoyed a strong reputation with artists, a reputation that Boyer, Karem, and Weir helped build and hope to carry over to Falls Art Foundry.

Artist, Matt Weir at work in Falls Art Foundry — *Artist, Matt Weir at work in Falls Art Foundry*

The technique of lost-wax casting is complicated. Weir breaks it down to nine stages, each of which contains several steps. Although all three have university educations, they learned the technique working at Bright. Because there is no academic foundry in Louisville right now, the opportunity to demonstrate the technique is important. It is older than one might assume, with the oldest known examples being the objects discovered in the “Cave of the Treasure “(Nahal Mishmar) hoard in southern Israel, and which belong to the Chalcolithic period (4500–3500 BC). Conservative estimates of age from carbon-14 dating date the items to c. 3700 BC, making them more than 5700 years old.

The Falls Art Foundry team currently rent the building with an option to purchase, and they seem nothing if not committed, so the smart money is on them following through and realizing their dream.

On June 2, it was announced that Louisville Visual Art would bestow the 2017 Barney Bright award of $1200 to Falls Art Foundry.

(Editor’s note: an interview on LVA’s PUBLIC, broadcast on WXOX-97.1 FM on 12.16.16, was used as a source for this article.)

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.

Sculpture

Vignette: Whitney "Bloom" Olsen

“The optical quality of glass is my muse,” – Whitney “Bloom” Olsen.

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

Vignette: Allison Schwartz

“Not all art needs to be so serious or grim, especially in today’s world.” – Allison Schwartz

Scroll down for more images

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

Vignette: Miranda Becht

“An imagination is a powerful tool. It can tint memories of the past, shade perceptions of the present, or paint a future so vivid that it can entice… or terrify, all depending on how we conduct ourselves today.”– Jim Davis, from Garfield “Alone,” October 23, 1989

Vignette: Bailey Roman

“I understand the rules that have been presented to me, take the previous results into account, then more-or-less throw them out.” – Bailey Roman

Feature: Falls Art Foundry