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Artists Formerly Featured at Laughing at the Sun | ||
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Roy van der Aa - October 2006 Bonnie Schetski - September 2006 Colleen Hennessy - August 2006 Jessica Vaughn - July 2006 Faith Purvey - June 2006 Jules Floss - May 2006 Jesse Reinhard - March and April 2006 Pam Segura - February 2006 |
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Born in Holland, Roy van der Aa grew up in Montreal, Canada. He studied art in private instruction as a teen under Dutch impressionist Gerard van Dykhof, 2 years of Fine Art specialty in John Abbott College, and 4 years at Concordia University. In 1981, he founded Zones, a cooperative fine arts studio and exhibition space which he operated for 8 years, specializing in printmaking and photography until he emigrated to the US in 1989. Since April 2000 van der Aa has written feature art articles and essays. He has exhibited with the group Artforms since its inception in 1995 and was also included in the Border Artists and Friends Show 2004 at White Raven Studios in June and July. He had a solo show at the Tombaugh Gallery in 2004 and has shown steadily since then.
van der Aa states: “My artworks are conceptual assemblages of found, discarded objects which are reworked, painted and combined with other objects creating a narrative and manipulating the context. Images also reflect my 20 year interest in archaeology and the idea of art as artifact, existing after its maker to be rediscovered and reinterpreted. I rescue the broken and make it whole, creating worlds where time’s grip swings between tenuousness and finality.”
“My newest work contains a resurgence of painting as a component in my work. I am painting objects, often a collection of several at a time, and placing these into a multimedia environment where real objects interact with “unreal” painted objects. Depiction/Display/Deception has become the subject of my work. Humor in this juxtaposition is always important,and lately that element of my work his become more biting. I am a new member of The Society of Layerists in Multi-Media, founded in Albuquerque in 1982. I have found kindred souls and a new focus.”
“This show, CHARGES and RETREATS, contains recent and new work. I am using toys “excavated” on various properties where we have lived. Toy soldiers, action figures and cars are items that I have found repeatedly and I have been painting and drawing for 10 years. I have added new storebought sets to explore this form of play in our culture. This has become more politicized and reactionary over the years. It can be viewed as political, but is in no way to be viewed as derogatory of our military personel. I have nothing but respect for those who put themselves in harm’s way on my behalf. This said, I have nothing but disdain and shame for a regime that would use this precious resource of blood and minds for gain as if they were pieces on a chess board. Silence is approval and I will not be silent.”
Bonnie Schetski is currently pursuing her Masters of Fine Arts at New Mexico State University. A printmaker, she is inspired by the diverse range of landscapes found in the desert and beauty of the Organ Mountains. Schetski's work seems reminescent of topographical maps, microscopic pixels and the tiny patterns found in nature.
Schetski states: This body of work is a reflection of my fascination with the tactile qualities and the essence of beauty found in nature. Taking a transcendental approach in observing nature allows me to contemplate and meditate upon intricate details of twisting, turning and swelling compositions found in the innate environments of rocks, trees and foliage. Nature carries a mysterious quality of life and the divine, reflected through the compositions that exist in a single entity of the microscopic world to the vast landscapes extending out into a distance where land and sky become one. These wondrous sites are the driving force to my creative process, striving to produce imagery that carries similar qualities to that which is found in nature.
Colleen Hennessy is a Denver native who has spent most of her life in Colorado and New Mexico. She worked for many years in landscape and architectural photography, traveling around the US and Mexico. Colleen’s commercial work included wedding and portrait photography.
Colleen is a graduate of New Mexico State University, an avid student of Spanish, potter and collector of folk art. Though of Irish ancestry, Colleen claims to have an “alma Latino” (“Latin soul”).
Colleen began producing a series of acrylic and watercolor paintings on paper while living in the mountain jungle of Honduras and serving as a Peace Corps volunteer. She will continue her work with the Peace Corps until August, 2007.
Hennessy states: I always liked drawing and painting and was scolded by art teachers when I was a kid. They were angry that none of my work looked realistic. Perhaps this was why I took up the camera. The lens records things precisely. Hand-coloring black and white photographs offered a lot of artistic freedom. After many years of working in the darkroom, I discovered clay and it was the perfect balance to photography. I wanted to make clay pieces that I could paint. I was inspired by Picasso’s whimsical work on ceramics.
Many of my works on paper were painted from photographs that I have made here during my time in Honduras. The faces of my kind neighbors and friends here provide endless opportunities for photography and ultimately, painting.
Colleen donated a substantial percentage of her proceeds to a project with the Peace Corp and a friend in need of medical treatment.
Purvey utilizes a variety of mediums including assemblage, photography, paint and collage. Her investigation of space as subject offers a meaningful glimpse into areas often unnoticed. Purvey's unique approach to assemblage exhibits an understated skill and overall sensitivity to every day materials.
She states:"It is my quest to examine and document fields of energy pictorially: fleeting thoughts, tension in motion, directional and spacious freedom. I want to understand how a landscape and a space change each other and become one another. I am interested in the junctures of physical and mental areas, and the textures they create".Faith Purvey is an art teacher at Alma D'Arte High School and a working visual artist. She has shown in Minneapolis, Madison, Chicago and Las Cruces. She uses various media depending on the subject at hand.
Floss's prefered medium is printmaking. Her images reflect an interest in pattern and natural complexity. Floss's curiousity about man-made versus natural patterns create a heavily layered and visually stunning picture plane.
She states:"I am fascinated with the realities that lie beneath the surface and or beyond the limits of human sight. The mutability and simultaneity of micro and macrocosms is a continuing theme in my work. When these “hidden” realities are revealed through either direct or indirect means the world’s multidimensionality becomes evident. When we experience a micro or macrocosm we mentally expand or contract our perceptions of space. We order and understand the complexity of our world in relation to our human scale.
My work is an attempt to convey an awareness of this complexity and is derived from an interest in the relationship between natural and human-made systems and objects. Further, it is based in the idea that the whole is both more and less than the sum of its parts. I have focused on the existence and interrelation of plural realities as well as the western conventions of linear space and time that shape our perceptions."
